Capturing Intent In Non-Search Performance Marketing: Zephrin Lasker, CEO Of Pontiflex (Part 4)

Sramana: When you work with a publisher, are they required to install anything to use your technology?

Zephrin Lasker: It depends on what type of publisher it is. If it is a mobile publisher, then they need to use our SDK in their mobile app development. If it is a Web publisher, then we can just have them include some Javascript on their page, which is very similar to serving Google ads. The difference with our ads is that they are sign-up ads, and there are no click-throughs to landing pages. The nice thing is that you never leave the publisher or the application.

When Steve Jobs said that mobile ads sucked, he was referring to the disruptive nature of mobile ads. One of our key plays when we started the company was a strategy to do advertising that was not disruptive. We now live in an increasingly interrupted media environment. We don’t need any more disruptions on top of that. We want to provide advertising media that allow users to pull what they want rather than having things pushed on them. I think that is very important, and I also find it to be very interesting work. That is the whole point of not having a click-through. You simply ask the advertiser to send you the information you find interesting later, perhaps to your Facebook account, when you will have time to deal with it on your terms.

Sramana: How would your solution interface with an advertising network?

Zephrin Lasker: We don’t work for ad networks and are essentially building our own marketplace that contains publishers. There are a few networks of publishers, but we service them more like an exchange or marketplace. We work directly with all parties, so we don’t need the ad network.

Sramana: Tell me more about your pricing model and how you fit into the ecosystem of online advertising.

Zephrin Lasker: Pricing has not evolved to a true auction model, but it is set by demand. A typical consumer lead has four fields; first name, last name, ZIP code and e-mail. Right now the price range for that will vary between 88 cents and $1.25 depending on who the advertiser is. A big brand may pay a bit less than a weak brand because they will get a higher response rate, which means the publisher will make more money.

Sramana: Who is your competitor in this space?

Zephrin Lasker: That is a very interesting question. When we looked at the lead generation market at that point, we did not like what we saw. We saw a lot of companies that would require data and then would own the data, reselling it a number of times. That does not work for a few reasons. A user who opts in for one offer does not want to be hit with a number of different offers. The intent there is very low as well.

There are some cases where it works. LendingTree is a place where you expect four offers for your loan. For a consumer, a mortgage loan is a commodity because you don’t care if it comes from Chase or Citibank; you just want the best deal for yourself. The other space where it works is the education space. We don’t work in either the education space or the mortgage space.

We work in brand advertising, and over 91% of our dollars comes from large brands. The key point for them is that we don’t own their data. We collect it and deliver it on their behalf. That is where our offer is unique. That makes their advertising ‘brand safe’ and aligns with my goal to make our company the next major advertising company after Google.

This segment is part 4 in the series : Capturing Intent In Non-Search Performance Marketing: Zephrin Lasker, CEO Of Pontiflex
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