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Rubicon Project and Telaria merging to capture growth in Connected TV

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Rubicon Project and Telaria today announced an agreement to combine in a stock-for-stock merger. Rubicon Project and Telaria are listed in the New York Stock Exchange: NYSE:RUBI and NYSE:TLRA.

Upon closing, Telaria stockholders are expected to own approximately 47.1% and Rubicon Project stockholders are expected to own approximately 52.9% of the fully diluted shares of the combined company.

According to Rubicon Project, the merge of the 2 companies will create the world’s largest independent sell-side advertising platform, poised to capture the growth in Connected TV (CTV).

Telaria is a leader in Connected TV, and Rubicon Project is an expert in programmatic operations. Rubicon Project is headquartered in Los Angeles, California, while Telaria is headquartered in New York. Combined, the new company will have over 600 employees and contractors in 19 cities in 11 countries.

“Our businesses are highly complementary, and when combined, are a powerful, strategic alternative to the walled gardens, which have been frustrating both buyers and sellers due to their lack of transparency, innovation bottlenecks, and conflicted business models,” stated Telaria CEO, Mark Zagorski. “The two companies will provide more technology resources, a broader geographic footprint and deeper financial assets to attack the growing opportunity created by the shift from linear viewing to CTV to the benefit of our customers and in support of a thriving open internet. For our stockholders, we believe this merger allows us to accelerate our growth, while providing additional resources to increase investment and continue to scale our industry-leading CTV technology. For our employees, this is an opportunity for development and to fully realize the potential of what we have built these past few years in a scaled, omnichannel platform.”

Upon closing, Michael Barrett (Rubicon Project) will be named Chief Executive Officer of the combined company, Mark Zagorski (Telaria) will be named President & Chief Operating Officer and David Day will be the Chief Financial Officer. Telaria board member Paul Caine will be Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the combined company. The full board will consist of nine members; four existing directors from each company and Michael Barrett, CEO.

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The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2020.


Here the speech of Michael Barrett, during today’s webcast:

Mark and I are pleased to announce that we have entered into a definitive agreement to combine Rubicon Project and Telaria in a stock-for-stock merger. The transaction has been unanimously approved by the Boards of Directors of both companies.

The combination of Rubicon Project and Telaria creates the world’s largest, independent sell-side advertising platform. It will provide programmatic buyers and sellers with a single place for transacting CTV, web, traditional video, audio and mobile advertising inventory unmatched by any other independent exchange.

On top of strengthening the depth in formats we serve, there are numerous key strengths that this combination creates to create significant separation from our programmatic competitors. This is driven by the massive scale of volume we serve, literally hundreds of billions of daily ad requests, to our speed of execution, to our efficiency, to our low cost unit economics, to our data science and our ID initiatives, just to name a few.

This transformative combination builds on our commitment to trust and transparency and accelerates our strategy to provide buyers and sellers with the most efficient paths to every format and channel including CTV. We could not be more excited about the future as we bring together two industry leaders with strong businesses, complementary technical assets and incredible cultures to create a market leader in the industry that will generate significant opportunities for our employees, customers, partners and stockholders.

From the Rubicon Project perspective, despite having a solid video business and a small but rapidly growing CTV business, we were looking at a meaningful investment over an uncertain period of time to position us to effectively and aggressively compete for share in the CTV market with Telaria, SpotX and Freewheel. It is not news to anyone that CTV is an exciting growth opportunity in the digital programmatic market and we’re happy to take on the opportunity in combination with an industry leader with greater scale together than we could separately. We believe it’s just a matter of time before video is more than half of the combined company’s revenues and CTV will be the strongest long term driver.

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For the past 2 years, I’ve talked about our 3 key growth drivers – SPO, video and Demand Manager. This transaction reshuffles which will be our largest growth driver but doesn’t change our view that each will drive meaningful future revenue growth for the business.

In fact, we think adding to the video offerings, specifically CTV, is extremely complementary to SPO and Demand Manager.

In SPO, we’ve seen DSPs, agencies and buyers treat CTV differently and retain most key CTV players, outside of the omni-channel sell side platforms, which we believe positions us even stronger in this process over the next 12-18 months.

In the long run, we also see a path to CTV and broader video being sold via header bidding, more specifically in Prebid, and believe the strength that we bring in serving the developing market today as it becomes more mainstream in header bidding allows us to cover the entire market opportunity.

