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Triton Digital |
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May 20, 2013 Issue |
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The Most Powerful Name In Corporate News and Information |
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A Unique End-to-End Solution, Triton Digital is a Leading Service Provider for Traditional and Online Radio with a Platform that makes Digital Content Extensible, Social, Personal and Profitable for an Expanding Roster of Media Clients |
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Triton Digital is the
leading digital service provider to traditional and online radio with a
rapidly expanding roster of media clients emerging from the television and
print space. Our infrastructure, applications, and innovation are powering
digital audience and revenue growth for clients around the globe. Our
platform makes digital content extensible, personal, social, and profitable.
Triton Digital is a portfolio company of funds managed by Oaktree Capital
Management, L.P., a leading global investment management firm. Neal Schore serves as founding President & CEO of Triton Media Group, the operator of Triton Digital and controlling shareholder of Dial Global. Schore also serves as the Chairman of Dial Global, since the merger of Dial Global and Westwood One in October 2011.
Triton’s technology powers IP audio measurement, management and consumer engagement, which enables the marketplace for online audio advertising. Triton is the global market leader, with nearly 16,000 software implementations servicing a client base in over 35 countries, and the only end-to-end technology platform within the IP audio sector. Dial Global is an independent, full service radio network offering over 100 different news, talk, sports, music, jingles and special events programming, servicing over 6000 radio stations. Triton is a portfolio company of funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management, L.P., a leading global investment management firm with approximately $80 Billion of assets under management.
Previously Schore served as Managing Partner and CEO of Midway Marketing Group, a media advisory firm servicing the private equity and venture community to build, expand, finance and manage media operations throughout the United States. While operating MMG, Schore lead significant transactions in the media sector and contributed to client growth initiatives, including M&A structuring, executive management development and corporate organization, among other activities. Schore’s other endeavors include serving as founding President of Brite Media Group, an entity established for acquisitions within the alternative media sector. Funded primarily by Trimaran Capital Partners, Brite launched with the acquisition of BriteVision Media, the dominant producer and distributor of niche advertising in the United States.
Schore started his career at Interep, the largest full service radio marketing company in the United States, representing approximately half of all radio stations for their national advertising with total billings then exceeding $1 billion annually. Throughout his nine years at Interep, Schore distinguished himself as a results-oriented leader holding several executive positions.
Schore received a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration, with emphasis on Management, Marketing and Finance, from Michigan State University. Schore is a member of the Los Angeles chapter of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) and the recipient of E&Y’s 2011 Entrepreneur of the Year award for greater Los Angeles. Schore resides with his wife and three sons in the suburbs of Los Angeles, California. |
Digital Content
Triton
Digital
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Interview conducted by: Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor, CEOCFO Magazine, Published – May 20, 2013
Mr. Schore: Triton started about six and a half years ago with Mike Agovino and I co-founding the company with a vision to reinvent audio. The idea was to take all that we knew from our previous experiences and skill sets, which were very complimentary of each other, and move into the digital sphere at a time when digital audio was not necessarily in focus. At the time, internet conversations were all about video. It is one of those stories where Mike and I had been friendly competitors. One day, we met for lunch and started doodling on the back of a napkin. We quickly realized that we had a very like-minded approach to the reinvention of the audio space and became partners instantly that day. The original thesis was to acquire a company that had largely become distressed and use it as our infrastructure for what Triton is today. We did not wind up acquiring that company, which in some ways was a shame. But, in many other ways it turned out to be a good thing because it took us in a slightly different direction of acquiring other businesses that came with some great technology and some phenomenal professionals. Today, through acquisition and our own internal development, we are the indispensable platform connecting audio publishers with advertisers.
CEOCFO: Would you explain what you are providing? Mr. Schore: We have multiple components to our business. We are the measurement source for digital audio. Our Webcast Metrics product is census based, one-to-one measurement, which means there are no panels or estimates. It is a direct one-to-one connection with the consumer that we measure on behalf of the publisher. We also provide ad management and ad insertion for digital audio for our clients. We have an ad network with both a direct sales force as well as a programmatic execution that we call a2x, which just launched in January. Finally, we have a group of products that are designed to drive consumer engagement, including a tier-one email engine, gamification and contesting solutions, loyalty and rewards programs, content management and other services our clients require to support a one-to-one relationship with the consumer. With this entire suite of products, we are removing the anonymous nature of the consumer while driving engagement. All together, we are a very unique, end-to-end solution, and the only platform company in the world for audio that connects together all the pieces in order to drive revenue for our publisher clients.
