AllThingsD » Mike Lazerow

Facebook Pal Buddy Media Raises $54 Million

Peter Kafka — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 04:00:09 +0000

Facebook is worth anywhere from $50 billion to $100 billion. Now Buddy Media, which helps advertisers manage their presence on the social network, is worth $500 million.

That’s the valuation sources say the company earned in its most recent $54 million financing round. New investor Insight Venture Partners put money into the company, along with earlier investors Institutional Venture Partners, Bay Partners and GGV Capital, which led the round.

None of the money will go to employees or early investors, says Buddy Media CEO Mike Lazerow; instead it will be used to fuel expansion in Europe and to double the size of the company’s staff. The New York-based company has now raised more than $90 million, including a $28 million round last fall.

Buddy Media’s services aren’t exclusively for Facebook — advertisers can use them for Twitter as well, and as Google expands its social efforts, there will likely be room for Buddy there, too. But it is primarily in the Facebook business, via software it sells to brands which helps them navigate through the social network, which usually includes purchasing ads from Facebook, too.

That linkage (note that Kevin Colleran, Facebook’s original ad guy, is now on Buddy’s advisory board) means that many assume Facebook will one day end up buying Buddy. But I asked Lazerow about that last spring, and he said he had no interest in the idea– as it turns out, he was likely deep into the fund-raising process at that point.

And he says he still has no intention of selling anytime soon: “We feel like we can be a very large independent business, so why not scale the business today and build it up?”

Very long press release:

Buddy Media Announces $54M in Series D Funding From Leading Late-Stage Investors

Social Media Management Software Company Secures Growth Capital to Fuel Continued Rapid Expansion

New York, NY – August 15, 2011 – Buddy Media, the social media management software of choice for eight of the world’s top 10 global advertisers, today announced that it has raised $54 million in Series D funding from a group of leading late-stage investors.

The capital will be used to more than double its product, sales and support staff in the next year as well as fund additional global offices and acquisitions.

Current Buddy Media investors GGV Capital, Institutional Venture Partners and Bay Partners, as well as new investor Insight Venture Partners participated in the round. GGV partner, Jeff Richards, led the round and has joined the Buddy Media Board of Directors.

The investors each bring a wealth of knowledge and proven success to Buddy Media. GGV’s portfolio includes household names such as Pandora, SuccessFactors and Alibaba Group. Institutional Venture Partners has funded 300 companies since its inception, including Twitter and Zynga in the social space. Insight Venture Partners has been recognized by Red Herring Magazine as one of the Top Ten venture investors globally. And Bay Partners has had over 250 successful exits (IPOs or $250M+ acquisitions) over 35 years and have been investing around open social graph APIs since 2007.

“Buddy Media is at the center of the largest two-way communications revolution that the world has ever seen,” said Michael Lazerow, CEO and Founder, Buddy Media. “Our new funding ensures we have the resources necessary to accelerate the growth of our large, fast-growing software business. I am truly ecstatic to be working with such an amazing group of investors, and believe it’s a testament to our success thus far.”

The latest investment comes on the heels of massive growth and expansion for Buddy Media, including the following milestones:

· The company has added close to 200 new customers in 2011, including some of the world’s most recognizable global brands, retailers and media companies such as Ford Motor Company, Hanes, ESPN, Hearst Corporation, and Virgin Mobile USA.

· The company’s revenue has more than doubled since the end of 2010.

· The company has maintained a net promoter score of 75 in 2011.

· Employee headcount has grown from 40 employees in 2009 to almost 200, with continued massive hiring plans for 2011 and beyond.

· The company acquired social commerce and analytics leader Spinback in May 2011 and plans to complete its integration and roll out this month.

· The company opened its European Headquarters in London last month and hired Luca Benini, a senior executive from Comscore, as Managing Director, Europe.

· The company won the TechCrunch “Crunchie” Award for Best Enterprise application in January 2011.

· CEO and Founder Michael Lazerow was named New York Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in June 2011.

· The company recently hired Dennis Morgan as Chief Financial Officer. While at Yahoo!, Morgan led corporate finance efforts for more than $5 billion in acquisitions and business development deals .

· WPP, the world’s largest communications services group, announced a $5 million investment and global partnership with Buddy Media in October 2010.

Buddy Media’s technology is web-based (SaaS) software that provides companies global scale, secure architecture and straightforward administrative tools to connect with their current and future customers using the power of social media.