We are very pleased to have come through the challenges presented when I joined nearly 3 years ago now and begin playing offense and bolstering the long term strategic value proposition of Rubicon Project. We were able to organically take a challenged business and restore it to a healthy, growing business with solid financial performance, which provided the opportunity for a transaction like the one we announced today.

M&A has played an important part of our turnaround and differentiation since I joined Rubicon Project – buying nToggle in mid 2017, followed by RTK last quarter and now a game-changing merger with Telaria, which transforms our long term strategic prospects. The enhancement of our revenue growth prospects, combined with the financial discipline we’ve demonstrated historically, makes me very excited about our company’s future.

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Before handing over to Mark, I want to highlight that outside of the obvious leadership position Telaria has in CTV, I’m very excited about the combined prospects in web video and adding a great team of people with great strategic relationships.

With that, I will hand things over to Mark, who will assume the role of President and Chief Operating Officer upon closing of the transaction, to share some of his thoughts about today’s deal.



Here the speech of Mark Zagorski, during today’s webcast:

This transaction is a great deal for both of our shareholders and is an exciting strategic opportunity for both companies. Together, we will have more technology resources, a broader geographic footprint and deeper financial assets to go after the opportunities that exist in digital advertising.

This merger allows us to accelerate our growth, while providing additional resources to increase investment and continue to scale our industry-leading CTV technology.

We are two category leaders combining strengths to form the largest independent sell side advertising platform. Telaria is a proven leader in CTV.

We have led innovation in the space which has resulted in us partnering with the most premium CTV publishers around the globe. Rubicon Project brings their technical expertise in high speed, high-volume transactions across the entire digital advertising ecosystem. The powerful suite of technology assets that will result from the combined entity will enable us to further broaden and deepen our relationships with publishers, create additional differentiation from our industry peers and help both companies grow share as an independent, transparent and unconflicted alternative to the walled gardens.

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As more consumers cut the cord, more CTV content becomes ad-supported and more CTV publishers embrace programmatic technology, our prospects for continued growth are strong.

I’m very excited to add the capabilities that Rubicon Project brings to our combination. Our go to market approach now includes all formats to serve publisher and buyer needs across all platforms. A great example of where we have opportunities to leverage a broader set of solutions is in the APAC region where Telaria has traditionally had a strong CTV and video position. We will now have the ability to offer a complete set of solutions to complement our relationships in that market and others around the globe.

Before I hand the call over to David Day, I would also like to add that we are really excited about bringing the complementary cultures together into one unified force. Both companies have been pioneers in their respective spaces and embody the true spirit of the open internet. Bringing them together will provide a formidable alternative to the market and provide benefits to buyers, sellers and consumers of digital advertising, while delivering bottom line results and helping to enhance shareholder value.

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How To Combine PR and Content Marketing Superpowers To Achieve Business Goals

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A figure pulls open a dress shirt to reveal the term PR on a Superman-like costume, reflecting the superpower resulting from combining content and PR.

A transformative shift is happening, and it’s not AI.

The aisle between public relations and content marketing is rapidly narrowing. If you’re smart about the convergence, you can forever enhance your brand’s storytelling.

The goals and roles of content marketing and PR overlap more and more. The job descriptions look awfully similar. Shrinking budgets and a shrewd eye for efficiency mean you and your PR pals could face the chopping block if you don’t streamline operations and deliver on the company’s goals (because marketing communications is always first to be axed, right?).

Yikes. Let’s take a big, deep breath. This is not a threat. It’s an opportunity.

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Reach across the aisle to PR and streamline content creation, improve distribution strategies, and get back to the heart of what you both are meant to do: Build strong relationships and tell impactful stories.

So, before you panic-post that open-to-work banner on LinkedIn, consider these tips from content marketing, PR, and journalism pros who’ve figured out how to thrive in an increasingly narrowing content ecosystem.

1. See journalists as your audience

Savvy pros know the ability to tell an impactful story — and support it with publish-ready collateral — grounds successful media relationships. And as a content marketer, your skills in storytelling and connecting with audiences, including journalists, naturally support your PR pals’ media outreach.

Strategic storytelling creates content focused on what the audience needs and wants. Sharing content on your blog or social media builds relationships with journalists who source those channels for story ideas, event updates, and subject matter experts.