CEOCFO: Do the majority of your customers take advantage of the full range of services you offer? Mr. Schore: It varies. Some clients start with a stand-alone subscription to our Webcast Metrics product while many clients take advantage of our full end-to-end solution.
CEOCFO: How do you encourage the ones that are using pieces to go for the whole enchilada? Mr. Schore: We try to prove that if they deploy the best technology and products to enhance the user experience then they are going to build audience, which equals revenue.
CEOCFO: What is the challenge in your customers understanding the real breadth of what you offer? Mr. Schore: One challenge is that we are not the low-cost provider. However, we are the only end-to-end, platform solution. There are other providers in each of our product verticals, but they are not integrated. So if there is any type of service issue or if there is any type of breakdown in the connection between providers, which tends to happen a lot, then the user experience is diminished. If the publisher is not building audience and not engaging with their audience properly, then they limit the opportunity to monetize. One of our advantages is having everything fully integrated. We have invested tens of millions of dollars, in fact over $100 million, to provide our full operational platform. It is seamless and offers an incredible user experience, allowing for our clients to have competitive advantages. To your question, publishers that may not want to initially pay for our services will often times engage or partner with us after they started with one or more of our competitors because they recognize that the user experience is much more than banding together various pieces from multiple vendors.
CEOCFO: What is your geographic reach? Mr. Schore: We are global and are currently doing business in about thirty-seven countries. The opportunity is global, and we have the ability to operate anywhere in the world.
CEOCFO: Do you see a difference in international customers? Mr. Schore: There is a difference. It has been a ton of fun getting to know the international marketplace and we are still learning. We acquired a company in 2010 that was doing business in most of the countries where we operate. We have just recently started to focus on our international expansion plan. With the recent release of our ad platform technology, along with our recent launch of our a2x programmatic capabilities, we are now well positioned to compete globally. It has been fantastic doing business internationally. It is incredible to experience the cultural differences, not only in how to conduct business, but also how to properly service clients. We are teaching clients how to monetize their digital audio brands and audiences. They are teaching us how to best operate outside North America.
CEOCFO: Do you see additional acquisitions? Mr. Schore: We have been highly acquisitive since our launch. We have not pursued an acquisition since May of 2010, so for the past three years we have been purely focused on operating. We certainly could acquire other companies if the right opportunity surfaced. At this point, we have a staff of nearly three hundred professionals around the globe and we are very well positioned to continue to build and expand our own technology. That said, if there are products or services that are strategic or complementary that present themselves, we have proven that we rapidly pursue those opportunities.
CEOCFO: Are there more companies addressing this issue in general? Mr. Schore: With the convergence of audio and mobile and the whole digital movement, I believe that digital audio is establishing itself on its own merits and moving into a larger, mainstream position. Publishers that are rumored to be entering the digital audio space are some of the largest brands in the world. Those publishers, combined with existing publishers that also have huge local brands and great content that are investing in their digital audio offerings, makes for an incredibly compelling, big and dynamic digital audio marketplace.
CEOCFO: How is business these days? Mr. Schore: Business is interesting. The traditional radio climate is a bit lukewarm, which is driving some of our traditional publisher clients to use this opportunity to invest in their digital audience, which is good. On the demand side, specifically with the launch of our a2x programmatic product a couple months ago and the deal that we announced with Xaxis, which is part of WPP, it is great to see large national advertisers starting to understand the incredible attributes and utility of digital audio. We are starting to see meaningful lift in the demand and expect digital audio be a very large, multi-billion dollar industry in the coming years.
CEOCFO:
Why should the business and investment community pay attention to Triton
Digital and what makes you an exceptional company?
CEOCFO: Final thoughts?
Mr.
Schore: We
have a very talented board of directors who both challenge and support us
every day. As a portfolio company of Oaktree Capital, we are dedicated to
excellence. I do not believe Triton Digital could have been built without
Oaktree’s foresight and backing. |
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“With the convergence of audio and mobile and the whole digital movement, I believe that digital audio is establishing itself on its own merits and moving into a larger, mainstream position.”- Neal Schore |
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