Familiar Name Becoming a New Media Outlet
When you think about the explosion of media outlets – from advertising, broadcasting, news, print, digital to movies – it does become challenging to know when and where to advertise. (Shameless plug alert: That’s why you need an independent, expert media team like AMPERAGE Marketing & Fundraising to do your media planning and buying.) With that said, here are some of the world’s top media companies.
- Alphabet (Google)
- Netflix
- Disney (Disney+, ABC, ESPN)
- Comcast (Direct TV and cable)
- AT&T (HBO, Time Warner, CNN and Turner)
- Charter Communications (Time Warner Cable)
Digital is disrupting everything, and here comes another disruption.
It seems like everyone is selling digital advertising these days, from local TV reps to Yellow Pages vendors. Yet, a new player is entering the field, which will change the game for all. The name is Walmart. And with its retail power and big data, it is sure to be a significant player in the digital media world.
For some, offering access to more content is the name of the digital media game. We all have enhanced accessibility to media through the internet and growing media outlets. And, the post-cookie internet will look different than today, but Walmart is changing the playing field with complex, big data instead of cookies.
Walmart’s advertising and media business is called Walmart Connect. Its ad platform, Walmart DSP (demand-side platform), will be an automated advertising exchange using Trade Desk as a partner.
The apparent plan is for Walmart to compete with Amazon and Target (also developing media services). Yet Walmart Connect will be one more outlet to research, consider and buy. The difference will be that Walmart, Amazon and Target will have data collected from shoppers who visit their websites and shop in their stores. Big data disrupts again. But don’t worry; our team will be on it.
Mark Mathis III is chief creative & strategy officer, partner and cofounder of AMPERAGE Marketing & Fundraising.
Mark Mathis
Mark wrote his first direct-mail fundraising letter in 1981 for the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. The effort raised a few million dollars in undiscovered wills and legacy gifts. From that day forward Mark discovered a love of the big idea that moves the needle.
After 12 years at KWWL, Mark became a business owner as a co-founder of ME&V — rebranded as AMPERAGE in 2015. After 25 years of leading creative teams in video production, graphic design, PR, writing and web development, Mark transitioned out of ownership in 2021. Today he serves in an employee role as special projects consultant.
He is creatively ambidextrous — son of an artist and engineer — and famous for distilling complex ideas down to a few words and a few visuals. Mark is a writer. When he found that many nonprofits struggled with complex branding puzzles, he wrote the book, “NonProfit-NonMarketing .” He also wrote a novel called “Reenactment.”
Mark is an active blogger OneMinuteMarketer® with nearly 1,000 readers each week on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. One of his most popular YouTube videos is on “How to Look Good on Zoom.”
One of Mark’s fondest business memories was being named to INC 500 two times and attending the INC 500 conference with other winners. Mark is considered by some a Civil War expert (and that explains his novel). Mark also served as an adjunct professor in the business and in the communications departments at Wartburg College.
Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa and is currently vice president of the University of Iowa Journalism and Mass Communications Advisory Board.
Mark is married to state Sen. Liz Mathis, and the two love to travel, even when it means being trapped by a volcano in the Czech Republic for three weeks.