Rolling up an Online Ad Agency Powerhouse: AKQA CEO Tom Bedecarre (Part 6)

AKQA had taken funding from Francisco Partners originally, and is now generating $100M in revenue annually. Francisco recently exited the business, and sold their shares to General Atlantic Partners. This happens right at the time when the online advertising market is heating up in a big way.

SM: Your new investor is General Atlantic Partners? TB: Yes, and I think they share a vision of the growth opportunities in Asia. They are an active investor in India and China.

SM: Do you have offices there? TB: We just opened an office Shanghai, and we just announced we are going to open an office in Amsterdam to more directly address European clients. We do not have any plans for an office in India at the moment, but my colleagues in GA are encouraging me to get over there and meet with some potential clients. Certainly our global clients are interested in the market. We are doing some work for DiMaggio on their global brands. There is a lot of interest in India right now.

SM: When you look at the industry around you, there is so much going on. Online Advertising is becoming such a boom sector. What do you see when you look around? As an insider, what do you feel are the trends? TB: It is interesting because I know we spoke a few months ago, maybe even six months ago, and you suggested that perhaps it was time for Google, MSN or Yahoo to cross over and embrace the agency world and service clients directly. That is exactly what has happened in the last couple of weeks, so kudos to you for being the trend spotter ahead of the curve.

What we see happening is a very interesting convergence of the agency and marketing service providers, and the technology providers and ad serving platforms. The ad networks and the new exchanges, and the publishers all seem to be converging, taking looks at similar models but from different angles. I think what is happening is every one of those four areas is looking around and saying “what else do we need in order to be more connected with the trail of customers, advertisers, and data. I think it is going to be a really exciting time. Obviously the last couple of months have seen a number of eye popping deals.

[to be continued]

[Part 5]
[Part 4]
[Part 3]
[Part 2]
[Part 1]

This segment is part 6 in the series : Rolling up an Online Ad Agency Powerhouse: AKQA CEO Tom Bedecarre
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