“Social media is now embedded in every aspect of the customer journey — from ratings and reviews to ‘like’ buttons to tweets. The opportunity for interactive marketing has evolved from building individual social applications to using social media to enhance a wide variety of marketing channels…” wrote Sean Corcoran in the April 2011 report by Forrester Research Inc., “Embedding Social Media Into The Marketing Mix.”

With the exponential growth of Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites, Buddy Media’s new investors understand that the largest businesses in the world need powerful software to market globally.

“Buddy Media has a proven management team, sustained revenue growth and a massive market opportunity. The company is the market leader in a category that sits at the intersection of social media and software-as-a-service (SaaS), two of the largest and fastest growing markets in the technology industry,” said GGV’s Jeff Richards. “We are very excited to continue to support the company’s rapid expansion in the US and globally. Buddy Media has more than proved itself in terms of building the best team and product in the business. The numbers speak for themselves and I can’t be more excited to work with the entire team.”

“I have known the Buddy Media team for more than two years and have been very impressed with their ability to build innovative products that far surpass those offered by others,” said Insight partner Deven Parekh, who will be a Buddy Media board observer. “And the company has out marketed all others while providing stellar customer service. Buddy Media has what it takes to be a massive business.”

In conjunction with the announcement, Buddy Media has also announced that Kevin Colleran has joined its board of advisors and Michael Kassan has been named special advisor to CEO Michael Lazerow. Colleran previously served as Facebook’s first advertising sales executive, and was the company’s longest tenured employee outside of founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Kassan is an internationally recognized business strategist, and currently serves as Chairman and CEO of Medialink, LLC, the leading advisory and business development firm.

Facebook Pal Buddy Media Buys a Start-Up, Isn't Selling to Facebook

Peter Kafka — Thu, 12 May 2011 14:03:43 +0000

Buddy Media, a fast-growing company that helps advertisers navigate Facebook, has bought Spinback, a recently hatched company that helps retailers navigate Facebook.

But before we get to that, this seems like a good time to ask Buddy Media CEO Mike Lazerow about the loud chatter that he’s agreed to sell his company to Facebook.

Not true, says Lazerow. “It’s not happening.”

You can see why the rumor mill likes the idea, though. Buddy Media is in many ways an extension of Facebook: It charges companies thousands of dollars a month to help them set up and manage their presence on the social network, which usually includes purchasing ads from Facebook, too.

So if and when Buddy does sell, Facebook would be the logical acquirer. But Lazerow, who raised $38 million to date, (including a $28 million round last fall), says he’s not on the market.

“People who are selling today are selling because they’ve decided they need a bigger partner in order to compete,” he says, and here he’s likely talking about companies like Context Optional, which was just acquired by Efficient Frontier. “If you can compete, now’s not the time to sell.”

Okay. Back to Spinback: The five-man company, which formed last year and didn’t open for business until last fall, helps online retailers track the flow of traffic from their sites to Facebook and back again.

So, for instance, if you told your Facebook pals that you liked this t-shirt from BustedTees, Spinback could tell you what happened next: How many of your pals looked at, liked or shared your link, and if any of them ended up coming back to the site to buy one.

There are lots of practical application for retailers alone. But you can also see how that tracking would be useful for people who aren’t selling anything online–like many of Buddy Media’s brand advertisers.

Lazerow says Buddy will eventually integrate Spinback’s team and technology into Buddy’s main offering, but for now CEO Andrew Ferenci and his group will operate as a free-standing team within their new employer.

Spinback from Spinback on Vimeo.

Five Annoying Trends To Avoid During Advertising Week

Michael Lazerow — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 12:00:56 +0000

Press your suit. Shine your loafers. Charge your Twitter machines. Advertising Week is here.

The annual rite of passage for newly funded ad tech startups is a great opportunity to learn, network and get fired up for an exciting year ahead. Since its launch seven years ago, I have grown to love Advertising Week. It’s a week-long orgy of panels, speeches, parties and networking, networking, networking.

Regardless, there are a few annoying trends that have developed. Here’s your guide, from one industry executive to another, of what to avoid.

