The COOL company is on a mission to revolutionize our broken ad tech ecosystem with innovative solutions that transform the entire spectrum.
The “COOL” Company isn’t just a name; it’s a way of being.
The new ad tech company, formed when Insticator recently acquired ADventori, seeks to mend the fractured ecosystem. Founded on the principles of creating a better experience for everyone, their comprehensive suite of solutions is tailored for every sector. Unfortunately, dissatisfaction is everywhere you look in our industry, but the COOL company aims to change all of that.
- Advertisers are unhappy with the results and the lack of transparency in their spending.
- Publishers are frustrated with their ad revenue and how to maximize it.
- Agencies struggle to show results and find effective d channels for their clients.
- Franchise and other network businesses are frustrated by the gap between national branding and local ad execution.
- Worst of all, users are dissatisfied with the number and quality of ads they see.
The ad tech ecosystem is in shambles, filled with too many competing interests, technology limitations, and outdated thinking. The COOL company is tackling this by serving each audience individually while uniting their ideas and tech for a rewarding experience for everyone.
The ADventori acquisition will boost personalization and improve user and advertiser experiences. The ADventori Dynamic Creative (DCO) platform helps brands align ad placements with their specific goals, allowing them to reach consumers effectively.
According to CEO and founder Zack Dugow (C.O.O.L.) stands for:
- CREATIVE: Respecting great ideas from everyone.
- OPTIMISTIC: Solving daunting challenges with a positive attitude.
- OPEN MIND: Welcoming innovative concepts and diversity.
- LEADERS: Tackling industry complications head-on.
We spoke to Zack about The COOL Company’s future and their plans to bridge the gap. Here’s what he had to say.
Impact on Publishers, Advertisers, and Agencies
Yakira Young: How will the ADventori acquisition enhance your capabilities in integrating advertisers, agencies, data, and publishers?
Zack Dugow: Our SSP, Balihoo.com, and COOLmedia.co business units benefit directly from integrating the ADventori technology into the stack, along with the customer cross-sell opportunities that are already underway. ADventori works with some amazing publishers and brands, including Disney, Airfrance, Hyundai, and many others, to which we can now offer other solutions.
When looking at other DCO solutions in market, they seem very expensive for the value they drive. ADventori has a DCO platform built to serve the right ad to the right person at the right time with the most compelling content and format. Their ads, frankly, just work better. That’s a boon for publishers who live and die by ad engagement, advertisers who just want meaningful results, brands and partners who want to know that their investments pay off, and users who just want to enjoy the web and see relevant, helpful, attractive ads.
Everyone wins with ADventori. It helps us because it allows us to better serve our clients in all of those roles – everyone gets a better experience through more personal advertising.
Users will see the right ad, with the right content/offer, at the right time, exactly according to the branding guidelines. That helps advertisers achieve better outcomes and return on their investment, and agencies gain greater insights into what works and how to leverage dynamic messaging to serve their clients.
They can also expect innovation across our entire business, as the DNA of ADventori mixes with that of Insticator, OKO Digital, COOL Media, and Balihoo to foster innovative new ideas. Our publishers benefit from our direct relationships with these big advertisers, and our advertisers benefit from a more direct path to the publishers they serve on as well.
YY: How do you plan to streamline operations and improve efficiency for your partners through this integration?
ZD: The ADventori technology platform removes the need to create specific ads to suit specific variables, instead drawing off a library of content to dynamically generate just the right ad for precisely the right moment. That will benefit our partners as we broaden the reach of this technology throughout the US, Australia and the rest of our global operations.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. We have already identified how many of our team members can help each other cross-functionally and are implementing that cross-functional benefit. It’s early in this union, but we have some exciting ideas on how the crossover of ADventori technology into the COOL company will create amazing results for our partners.
YY: How do you plan to leverage Adventori’s technology to enhance your offerings?
ZD: Our SSP will massively benefit from being able to cut out more middlemen and serve dynamic creatives and formats. We can expand upon our growth in COOL media and Balihoo by having our own DCO solution that more directly integrates with our technology.
The great benefit of the COOL company is that we have business units dedicated to every element of the modern advertising ecosystem. For example, Insticator has always recognized that users’ experience matters; the more you engage and allow them to participate on your site, the longer they stick around and the more they return. That engagement has to be monetized for the publisher, which (typically) happens through ads.
ADventori ads perform better thanks to their dynamic content targeting, which makes it easier for publishers to accrue revenue. Meanwhile, franchise businesses try to deliver a consistent national message, but ads are executed/paid for on a local level. ADventori can deliver franchise ads dynamically adjusted to a specific location while reflecting the consistent national brand in a virtual instant. Those are just a few examples of how our partners across the entire spectrum benefit from ADventori integration.
Challenges and Opportunities
YY: What challenges do you anticipate in the integration process, and how do you plan to address them?
