Such a wonderful adventure it was !
If I had to sum up my adventure at Teads in one short sentence, this is what comes immediately to mind: « Such a wonderful adventure it was! ». Yes, this sentence is to be conjugated in the past tense, because my operational adventure at Teads officially comes to an end as of today, tuesdayltober 4, 2016.
My operational duties come to an end, but, nevertheless, I will continue to be a member of the great Teads family as a board member on the administrative and strategic Board of Directors. This will allow me to be able to continue to contribute and follow very closely the future key steps of the company which I co-founded. The only change, and not, by any means, a minor one, will be that my time allotted to Teads will be considerably reduced.
Yes, this was a wonderful adventure, even incredible.
Firstly, in terms of the figures. In 5 years, we have managed to create a world leader in video advertising set up in 21 countries, including over 500 partners and reaching over 1.2 billion people per month. In 5 years, we have had a merger, raised 71M€ and took over a company. In 2016, our company will reach a total sales of 200M€.It has been turning a profit since its first year and will continue to grow and be profitable in the years to come.
Then, in terms of the environment. We dove into the highly competitive market of digital advertising, beginning in Montpellier ; just for the record, without knowing anything about that market. We’ve truly come a long, long way :)
And yet, we believed in ourselves and experienced amazing growth, as this graph shows.
This can be explained mainly by 3 key factors that made the difference, which I will explain here.
1. The Outstream Strategy.
We started the Teads adventure when the video advertising market had been expanding for around 2 years. The market was still in its infancy in 2011, but had 3-digit growth potential, which gave great opportunities for newcomers.
At the time, everbody in the market was into the video advertising format known as « Instream »; the idea being to post an advertising video before giving access to the video which the Internet user wants to watch. The main companies which offer the Instream format are television channels or platforms, such as Youtube or Dailymotion. Advertising companies are also in the loop. Strenghtened by the market growth, the funding flowed in and the intial public offering (IPO) was made, etc. In other words, war was raging within Instream.
We decided to march to a different tune. Contrary to Instream, we dissociated advertising video and editorial content video, and broadcasted the advertising video within contexts which are NOT videos: articles, slides, photos, etc. We called this advertising format « Outstream ».
This idea seems simple today, but at the time it was a true innovation which we have managed to export on a worldwide level. The term « Outstream » which we invented is now a standard term today in the market.
This innovation was rather revolutionary as it shook up a good portion of the market as we knew it to be up until that time. Outstream allows the creation of a massive inventory of advertising video for publishers which had been excluded from the video advertising market until then.
It was a winning bet: this segment of the Outstream market created from scratch and where we were the only ones proves to be much more significant than the Instream segment, over which everyone was fighting.
“Outstream is now Mainstream.”
We had the time to grow peacefully before the competition takes notice and reacts to the Outstream opportunity. The first competitor came 3 years after our launching. But it’s too late. Since the beginning of 2016, according to Comscore, we have become number 1 worldwide in the video market, ahead of all Instream companies.
2. Our inRead Flagship.
We rolled out our Outstream strategy with our flagship « inRead » format which you can discover in this video, if you don’t know it already.
This revolutionary format isn’t just a simple advertisement placed between 2 paragraphs of an article, as originally thought. It is much more than that. The inRead format has incredible characteristics which line up the interests of all parties concerned (Internet users, publishers and advertisers).
a. InRead respects the user and the editorial content
Since 2012 and the the creation of InRead, we have taken a strong stand against intrusive practices which are counter-productive to the market. Something was not right in the advertising world. It was enough to tell friends or acquaintances that we were working in advertising to hear them say, « Ah, so you are the ones constantly annoying us on the web ? ». Internet users have become « anti-advertisement » even though they realize that ads allow them to have free access to content of quality. Contradictory, isn’t it? The cause is simple: the intrusivenes of advertising formats. Internet surfers no longer want to put up with « Christmas tree » sites or pop-ups which appear while they are browsing. The world wide expansion of Adblocks these past few years has only confirmed the total rejection of advertisements on behalf of Internet users. Ads, ok, but not in any which way.
At Teads, we are convinced that the vast majority of Internet users are not necesssarily « anti-ads », but just «anti-intrusive ads ». Consequently, we came up with our inRead product.
Based on the principle of forced viewing such as with Instream, we respond with a volontary viewing from the user. No need to have to look for 30 seconds at an ad to see the content video of 20 seconds. With InRead, if the reader wants to continue reading the article, he just needs to scroll down without having to interact in any way with the advertisement.
