Techstars alums build self-serve ad buying platform to create a fair media marketplace for underserved, yet fast-growing, mid-sized brands in $250 billion US advertising landscape.
New York, US – March 26, 2024: Media Disco, the first advertising marketplace to harness the collective buying power of mid-market brands, today announced the launch of their self-serve ad buying platform. The new platform levels the playing field across the $250 billion US advertising landscape for small and medium-sized brands (SMBs), by democratizing access and leveraging group buying opportunities.
“There’s a huge imbalance in the media buying landscape, meaning not all advertisers are empowered to participate equally. Brands spending more than five million dollars in media each year only make up 22% of the market, yet they get the best buying opportunities. Small and medium-sized brands make up most of the market, but they’re finding themselves locked out,” said Media Disco Co-Founder and Techstars Alum James Allen. “We created Media Disco because we saw a new way for growing brands to leverage media as if they were much bigger brands. Media Disco addresses this big gap in the market by providing access to the best adtech, streamlining a complex media buying process and making it possible for brands to buy into media programs collectively to unlock better deals.”
The opportunity is sizeable: in the US alone, there are more than 32 million active small businesses and 75% use at least two marketing channels to promote products and services, with nearly 70% of SMB owners planning to increase online advertising in the next two years.
Additionally, these brands have an average growth rate of 12.4%, compared to the 5.2% growth rate of Fortune 500 brands. Media Disco recognizes the underserved potential of these businesses and has created a way to easily launch deeper, more impactful campaigns.
Media Disco is enabling a more cost-effective and scalable approach to media by pre-negotiating rates with a curated set of media partners to ensure the best deal across OTT, mobile, digital display, digital video, digital audio, rich media, out-of-home, digital-out-of-home, gaming, experiential, shoppable, contextual, and hyper-local. Media Disco launched with key partners including Aki, Azerion, LoopMe, Nativo, Sabio and more, with others continuing to join the platform.
“Marketers of small and medium-sized businesses often find themselves limited by current ad buying options, which restricts campaigns to only a fraction of available technology, targeting, and channels,” said Media Disco Co-Founder and Techstars Alum, Joey Medici. “Media Disco serves as the bridge between self-service tools and expert agencies, filling a crucial gap in the industry. We’ve created a marketplace that enables every advertiser, including smaller agencies, to launch world-class advertising campaigns across emerging and foundational media formats in a streamlined manner.”
Concepted in the 2023 Techstars NYC startup accelerator program, Media Disco stems from Allen and Medici’s vision for a democratized advertising landscape. With two decades of combined media experience, Allen and Medici have worked for some of the world’s largest media clients including Microsoft, Proctor and Gamble, Mastercard, Reebok, Discover Card, The Home Depot, and more. The duo has brought this expertise to Media Disco to bring big-brand opportunities to the broader advertising market.
The marketplace is now open to new customers on both the buy and sell side. Media platforms can engage with Media Disco by showcasing their upcoming and available media. SMBs and ad buyers can begin browsing these campaigns for opportunities that match their unique goals and budgets.
To learn more about Media Disco, please visit: mediadisco.io
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Notes to Editors:
About Media Disco:
Media Disco is the advertising industry’s first marketplace that leverages the collective buying power of mid-market brands. The self-serve platform appeals to both the buy and sell sides by enabling the vast market of growing brands to easily buy and launch campaigns with the industry’s leading media solutions.
Media Disco originated as part of the 2023 Techstars startup accelerator program and officially launched in 2024 under the direction of media experts James Allen and Joey Medici.
Media Requests: Sarah Jackson, Sundaze PR , sarah@sundazepr.com