“Embedding PR strategies in your content marketing pieces informs your audience and can easily be picked up by media,” says Alex Sanchez, chief experience officer at BeWell, New Mexico’s Health Insurance Marketplace. “We have seen reporters do this many times, pulling stories from our blogs and putting them in the nightly news — most of the time without even reaching out to us.”

Acacia James, weekend producer/morning associate producer at WTOP radio in Washington, D.C., says blogs and social media posts are helpful to her work. “If I see a story idea, and I see that they’re willing to share information, it’s easier to contact them — and we can also backlink their content. It’s huge for us to be able to use every avenue.” 

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Kirby Winn, manager of PR at ImpactLife, says reporters and assignment editors are key consumers of their content. “And I don’t mean a news release that just hit their inbox. They’re going to our blog and consuming our stories, just like any other audience member,” he says. “Our organization has put more focus into content marketing in the past few years — it supports a media pitch so well and highlights the stories we have to tell.”

Storytelling attracts earned media that might not pick up the generic news topic. “It’s one thing to pitch a general story about how we help consumers sign up for low-cost health insurance,” Alex says. “Now, imagine a single mom who just got a plan after years of thinking it was too expensive. She had a terrible car accident, and the $60,000 ER bill that would have ruined her financially was covered. Now that’s a story journalists will want to cover, and that will be relatable to their audience and ours.” 

2. Learn the media outlet’s audience

Seventy-three percent of reporters say one-fourth or less of the stories pitched are relevant to their audiences, according to Cision’s 2023 State of the Media Report (registration required).

PR pros are known for building relationships with journalists, while content marketers thrive in building communities around content. Merge these best practices to build desirable content that works for your target audience and the media’s audiences simultaneously.

WTOP’s Acacia James says sources who show they’re ready to share helpful, relevant content often win pitches for coverage. “In radio, we do a lot of research on who is listening to us, and we’re focused on a prototype called ‘Mike and Jen’ — normal, everyday people in Generation X … So when we get press releases and pitches, we ask, ‘How interested will Mike and Jen be in this story?’” 

3. Deliver the full content package (and make journalists’ jobs easier)

Cranking out content to their media outlet’s standards has never been tougher for journalists. Newsrooms are significantly understaffed, and anything you can do to make their lives easier will be appreciated and potentially rewarded with coverage. Content marketers are built to think about all the elements to tell the story through multiple mediums and channels.

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“Today’s content marketing pretty much provides a package to the media outlet,” says So Young Pak, director of media relations at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. “PR is doing a lot of storytelling work in advance of media publication. We (and content marketing) work together to provide the elements to go with each story — photos, subject matter experts, patients, videos, and data points, if needed.”   

At WTOP, the successful content package includes audio. “As a radio station, we are focused on high-quality sound,” Acacia James says. “Savvy sources know to record and send us voice memos, and then we pull cuts from the audio … You will naturally want to do someone a favor if they did you one — like providing helpful soundbites, audio, and newsworthy stories.”  

While production value matters to some media, you shouldn’t stress about it. “In the past decade, how we work with reporters has changed. Back in the day, if they couldn’t be there in person, they weren’t going to interview your expert,” says Jason Carlton, an accredited PR professional and manager of marketing and communications at Intermountain Health. “During COVID, we had to switch to virtual interviewing. Now, many journalists are OK with running a Teams or Zoom interview they’ve done with an expert on the news.”

BeWell’s Alex Sanchez agrees. “I’ve heard old school PR folks cringe at the idea of putting up a Zoom video instead of getting traditional video interviews. It doesn’t really matter to consumers. Focus on the story, on the timeliness, and the relevance. Consumers want authenticity, not super stylized, stiff content.”

4. Unite great minds to maximize efficiency

Everyone needs to set aside the debate about which team — PR or content marketing — gets credit for the resulting media coverage.

At MedStar Washington Hospital Center, So Young and colleagues adopt a collaborative mindset on multichannel stories. “We can get the interview and gather information for all the different pieces — blog, audio, video, press release, internal newsletter, or magazine. That way, we’re not trying to figure things out individually, and the subject matter experts only have to have that conversation once,” she says.

