ViralGains is a advertising platform that enables brands to discover, understand and nurture new and returning customers by leveraging zero-party data via interactive ads, surveys, and audience building technology to support brand-defined strategies. Pulse 2.0 interviewed ViralGains Chairman and CEO Tod Loofbourrow to learn more about the company.
Tod Loofbourrow’s Background
What is Loofbourrow’s background? Loofbourrow said:
“I am the Chairman and CEO of ViralGains, an advertising platform that helps brands connect with customers by leveraging the power of zero-party data in ads. I’m a serial entrepreneur, having served as President of iRobot, where I helped grow market capitalization to $1B, was the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Authoria (now Peoplefluent), and CEO of artificial intelligence consulting firm Foundation Technologies.”
“Since 2011, I’ve served as Entrepreneur in Residence at the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy, where I judge the data science competition. I am the author or editor of seven books — including a bestseller on computer science and robotics written at the age of 16, and an anthology book series on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.”
“I was educated at Harvard and Oxford Universities and taught graduate courses on Internet Commerce and Artificial Intelligence at Harvard University for seven years. I’ve lectured at Stanford, MIT Sloan School, Harvard Business School, Babson College, and others.”
Formation Of ViralGains
How did the idea for the company come together? Loofbourrow shared:
“President, COO and Co-founder Dan Levin is an expert in advertising and media. I am an expert in artificial intelligence and building companies. We came together to reinvent digital advertising with a focus on interactivity and AI.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for the company so far? Loofbourrow reflected:
“The best thing about ViralGains is the teamwork to knock it out of the park for our customers. I love it when our teams find creative ways to blow our customers away with the value we deliver.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Loofbourrow explained:
“At our core, we are an interactive advertising platform that enables both brands and agencies to discover, understand, and nurture customers by leveraging the power of zero-party data (data intentionally provided by the consumer) in ads through creative interactivity and audience-building AI technology.”
“Our ViralGains Odyssey™ platform allows advertisers to create personalized experiences within their digital ads by incorporating interactive elements like hotspots or surveys. This creates a space where consumers can tailor their own ad experiences and allows them to effortlessly navigate a brand’s products, services, and content in the context best suited to their own preferences and needs.”
“Additionally, our proprietary AI technology, VoiceAlike, predicts survey responses for individuals who are exposed to video and/or display campaigns, turning brand ad impressions into actionable cookie-less audiences.”
Challenges Faced
What challenges has Loofbourrow faced in building the company? Loofbourrow acknowledged:
“Media is undergoing a major transformation and advertisers are slow to change after years of using TV and Facebook and other traditional approaches. Consumers want engaging interactive authentic experiences and maverick brands deliver them, but getting mainstream adoption takes time.”
Evolution Of ViralGains’ Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Loofbourrow noted:
“We continue to refine and develop the best AI models in the industry and are seven years into that refinement and optimization.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Loofbourrow cited:
“The most important milestones are customer milestones – we have now served 112 of the Fortune 500 and 36 of the Fortune 100.”
Customer Success Stories
After asking Loofbourrow about customer success stories, he highlighted:
“We recently partnered with a B2B software brand to attract prospective users and decision-makers via their digital ad campaigns. We helped them create interactive online video ads to convey their software’s unique benefits and display ads to drive site traffic.”
“Upon users’ completion of the video ad, they were served a ViralGains’ Likert Survey to gauge viewers’ perception of the brand. We then used our proprietary VoiceAlike AI to predict responses for the video ad viewers who saw the survey but didn’t answer and sequentially messaged them with display ads. This audience ended up driving a 25% higher click-through rate and 60% more efficient cost per engaged session than display ads they ran on the Google Display Network.”
Funding
When asking Loofbourrow about the company’s funding and revenue information, he revealed:
“We have raised $23 million in equity and are at a run rate between $20 million and $50 million in annualized recurring revenue.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? Loofbourrow assessed: “$874 billion in global spend.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Loofbourrow affirmed:
“ViralGains turns advertising into a two-way interactive medium, providing privacy-compliant engagement and zero-party data from consumers. Then, we use AI to create massive scale.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future company goals? Loofbourrow concluded:
“To be the best and largest player in zero-party data in advertising, transforming the advertising landscape to be more authentic, more privacy-oriented, and more effective.”
