 Company: the Rubicon Project, Los Angeles, CA
Company Description: The Rubicon Project’s digital advertising technology & data platform, REVV for Publishers™, is engineered to accelerate revenue for premium publishers. Launched in 2007 & backed by $42 million in funding, the Rubicon Project serves premium publishers like NBC Universal, Gannett and CareerBuilder; optimizing over 45 billion ads each month and reaching more than 500 million unique Internet users.
Nomination Category: Company / Organization Categories / Innovation Awards
Nomination Sub Category: Most Innovative Company of the Year - Up to 2,500 Employees
Nomination Title: the Rubicon Project
1. Tell the story about what this nominated company achieved since January 1 2009 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:
the Rubicon Project launched in the US in 2007 to solve one of the most
challenging problems plaguing web publishers today – how to monetize unsold
advertising space, which often accounts for as much as 70 – 80% of a site’s
total inventory. To begin tackling the mission of automating a very manually
driven $65 billion global online advertising industry, the Rubicon Project
pioneered the category of Ad Network Optimization (ANO). This uses billions of
pieces of proprietary market data to match each online publisher advertising
impression to the best money-making opportunities from the online advertising
networks.
Fast forward two years and the company has expanded scope beyond ANO in October
2007 with the launch of REVV for publishers™ - a complete Yield Management
Optimization solution. The new platform gives premium web publishers complete
control and visibility to ensure they sell every ad impression through the best
channel for the right price. The majority of advertising technology solutions
in the past decade were created primarily for advertisers, not for publishers.
The Rubicon Project set out to redress this imbalance to increase online revenue
for publishers and support the longer term health of the display advertising
ecosystem. The new platform combats challenges such as loss of control over
publishers own data; price erosion; determining who has access to sell their
inventory; lack of insight to the full value of inventory and audience; and a
deficit of tools to manage that inventory and set pricing.
To further contribute to the development of the REVV for publisher platform, the
Rubicon Project made its first acquisition in September 2009 of Others Online,
an audience optimization company. The online advertising industry continues to
face two challenges; audience and data fragmentation. Advertisers need to
connect directly with their audiences. Fragmentation has made it difficult for
them to efficiently reach their audiences. Further, the recent growth in the
number of data companies in the market has created fragmentation at the data
level. Given the Rubicon Project’s massive scale, the company has taken a giant
step toward solving the audience fragmentation problem. As a result, the company
has become a central place for ad networks, exchanges, publishers and audience
rep firms to transact. The REVV for publisher platform has become a prime
channel for many data companies to reach their customers and audiences.
Additional accomplishments include $13MM follow-on B round in April 2009 with
funding from Clearstone Venture Partners, Mayfield Fund and IDG Ventures Asia.
In September 2009, the company followed with $9MM Series C funding round lead by
GE/NBCU's Peacock Equity Fund – bringing total funding investments to $42MM.
In 2009, the Rubicon Project also expanded internationally by opening offices in
London (July 09), Sydney (August 09) and Hong Kong (October 09). New exec hires
included; Jay Stevens, former SVP at MySpace and former Google Executives,
Kaylie Smith and Jayne Leung.
In 2009, the company saw 270% year over year growth, more than 350 billion ads
were served and 31,000 ad tags trafficked and managed through the Rubicon
Project platform.
2. List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:
the Rubicon Project Opens London office
http://www.rubiconproject.com/about/press/the-rubicon-project-opens-london-office-justin-thomas-named-director-of-uk-/
the Rubicon Project Expands to Asia Pacific
http://www.rubiconproject.com/about/press/the-rubicon-project-expands-to-asia-pacific-kaylie-smith-appointed-managing/
GE/NBC Universal’s Peacock Equity Fund Leads $9MM Investment in the Rubicon Project
http://www.rubiconproject.com/about/press/ge-nbc-universals-peacock-equity-fund-leads-9mm-investment-in-the-rubicon-p/
The Rubicon Project Introduces REVV for Publishers
http://www.rubiconproject.com/about/press/the-rubicon-project-introduces-revv-for-publishers-to-put-leverage-back-int/
The Rubicon Project Expands Into Hong Kong with the Appointment of Former Google
Exec
http://www.rubiconproject.com/about/press/the-rubicon-project-expands-into-hong-kong-with-the-appointment-of-former-g/
the Rubicon Project Celebrates 270% Year Over Year Growth in 2009
http://www.rubiconproject.com/about/press/the-rubicon-project-celebrates-270-year-over-year-growth-in-2009/
MediaPost: If Six Turned Out to Be Nine
http://www.mediapost.com/blogs/raw/?p=1427
Forbes: Online Publishers Scurry To Solve Financial Woes
http://www.forbes.com/2009/12/04/publisher-ad-revenue-audience-targeting-cmo-network-rubicon.html
Forbes: For Advertisers Drowning In Data, A Lifeguard
http://www.forbes.com/2009/09/17/internet-advertising-rubicon-systems-business-media-rubicon.html
MediaPost: Online Display Ad Market Continues Shift To ‘Audience’ From ‘Media’ Sales
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=117611
MediaPost: Crossing the Rubicon: Die Is Cast With Bid To Become The Google of
Online Display
http://www.mediapost.com/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=114981
AdWeek: Rubicon Buys Others Online
http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/digital/e3ibe685b1031a7a6fce96bfa0a48e9774b
MediaPost: TAP Dance: Rubicon Enhances Targeted Audience Program
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=118852
3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader of this nominated company:
Frank Addante, CEO of the Rubicon Project, is a serial entrepreneur with one IPO
and two acquisitions before the age of 30. Previously he served as CTO and
technology Founder of L90, Inc., a publicly-held Internet advertising company
that was acquired by DoubleClick after a successful $112 million IPO. He
invented adMonitor, one of the Internet's most successful ad serving platforms.
Frank’s fifth company was StrongMail, the leading email delivery infrastructure
provider for thousands of companies worldwide, including Ticketmaster and
MySpace.com.
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