Following the principle of advertising above the editorial content (overlay), we respond with an intergration within the content, guaranteeing the user the ultimate experience. Indeed, no more need to search and click on an x or wait 5 seconds to get rid of the ad. Once again, simply scrolling is enough.
Following its basic activity and its triggering of the video at the bottom of the page, we respond by allowing the user volontarily to deactivate (slide the mouse over on a computer or tap on a telephone or touchscreen) and by triggering the video only when visible on the page.
In a nutshell, the « non-intrusiveness » that we cherish at Teads.
b. InRead created prime and massive inventory
InRead was originally thought up for press groups. InRead allows these groups to stay focused on the core of their traditional profession (written press) while benefitting from the advantages of video advertising (widely expanding market and more profitable than traditional advertising). No more need to think of how to create editorial content video, the articles are hereafter profitable via (among others) InRead.
The audiences of these groups are extremely significant (much higher than those of audiovisuel groups), thanks to InRead, we were able to create a massive and prime advertising inventory associated with the content of professional quality and prestiges brands.
The question of quality of content is crucial when it comes to a video advertising compaign and « branding », since all the studies prove that associated performances are the best. This call for excellence was heard by media agencies around the world.
This call for excellence makes all the more sense since the market players are faced with mediocre quality, even deceptive inventory. The analysts are not mistaken, the stock market has been wavering for several months, mainly for this reason (but not only, of course).
As proof, Facebook, which has bought LiveRail for over 400M€, recently closed the service when they realized the quality of the listing proposed to its announcers.
Our ultra-premium listing protects us from these phenomenens, and strengthens our growth and credibility on the market.
c. InRead gurantees anti-fraud for annoncers who pay only for actually viewed videos
Not only do we propose an inventory video of quality and quantity without precedent , but we also couple it with an offer for announcers where only seen videos are invoiced. Since videos are started only when they are visible on the screen, we guarantee that a video played in its entirety is a video which is visible on the screen.
Thanks to this feature, we respond to another major problem that advertisers face : that of « viewability ».
You must understand that advertisers still pay for impressions which have never been seen by Inernet users. We don’t want that at Teads.
d. Perfectly adaptable to advertising market tendancies
In 2012 and over the following years, market experts agreed that the 3 sectors which were going to track digital advertising market growth were video, mobile and programming.
Once again, we knew how to set ourselves apart from our competitors. While most others were concentrating on only one of these 3 sectors, we succeeded, thanks to InRead to concentrate on all 3 sectors simultaneously, and this as early on as 2013. Even though we had only started in 2011 on the video sector, we knew how to become a « mobile first company » in 2016, as much in terms of audience as in revenue. At the rate at which things are going, 2017 will be the year when we also become a « programmatic first company » thanks to our SSP which is from now mature and strong. The loop will have come full circle.
Moreover, InRead is completely cutomizable from the creative advertising view point. We have seen these past few months the coming of advertising creations called « Square » or « Vertical » specifially adapted to mobile screens since users hold their mobile vertically, contrary to a computer whose screen is in the lansdscape format. We have thus adapted our inRead released our inRead Square and inRead Vertical offers, therefore allowing to continue to surf the current trends, to the great satisfaction of our publishers and advertisers.
3. A complementary team and great fulfillment
It is often said that an idea is worthless if not properly executed. That is completely true. Also, the contray is also true. Good execution won’t take you very far if you don’t have a good product. To aim for excellence, it is absolutely necessary to combine a good product with good execution.
When we speak about carrying out, we speak about the carrying out of a team, where each member plays a role to perfection (Engineering, Marketing, Product, Sales, Support etc.).
When we created InRead in 2012, we proposed our technology to publishers so that they could sell themselves their video advertising inventory that we created for them. As we had signed with numerous publishers around the world and that we didn’t want to make this a sales house, we started to sell international campaigns for the benefit of our publishing partners.
The resulting inventory was such that the sales from international campaigns and the sales from publishers filled no more than 5–6% of the created inventory. Being aware that this innovation would only make sense once it brought about significant revenu for the publishers, we decided to ally ourselves with Ebuzzing, an advertising agency specialized in advertising videos.
We have the utmost conviction that in joining our forces, we can become a world leader very quickly. Thanks to its existing international locations (US had just opened), Ebuzzing brings a commercial and marketing strength which is necessary for making our products last. With this merger, we can bring not only technology, but also the profits that go with it.
The magic of 1+1=3 works perfectly.
This merger was able to work because the teams are completely complimentary. The number of operational overlaps at the time of the merger could be counted on one hand. From them on, everyone was able to continuer to do what he knew how to do best, in the interest of everyone. The group was then able to take off.
