Many online publishers in Finland have asked me who’d be the best partner for selling their ad inventory. It’s a crucial question. The right media sales partner can multiply the value of your ad space, and help you in developing an offering that adds value to both the big brand advertisers and your audience.
Here’s a list of the most prominent independent players in Finland. N.B. the descriptions are my opinions, not the companies’ official statements.
Verkossa Media are the biggest with their ~50 publishers, including sites like Rantapallo, Afterdawn, and Kotikokki. In the past, Verkossa Media have done a great job in direct, site-specific campaign sales. They have changed in the past year or two, and it seems their focus is transferring from site-specific campaigns to their ad network. Usually this means more bulk, less tailoring (and thus less added value). On the other hand, for small sites it may be good to be part of a packet in order to appeal to advertisers. Verkossa Media’s revenue in the latest fiscal year was 7,5 MEUR.
White Rabbit have a history of representing “youth/street culture” publishers. They’ve been working with many pop, music and indie sites, and represented Spotify when it was all new and just started in Finland. Now White Rabbit’s media list includes sites like Findance, GrooveFM, Kuvake.net and Stardoll. White Rabbit is forward-looking and is among the forerunners in utilizing Rich Media formats. From my point of view seems that they’d benefit from having a more coherent set of bigger publishers. White Rabbit’s revenue in 2010 was 1,6 MEUR.
Klikkicom are an all-round digital marketing implementation house. A few years ago, around 2006, Klikkicom did media sales for many publishers and had a strong vertical in e.g. sports. Since then they’ve expanded to SEO and SEM, along with analytics and various social media promotion products. The expansion caused a shift in focus and their performance as a media sales partner suffered – at least for new sites. This may be changing, though: Klikkicom were VC-backed and was acquired by Edita this year. In 2011, Klikkicom’s revenue was 6,9 MEUR.
Saarsalo is a smaller, fresh player from Tampere with a background in printed media. Saarsalo’s largest accounts are Otavamedia’s brands (e.g. Suomen Kuvalehti, NettiX) and A-lehdet (including Apu and Urheilulehti). While it’s early to say much about their performance in online space, I’ve been told they’re on the right track. Saarsalo’s revenue in 2011 was 0,36 MEUR.
Diamonds and Pearls is the latest addition to the list. D&P were founded in August 2012 by Sami Kelkka, a long-time CEO of Verkossa Media. D&P say their strategy is to pick only a handful of publishers and work in close partnership with each. The target is to create branded publishers and media products that help both in expanding your audience and attracting advertisers. Interesting approach! D&P’s media list includes sites like Hellapoliisi and Iltapulu.
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Selecting the best partner for your media is an important decision. Definition of the “best” of course depends on multiple factors that are different in each case, so take out your PEST and SWOT diagrams and see where the strategy ladder ends up. :) At Nimenhuuto.com we selected White Rabbit.
btw, the revenue numbers are not directly comparable. Some companies on the list report only their commission while others report the full value and then pay publisher’s share later, etc.
btw2, please feel free to post a comment if you think there’s someone worth mentioning missing from the list.