As the 2021 Upfront season approaches, the pioneering video advertising architects of CBS Interactive, BBE, Vindico, and Torrential announce the official launch of their new enterprise: Blockboard, the video accountability company. Blockboard offers upfront buyers an innovative, effective and transparent messaging alternative by leveraging the power and potential of CTV and blockchain technology.
Matt Wasserlauf, CEO/Founder, Matt Timothy, Chief Customer Officer, and their team of Pro Blockboarders have been operating Blockboard in a proof-of-concept mode during the pandemic, and the results for the company and their clients have been stellar. Blockboard operates a three-tiered model: Create (original content with Blockboard Studios); Motivate (distribute content and targeted ads over OTT/CTV platforms through Blockboard Media); and Validate (through MyBlockboard.com using Blockchain technology): www.blockboard.co
“Must-See TV” turns into “MUST CTV”
In the late 80s, NBC made its stellar Thursday night line-up even more compelling by labeling it as Must-See TV. But that was then. Today, after audiences have quarantined in place for over a year, the shift of video consumption habits from primarily linear to streaming has accelerated much faster than pre-pandemic estimates. As a result, Blockboard seized the opportunity to update NBC’s famous tune in maxim to reflect today’s app-based media reality: Advertisers Must CTV.
Some of the original video programs making their debut in Blockboard lineup include: Digital Diaries-Quarantine Edition: #AlumniChallenge: Race to Home: American Health Journal: The American Table: Her Money Happy Hour: Friars Side Chats: Heading Home: One Dream Can Change the World and Feel Ageless-At Home with Jennifer.
Blockboard exists to help marketers exploit emerging video capabilities as CTV combines the best of linear TV (create awareness) with the best of digital (motivate action). Combining CTV exposure and OTT clickability creates a highly effective, brand safe, transparent, and measurable video campaign. Blockboard can manage reach and frequency across all devices and platforms without relying on a single cookie. The soft launch of Blockboard achieved concrete business results for clients in the retail, CPG, media, travel, pharma and political categories. The company is proud that its churn rate is less than 10 percent and considers its customers’ loyalty to Blockboard’s consistent performance as a validation of its strategy, execution, and timing.
The programmatic video market is full of operational friction. This is no surprise when you consider that one CTV/OTT campaign can have a dozen or more tech/vendor intermediaries: DSP, SSP, Ad Server, Validation/ Verification, Data providers, a media agency a creative agency, a digital agency plus pervasive ad fraud, black box margin builders and a hard-to-resist tendency to fall back on a default “set it and forget it” operating philosophy.
Blockboard significantly reduces costly operational friction through its proprietary digital video distribution platform MyBlockboard.com, which relies on blockchain technology to create trust, full transparency, and verification for the ad spender. The same benefits of blockchain that underpin the crypto-currency market are the foundation of Blockboard’s operational confidence—enough to insert the word accountability into its mission.
This makes Blockboard the first full-service video accountability company providing marketers advertising distribution with the security of proven blockchain technology. “Blockboard and blockchain technology makes everyone accountable through full transparency and third-party validation of advertisement metrics. That is why advertisers interested in exploiting the emerging macro industry trends trust Blockboard,” says Matt Wasserlauf, CEO and Founder of Blockboard.
Partnership through content and advertising distribution helps brands maximize exposure with “tailored” social media advertising programs to promote their brand or service. The advertisement options are digital, clickable, and mobile to drive fans to either a brand website or desired landing page. “The best places to invest your ad money right now are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Snapchat,” says Wasserlauf. “In addition to a premium CTV and OTT network, Blockboard offers premier social media advertising distribution with the security of full transparency and third-party validation.”
“At Blockboard, we partner well,” says Matt Timothy. “Blockboarders are CTV/OTT Sherpas, helping clients navigate the challenging conditions presented by an industry in full disruption. Our goal is to remove as much “funnel friction” from the process as possible, so every conversation isn’t an autopsy about what didn’t work and instead, the focus can remain where it belongs: on the client’s KPIs.”
About Matt Wasserlauf, CEO and Founder
Matt Wasserlauf, one of the original disruptors of the TV business, is known as the visionary who revolutionized advertising by enticing television advertisers to invest their marketing dollars online. In 2020, iMedia recognized Matt with the “Conviction Award” for his unwavering belief and conviction in the future of video beyond TV. In 2004, he founded Broadband Enterprises (BBE), the industry’s first online video company and co-founded the mobile video platform Torrential in 2013. He recently sold Torrential to the television company ITN, the leading unwired broadcast network. In May of 2019, Matt Wasserlauf launched his newest, and arguably most exciting venture yet, BLOCKBOARD; a new digital distribution platform service that utilizes Blockchain technology to distribute videos. As advertisers continue to shift their attention towards OTT and non-linear television, Matt Wasserlauf created BLOCKBOARD to ensure trust, full transparency, and verification in the shifting advertising landscape.
Learn more at www.blockboard.co
About Matt Timothy, VP of Sales and Marketing
Matt Timothy’s platform-crossing career has been driven by one question: “What’s next?” This question led Matt, as a local TV account executive in San Francisco, to build and monetize the first TV station website in the country. This early crossover success led to Matt becoming the first digital salesperson for CBS and, ultimately, the first VP/GM of CBS Interactive, overseeing CBS.com and CBSNews.com. From there, he moved to the CBS radio division, where, as Vice President, Streaming Media, he developed and implemented a streaming model for all 141 CBS O&O radio stations. From CBS, Matt was recruited to NCC (now Ampersand) to join the executive team as the company’s first SVP of Advanced Advertising, where he focused on the targeting and interactive potential of the Set-Top Box. Two years later, leveraging his corporate “intra-preneurer” experience into full-blown entrepreneurship, Matt moved to join Matt Wasserlauf at BBE to launch Vindico, the first MRC-accredited video ad server. He led the company for six years in all, growing it to a global market leader with 200 employees and 40% + share of the video market. The company was acquired by Viant in 2010. From there, Matt set his sights on the addressable TV space and joined, as CMO, Sorenson Media (now part of Roku), an early leader in leveraging the data and targeting capabilities of Smart TVs.
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