Together and reunited under the sole brand of Teads, we raised 71M€, acquired a company (others are to come), recruited 250 partners, opened in 8 new countries, signed international agreements with the biggest agencies and reinforced our partnerships with publishers.
Together we have surfed the inRead wave, so well that over 90% of total sales of the group is now from this wonderful flagship and 95% of this figure is from the Teads platform.
Together we have surfed the mobile wave, so well that we are now a « mobile first company ». Together, we are surfing the progrommatic wave.
Together, we have become number 1 worldwide
My favorite video which sumes up Teads perfectly. Bravo to Eric Benacek on his fabulous work.
What now ?
We are now a well-structured company whose merger has been integrated 100% and whose supple organization allows us to continue to innovate to keep ahead of the competition. The merger of Teads and Ebuzzing, which was, to say the least, « energetic », will free up a lot of time and energy for more innovations to come.
And of course there is still a lot to be done ! The first 5 years we concentrated on increasing prime audiences and multi-screens around our non-intrusive advertising videos.
Having reached this goal, we can now concentrate on 3 pillars:
- Creativity, via our studio of creative advertising developped by Brainient which we have just bought.
- Prediction, via our predicting buying motor developed internally by our noteworthy former colleagues of Criteo and noted doctors.
- Automation, via our sales and purchasing interfaces which allow us to rationalize as much as possible our internal procedures.
In spite of these challenges to overcome, it is time for me to go for new adventure. Find again this entrepreneurial mind-set which has never left me. Find again this excitment from starting « from scratch », where everything is yet to be done or proven. In the same way as we launched Teads without knowing anything about the advertising world, I am going to jump into another field which I don’t know very well for the time being, but which is easier to approach and which has the same traits as the advertising market: a booming mass market with lots of competition but where the opportunities for innovation are vast and so much is yet to be done.
Re-do a Teads II will of course be very complicated, but that is not a goal unto itself. This doesn’t prevent me from being ambitious and I will do my best so that this project has scope and benefits as many people as possible, in France and internationally.
Merci, Merci, Merci!
An entreprenurial adventure is above all a human adventure. And it is in this respect that that I have been blessed as never before in terrms of people and their support.
A big thank you to (in chronological order at):
- My first partners, Loïc Jaurès and Olivier Reynaud for this intense and rich adventure full of surprises! Bravo les gars ;)
- My family, who has always supported me, and especially Bruno, who gave me a little car when I finished university which I could resell to get capital for Teads to start the adventure. Such a precious help!
- Cap Oméga and Innov’up, for their support during the start-up phase of the company.
- Joris alias Jojo, a loyal friend among the most loyal who was our first trainee and who is now head of Technical Solutions.
- My business angels from the very beginning Marc Geffroy, Claude Plassard and all who poured 200k€ at the beginning of Teads. Good flair, messieurs :)
- Pierre de Grandmaison and Fabien Livet with whom we went on a conquest for international publishers with the key success which we know.
- My partners from the very start: Advideum (Julien, Matthieu), Horizon Media (Eric, Lucie & Maxime) & Soonnight.com (Rudy, Jeremy and Meyer).
- Those present from the very first months at Teads: Alain Bataille, Dorian Monnier, Hugues Templier, Sylvain Tormena, Kevin Vazquez, etc.
- My trusted investors Marie Ekeland (ex Elaia Partners/now Daphni), Jean-Marc Patouillaud (Partech Ventures) et Pascal Gauthier (ex Criteo/now Kaiko).
- Pierre Chappaz, Bertrand Quesada, Gilles Moncaubeig et Laurent Binard for this beautiful and magnificent merger and adventure which gave birth to a world leader which we know today.
- My wonderful duo Sarah Graule and Véronique Brun. You are the best.
- To « Teads babies » Benjamin Longearet and Laodis Menard who left to attempt entreprenurial adventures. Long live your companies!
- Eric Pantera, a great man in whom I have 100% trust to manage operationally the rest of the adventure.
- Judith, my favorite English teacher who put up with me and my antics :)
- All those who worked in the past and present at Teads. If we are where we are today, it is thanks to your daily input and energy.
And finally, an enormous thank you to my wife Alexandra, who, on top of giving me a magnificient child this year, gave me precious support despite the crazy rythme which I imposed on her, which I made her put up with evenings, weekends, vacations… Ready to have another go ? :)
See you soon!
Loïc
PS: In an upcoming article, I will try to sum up what I got out of Teads from an operational poing of view.