ZD: Obviously, with the immense benefit of a global team come the challenges of time zones, different cultural norms, communication styles, and more. So, it would be naive to think that integration will be easy. However, we carefully partner with people as we build the COOL company.
Our hires, acquisitions, partnerships, and clients are selected based on compatibility with our values. I can tell you that Pierre-Antoine, Matt, and the entire ADventori team are COOL, so I’m confident we can overcome any hurdles.
YY: What new opportunities do you foresee emerging from this acquisition for your company and the industry?
ZD: There are too many to mention, but as an example, think about what might seem like an outlier in the COOL company, namely Balihoo. Balihoo bridges the gap in franchise and brand network businesses by ensuring collaboration among the national brand and individual locations and the performance of each location in the network.
I can see the ADventori platform being used to create a level of consistent, compelling, locally personalized, and high-performing ads for franchise networks. Or, as I mentioned before, elevate the performance of engaging users on publishers’ sites serviced by Insticator. It’s a perfect fit, so the opportunities are limitless – and every opportunity is for the industry and our partners, which will benefit us simply by serving them better and creating that better experience for everyone.
Client and Partner Relationships
YY: How have your clients and partners reacted to the news of this acquisition?
ZD: Honestly, it’s been a pretty well-kept secret to this point, so it’s early to comment. However, we’ve certainly socialized the ‘concept’ of adding a DCO company to our ecosystem, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive.
Everyone gets it. Advertising connects brands to users but we as an industry execute it through agencies, publishers, and more. No party in that experience doesn’t see the benefit in more dynamic, precise, and effective ads.
YY: What steps are you taking to ensure a smooth transition and continued strong relationships with your existing clients and partners?
ZD: Simple…We won’t; we don’t, RUSH. We’re keeping all of our team members. We hope our existing clients and partners are excited about this addition, but we won’t take action until we can guarantee our ability to implement, scale, and meet the high service standards we’ve set since our inception.
The biggest thing we’re doing is being cautious, perhaps even a bit ‘slow’; we need to make sure that we don’t bombard ADventori in a way that disrupts their relationships. We want ADventori clients to feel good about this, and that wouldn’t be served by creating a distraction that in any way impacts their experience. So, our first step is to add the resources of the COOL company to ADventori’s disposal.
Team Integration
YY: What cultural or operational changes do you anticipate, and how will you manage them?
Our entire philosophy and existing business respect differences and diversity. We already have teams positioned quite literally ‘around the globe’. We will manage this the same way we did when adopting what is now COOL Media, a company operating in Australia, 14 hours ahead of my most frequent time zone on the East Coast of the US. We respect their clocks, holidays, work/life balance, and their cultural norms. That’s all part of being COOL, decent, empathetic, and human.
As for operational changes, we don’t want to disrupt anything that’s already working, so our focus is layering in the collaboration at first without disrupting ADventori’s (or our) operations.
Future Plans
YY: Can you share any plans for future technological advancements or innovations resulting from this acquisition?
ZD: It’s still early in our union to get specific, but we have plenty of ideas across our different business units for how the core benefits of ADventori’s advanced DCO platform can inspire innovations across our entire family of solutions.
I can confidently say that the most profound innovations are almost certainly in areas I’m not currently thinking about. That’s the great part of a global team spanning Europe, Australia, the US, South America, and beyond. Great ideas come from collaboration without borders, and I’m incredibly excited because the ADventori team is COOL and will no doubt spawn great conversations and collaboration. Stay tuned.
YY: What are your primary focus areas for the next 12-18 months following this acquisition?
ZD: Our customers, clients, and partners. We’re big believers in the idea that if you do the right thing by those you serve, the rest takes care of itself. Our one and only focus remains on clients and partners and building the best possible experience for everyone. That may sound evasive or obtuse, but it’s the reality.
Closing Thoughts
YY: Is there anything else you’d like to share about this acquisition or the future of The COOL Company?
ZD: We’re not done; we’re never done. No matter how many advancements we make toward creating a better experience for everyone in the advertising ecosystem, change will come. Changes in technology, economics, user preferences, etc. Our job is to stay ahead of those changes and continue to adapt.
I just want our customers and partners to know that we are in this for the long haul and commit ourselves to adapting to serve them throughout whatever comes next. Our industry goes through a massive overhaul every two years, and the companies that win are always preparing for change.
We hope to be the one partner that isn’t solving a single niche problem or providing a single, siloed service. We have visibility into the entire ad landscape and a dedicated business unit serving every stakeholder – which sets us apart.
I don’t think it takes a genius to understand our mission and values.
YY: How can stakeholders stay informed about developments and progress as the integration progresses?
ZD: We are active on social media, and you’ll see more from the COOL company on LinkedIn and other platforms. We believe in meeting our partners where they want to meet, which means they engage with whichever COOL company directly intersects their role and connect across all our social, websites, blogs, and directly with their sales/account manager.
Publishers are naturally served by Insticator and OKO, COOL Media services Agencies, Franchises by Balihoo, Advertisers by ADventori, etc.