Joe Pych is the Founder and President at NextMark, a company that provides tools for media planning and buying industry. We recently spoke with Joe about his experience working in technology and NextMark.
The Makegood: Joe, you have been working in technology for the past two decades. What would you say has been the most important advancement since you started your career?
JP: Wow, you’re making me feel old. This feels like stating the obvious, but the most important advancement in the last 20 years has been the internet. It has forever changed the two worlds I work in – software and advertising. Software as a Service and cloud computing have disrupted the old guard of installed software. Digital media has disrupted the old guard of traditional media. While it has caused nightmares for the incumbents, these have been fun times for innovation.
The Makegood: As the CEO of NextMark, a company that provides information and technology that enables media planning, media operations, and media sales, what would you say are the major advantages that NextMark provides to clients?
JP: NextMark is all about making your life easier. In contrast with most of the technologies you find on the Luma chart that aim to replace humans, we build technology *for* humans. For us, this means three things: match-making, collaboration, and workflow. We make it easier for buyers and sellers to work with each other, get the media plan done right without mistakes, and be home at a reasonable hour. We are 100% focused on direct premium media buys. Everyone else can fight like dogs over remnant inventory. If we do our job right, there won’t be as much of it.
The Makegood: What’s this “Request for Consideration” idea we’ve been hearing about?
JP: Using the RFP for digital media is like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. That’s why there are so many problems and everyone hates the RFP. Instead of automating the RFP process, we took a fresh approach by engineering a brand new process that’s a better fit for digital media. We came up with the Request for Consideration or RFC process. Then we built two new tools that leverage the power of the RFC: Media Magnet for media planners and Compass for publishers. It’s only been out for 7 weeks now, but already 32 leading digital agencies are starting to get results. For example, after only about 5 minutes of setup work, a recent campaign with a $100k budget attracted 5 clever proposals within 48 hours.
The Makegood: Currently, NextMark is in beta testing with Digital Media Planner app, a tool that enables media planners to “get the job done in half the time.” Can you tell us about the product?
JP: Sure. The “getting the job done in half the time” statement is aspirational at this point, but we hope to prove that when the Planner is out later this year. Media planners have been showing us how they like to work. They’ve also been showing us the problem areas and how their existing tools fall short. We started with a clean slate and have been building a system that streamlines their workflow and makes it easier for them to deliver. The product feels like Excel on steroids: easy to use like Excel, but with accelerators, database storage, and seamless integration with ad servers and other systems. The design and development teams have been doing a fantastic job and I can’t wait to launch it.
The Makegood: What can media planners expect to see coming from NextMark in the future?
JP: Media planners can expect NextMark to work like a honey badger to eliminate the worst parts of their day!
The Makegood: Thanks, Joe.
