MNTN: Climbing the Advertising Mountain

I want to talk about how MNTN is disrupting standard marketing by building a brand presence and using spaces that are more effective for performance marketing than traditional linear advertising.

Disruptive innovation: Is when you create a product that is viewed as inferior to the market leader’s product.  The product is ignored until you take up more of the market share and are able to compete with higher ticket items.

I don’t know if MNTN’s approach necessarily fits this definition, but they are innovating and taking center stage when it comes to marketing and using CTV to redefine what it means to advertise on TV.  

Connected TV (CTV) VS Linear TV

Connected TV is a device connected to your television that supports streaming services like

Smart tvs, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire and gaming consoles like Playstation and Xbox.  These devices use OTT (Over the Top) apps that allow you to use services like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime among many other services.

In contrast linear TV is regular TV.  Programs come on at specific time, date and channel.  Shows only air when they are programmed and on specific channels.  This creates a limited time period and space for advertisements which creates a lot of competition around popular shows and time slots.

According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) ad spending is expected to grow 14.4% on CTV and decline by 6.3% on linear tv.  CTV and audience fragmentation is leading to the decline in traditional tv advertising.  As viewers leave traditional tv advertisers are following them to CTV.   CTV is also more attractive to advertisers due to the fact that ad blockers are becoming more pronounced on (iptv), your computer.

What Is Mountain?

MNTN builds software for advertising, that gives brands the ability to choose which metrics they are targeting and puts the control into advertiser hands.  This is partially due to making use of the newer CTV platforms, but also crushing norms in the industry.  This has allowed many advertisers that never attempted TV before to enter onto the screen.  Without huge upfronts and long term contracts it makes TV advertising easier than ever.  Even Ryan Reynolds, who merged his advertising company Maximum Effort with MNTN in June of 2021, said having to plan an ad six months in advance is a huge pain point, in this Forbes article.

MNTN was founded by Mark Douglas who is also the President and CEO of the company.  It was originally branded as SteelHouse and raised capital from various investment firms after acquiring Maximum Effort.

They also acquired another company QuickFrame, an original video creation platform with thousands of creators that create video spots for many clients across twenty categories. 

How is MNTN Shaking Up the Industry?

MNTN is providing a more transparent and efficient way for brands to advertise on CTV.  It allows them to target ads to specific demographics and tune for specific metrics, such as conversions, reach, clicks ect. You can also pull in your existing customers and do planned retargeting across multiple platforms.  MNTN has a variety of measurement tools that allow you to track performance and optimize results in real time, while tracking cross-platform.  If they move from the show they are watching to their phone, you can track that metric.  This approach along with the ability to choose when, how and who you advertise to is quickly making MNTN a key player in CTV advertising.   It’s like having the reach of TV, but the metrics and tracking of Google or Meta.

Traditional advertising is limited to specific publishers, and has less precise targeting.  It doesn’t provide the data about ad performance with any certainty; it has long term contracts and is typically more expensive.

MNTN is also able to leverage influencer marketing from their Chief Creative officer Ryan Reynolds, which can have major impacts on reach while reducing their own cost as they grow the platform.  This also helps build trust and increase brand awareness.  It is known to increase engagement and return on investment (ROI).

Who are MNTN’s Direct Competitors?

Other CTV ad platforms are direct competitors with MNTN, such as the actual device manufacturers.  There are also competing ad platform companies like StackAdapt, Smartly.io, and MediaOcean that provide CTV customization and other similar features to MNTN.  Depending on your metrics and needs any of these companies could prove to be a good fit for an advertiser.  There is also Celtra that provides custom solutions for some of the world’s largest brands and I’m sure they would be in a position to compete as well. There are several other competitors that could be a viable source of CTV advertising and media buying unfortunately I am not covering all of them today.

Even with the competitors MNTN has established a brand presence and is dominating when it comes to mere exposure.

What Can We Expect From MNTN in the future?

We can expect MNTN to Grow in the years to come as they are well positioned to take advantage of the growth in CTV advertising.  MNTN is also investing in new technologies, like machine learning and AI to make ad targeting more effective.  This will make their platform even more attractive for brands that know their audience and for those trying to find it. 

AI tools are projected to take a lot of the cost and time out of how creatives are delivered according to Matt Collins, director of Product Marketing at MNTN in this webinar.

Tim Edmundson, Director of Content Marketing and Research at MNTN addresses advertisers that feel like they are too late to enter into CTV advertising and feel that the market is already saturated in this interview.  He assures us that the market is still in infancy and that its not hard to learn or get started. 

MNTN’s Disruptive Journey

MNTN is an emerging trailblazer in the advertising industry fearlessly climbing the advertising mountain with its disruptive approach and innovative strategies.  By harnessing the power of CTV and OTT advertising, MNTN has redefined the rules of marketing, leaving traditional linear advertising in its wake.

Recognizing the shifting landscape MNTN seized the opportunity to revolutionize advertising through their advanced software.  This empowers brands to take control of their campaigns and choose their desired metrics and avatars with precision and retarget with the same accuracy.  This transparency and efficiency have attracted advertisers who previously hesitated to venture into TV advertising.

MNTN’s relentless pursuit of excellence is evident in their commitment to provide real-time data, measurement tools and cross-platform tracking.  This allows campaign optimizations that brands can use to make real-time adjustments based on performance.  In the ever-evolving advertising landscape MNTN has become a force to be reckoned with, climbing with determination and a relentless pursuit of success.

 

Best,

 

Chris

 

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