The “super excited” executive

Yes, we get it. You like your product. But your excitement isn’t contagious, it’s a bit scary! You’re not the first DSP. You’re not the “leading provider of” fill in the blank. The event isn’t about your product. Assume we don’t really care about your product.
Over-multi-tasking.
If you take the time to leave the office and learn new things and meet more people, keep your phone in your pocket and your computer in your bag. Speak to people. Introduce yourself. Put yourself out there and good things will happen. Avoid the temptation to sit idly as a new partner or client walks right in front of your drooped head, staring at the Twitter feed on your mobile device of choice.
Print is Dead
First, it’s not dead. The experience of reading a magazine is an enjoyable one and is not going away any time soon. Second, this has been the top du jour for a few years now. Move on. Choose a topic or two you’re interested in and try to go deep. One of this year’s most important topics will continue to be social media. A large Facebook contingency will be in town, including Facebook’s COO. Here are just a few of the social media related events: http://www.advertisingweek.com/events.php?searchStr=social
Overextending yourself
Pace yourself. Advertising Week is a marathon. It’s not a sprint. Don’t go too hard during the day as much of the action, activities and networking are at the evening parties. And there are a ton of them. I think of Advertising Week as just another week with a series of events I’ll seek out. Trying to do everything will be counterproductive. And if you have to choose, choose the evening or late-day events.
Over-syncing of your social profile
We all love social media, but some of it love it a bit TOO much. Don’t be that guy or gal that has 18 different apps synced up to your Twitter or Facebook feed, especially during a week when there’s so much going on. It’s just too much noise. You may love Advertising Week. Your followers, fans, friends and others may not.

Advertising Week has helped further solidify New York as the center of the media and marketing worlds. It’s the one week of the year that the west coasters actually flock in force to New York. Enjoy it. Cherish it. And avoid the mistakes that will ruin it for you and others.

Of course, if you’re interested in what I’m up to, I’ll be speaking at a few events. [Link: http://www.buddymedia.com/blog/buddy-media-at-advertising-week-new-york]

Facebook Waves Off "Fan," Gives "Like" a Thumbs Up

Peter Kafka — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 20:50:09 +0000

Goodbye “fan.” Hello “like.”

That’s the message Facebook is passing along to its advertisers today. In a move that’s both minor and telling, the social network is replacing its “fan” buttons with “like” buttons on ads that direct users to big brands’ “fan pages.”

“Fan pages” are an increasingly big part of Facebook’s business. They’re in many ways a throwback to the branded sites AOL (AOL) set up in its heyday, giving the brands a chance to stake out real estate in the heavily trafficked social network. Brands can set them up for free, but are encouraged to buy Facebook ads promoting the mini-sites.

So what’s up with the verb change? A couple things:

“Like” makes a lot more sense to Facebook users than “become a fan of.” Facebook says users already hit the “like” button in other contexts–in status updates and photos, for example–twice as often as they “fan” something.
Facebook is on a bigger push to add the “like” button throughout the Web as a way of funneling more and more interaction onto its platform. Expect to hear more about this at the the company’s developer conference next month.

For more on why fan/brand pages matter to Facebook and its advertisers, see this interview I conducted last year with Buddy Media’s Mike Lazerow.

Below is a mock-up of what the new “like ads” will look like when the change rolls out (click to enlarge), followed by the guts of the letter Facebook is sending to ad agencies today. Below that is a FAQ sheet the social network is also distributing.

Whenever possible we want to try to give you advance notice on changes that may affect your advertising campaigns or Facebook strategy. I am reaching out today to give you a heads-up on an upcoming change to Facebook. This will go live in a few weeks, so until then, please keep this information confidential.

As part of our ongoing efforts to improve the user experience, increase engagement and promote consistency across Facebook, we are changing the language we use when people connect to your Brand Pages. People will soon connect with your Brand Pages by clicking “Like” rather than “Become a Fan.” People already “Like” their friends’ status updates, photos and links everyday. In fact, people click “Like” almost two times more than they click “Become a Fan” everyday.

“Like” offers a simple, consistent way for people to connect with the things they are interested in. These lighter-weight actions mean people will make more connections across the site, including with your branded Facebook Pages.

I believe this will result in gaining more connections to pages since our research has shown that some users would be more comfortable with the term “Like”. The goal is to get the most user connections so that you can have ongoing conversations in the news feeds of as many users as possible.

The core functionality of Pages will not change. For instance, your Pages will still have distribution into your fans’ News Feed and you can still call the people who “Like” your Page, “Fans”-your Fans are still your Fans.

FBLanguageChange

What Facebook Privacy Problem? Advertisers Yawn.

Peter Kafka — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 15:39:44 +0000

Plenty of Web folks–me included–hollered loudly when Facebook overhauled its privacy policy this month. But the Web is made for shouting, so that makes it pretty hard to get a sense of how most people really feel.

