Knotch is a full blown analytics and data company that is surveying the largest brands in the world.
From their website: Knotch is the independent content intelligence platform that helps CMOs and their teams measure and impact the outcome of their content efforts via real-time, actionable intelligence across all of their content investment.
Content is a better way to connect with your audience. TV ads, outdoor ads, banner ads etc have been proven to be ineffective. Content has become an interesting value exchange between a brand and its audience.
B2B is a great fit for me. I have always enjoyed thinking about the strategy of business. I am able to sit down with our customers, get feedback, and understand them. This helps me know the products we need to build to address their needs.
What is the difference in running the company in New York as compared to when you were in Silicon Valley? When we were in Silicon Valley we were in an echo chamber of buzz words.
What problem are you trying to solve? The human incentives around the marketing ecosystem have been flawed for a long time. You assume data flow is perfect. It’s not. All of the reporting is being done by the distribution channel [Facebook, Snapchat, a media company etc]. This is like you being able to grade your own homework. This is completely crazy.
We asked brands if they would rather have their own collection tagging across all of their advertising [so you can verify the data you are getting back are accurate]. They said, “Yes but they won’t let us.” I told them you are the ones spending the money! You should ask for it.
So that is what we’ve been doing: creating visibility and transparency across all these different channels brands are doing content advertising with.
Content is the fastest growing category in advertising.
We have been extremely disciplined about not doing trials. Everything we sign is a 12 month contract, at least. It is enterprise software. You pay a flat fee. Because of this we never have the issue of the fluctuating, unpredictable revenue traditional ad tech companies experience. [Anda thinks of Knotch as a marketing tech company]
Do you use an ad blocker? The majority of people do. Content is the future of advertising.
My big vision [transparency] is to use our product as an empowering mechanism for consumers to have more control over what data gets shared with brands and what happens with that data. More legislation around privacy and data collection would need to happen before brands would want to do this. I think more legislation is inevitable. GDPR is just the first iteration. I think California will have their own version. This will continue around the world.
Brands are becoming aware of the downsides of having your entire marketing strategy on a channel that actually owns your audience [Facebook and Amazon] and gives you no data. There is going to be more investment into your owned and operated properties [website, mailing list etc].