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Regular, cross-team meetings are essential to understand the best channels for reaching key audiences, including the media. A story that began life as a press release might reap SEO and earned media gold if it’s strategized as a blog, video, and media pitch.

“At Intermountain Health, we have individual teams for media relations, marketing, social media, and hospital communications. That setup works well because it allows us to bring in the people who are the given experts in those areas,” says Intermountain’s Jason Carlton. “Together, we decide if a story is best for the blog, a media pitch, or a mix of channels — that way, we avoid duplicating work and the risk of diluting the story’s impact.”

5. Measure what matters

Cutting through the noise to earn media mentions requires keen attention to metrics. Since content marketing and PR metrics overlap, synthesizing the data in your team meetings can save time while streamlining your storytelling efforts.

“For content marketers, using analytical tools such as GA4 can help measure the effectiveness of their content campaigns and landing pages to determine meaningful KPIs such as organic traffic, keyword rankings, lead generation, and conversion rates,” says John Martino, director of digital marketing for Visiting Angels. “PR teams can use media coverage and social interactions to assess user engagement and brand awareness. A unified and omnichannel approach can help both teams demonstrate their value in enhancing brand visibility, engagement, and overall business success.”

To track your shared goals, launch a shared dashboard that helps tell the combined “story of your stories” to internal and executive teams. Among the metrics to monitor:

  • Page views: Obviously, this queen of metrics continues to be important across PR and content marketing. Take your analysis to the next level by evaluating which niche audiences are contributing to these views to further hone your storytelling targets, including media outlets.
  • Earned media mentions: Through a media tracker service or good old Google Alerts, you can tally the echo of your content marketing and PR. Look at your site’s referral traffic report to identify media outlets that send traffic to your blog or other web pages.
  • Organic search queries: Dive into your analytics platform to surface organic search queries that lead to visitors. Build from those questions to develop stories that further resonate with your audience and your targeted media.
  • On-page actions: When visitors show up on your content, what are they doing? What do they click? Where do they go next? Building next-step pathways is your bread and butter in content marketing — and PR can use them as a natural pipeline for media to pick up more stories, angles, and quotes.

But perhaps the biggest metric to track is team satisfaction. Who on the collaborative team had the most fun writing blogs, producing videos, or calling the news stations? Lean into the natural skills and passions of your team members to distribute work properly, maximize the team output, and improve relationships with the media, your audience, and internal teams.

“It’s really trying to understand the problem to solve — the needle to move — and determining a plan that will help them achieve their goal,” Jason says. “If you don’t have those measurable objectives, you’re not going to know whether you made a difference.”

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Don’t fear the merger

Whether you deliberately work together or not, content marketing and public relations are tied together. ImpactLife’s Kirby Winn explains, “As soon as we begin to talk about (ourselves) to a reporter who doesn’t know us, they are certainly going to check out our stories.”

But consciously uniting PR and content marketing will ease the challenges you both face. Working together allows you to save time, eliminate duplicate work, and gain free time to tell more stories and drive them into impactful media placements.

Register to attend Content Marketing World in San Diego. Use the code BLOG100 to save $100. Can’t attend in person this year? Check out the Digital Pass for access to on-demand session recordings from the live event through the end of the year.

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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

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Trends in Content Localization – Moz

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Trends in Content Localization - Moz

Multinational fast food chains are one of the best-known examples of recognizing that product menus may sometimes have to change significantly to serve distinct audiences. The above video is just a short run-through of the same business selling smokehouse burgers, kofta, paneer, and rice bowls in an effort to appeal to people in a variety of places. I can’t personally judge the validity of these representations, but what I can see is that, in such cases, you don’t merely localize your content but the products on which your content is founded.

Sometimes, even the branding of businesses is different around the world; what we call Burger King in America is Hungry Jack’s in Australia, Lays potato chips here are Sabritas in Mexico, and DiGiorno frozen pizza is familiar in the US, but Canada knows it as Delissio.

Tales of product tailoring failures often become famous, likely because some of them may seem humorous from a distance, but cultural sensitivity should always be taken seriously. If a brand you are marketing is on its way to becoming a large global seller, the best insurance against reputation damage and revenue loss as a result of cultural insensitivity is to employ regional and cultural experts whose first-hand and lived experiences can steward the organization in acting with awareness and respect.

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How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

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How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

AI and startups? It just makes sense.

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