For instance: Do advertisers, an increasingly important part of Facebook’s constituency, care about this stuff? I’ve been looking for signs that the network’s changes have made them skittish, a la the Beacon debacle of 2007. But so far, I haven’t seen anything.

That’s because there isn’t anything, says Mike Lazerow.

Lazerow runs Buddy Media, a start-up that makes most of its money helping big companies–from Bud Light to AMD (AMD) to the Twilight movie franchise–create and maintain “fan pages” on Facebook. These companies in turn spend lots of money advertising their pages to Facebook users and are now generating a substantial part of the network’s revenue. And Lazerow says none of the 125 brands he’s working with on Facebook have uttered a peep to him about the privacy changes so far.

“I know for sure that advertisers don’t care,” he tells me in the video interview embedded below.

The caveat here is that Lazerow isn’t a neutral observer: His company is pretty much dependent on advertisers embracing Facebook. Still, if marketers are worried, they’re expressing that very, very quietly.

Our discussion of Facebook’s privacy problem–or lack of a problem–kicks in around the nine-minute market of this clip. We spent the rest of our time talking about Buddy Media’s business, which Facebook more or less kick-started less than a year ago when it allowed brands to create their own fan pages.

To me, the economy tethered to fan pages seems based on a sort of circular logic: Brands are told they should create the pages–which are essentially what we used to call “Web sites”–so that they can advertise the pages on Facebook so they can drive people to use the pages.

But marketers seem to have embraced the idea, which is big news for Facebook, as well as entrepreneurs like Lazerow.

[ See post to watch video ]

Optimism Meets Reality: On the Ground at ad:tech

Peter Kafka — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 17:02:41 +0000

There’s an ongoing debate about how bad the online ad market has become and will get (your choices: less good, bad or very bad). But that isn’t stopping the organizers of ad:tech from putting on their annual, um, advertising and technology show this week.

This should be a good place to gauge the state of the industry, but it’s also a dizzying one: There are a couple hundred booths and dozens of panels to navigate. So MediaMemo asked an ad:tech veteran for a guide: Mike Lazerow, whose Buddy Media specializes in getting big brands to advertise on social networks like Facebook and News Corp.’s (NWS) MySpace.

Lazerow’s first suggestion was to catch CNN president Jon Klein’s keynote this morning. But voting lines nixed that idea (suggestion for next time–Brooklyn district 91 needs more voting machines). Other highlights from Lazerow’s itinerary:

Another must-see keynote is the ‘state of the industry’ on Tuesday, moderated by Internet Advertising Bureau chief Randall Rothenberg. I usually stay away from any panel featuring five people with giant titles on the same stage together. But Randall is an uber-sharp strategist and thought-leader and promises to lead a compelling panel discussion that aims to cut through the noise of the digital marketing world.

… By far the most compelling Data panel is Wednesday’s ‘The Future of Measurement–How Do We Define the New Media Currency?’ David Hallerman, a senior analyst at eMarketer, hosts leaders of the major metrics firms, Nielsen Online, Hitwise, comScore, Quantcast and Microsoft’s Analytics and Atlas Institute. The focus of the panel will be how to create universal metrics to gauge the success and determine the pricing of all digital media that Google doesn’t hold a claim to. I encourage the panelists to grab a drink with each other afterward to move closer to common metrics. …

The ad network panel that will be most interesting is Thursday’s late-afternoon session ‘So Many Networks, So Little Time: Analyzing the Digital Network Landscape,’ hosted by David Joseph, head of the interactive entertainment research group at Morgan Stanley.

The real title of the panel should be ‘Online Ad Networks: Why There Are Too Many and Why They Will Be Out of Business Soon.’ While the world wants another ad network as much as I want my third heart surgery, these buy-siders will help sift through the confusion of the already over-crowded ad network space.

… For the most part, avoid all panels that have ‘innovation,’ ‘synergy’ and ‘dispatches from’ in the title. Stick with panels featuring companies that HAVE money (agencies, brands) and not companies that are selling solutions (startups, vendors and the major ad networks and sites). What matters is what the brands and agencies are buying, not what we want to sell them!”

And yes, Lazerow is on a panel himself: “Mobilizing and Leveraging Consumer Insights: Best Practices for the Digital and Social Media Age” kicks off at 2:45 p.m., and he assures me the discussion will be more interesting than the name. See you there.