TSM tries his hardest to just let stuff go, accept things as they are vs. how he would like them to be, and to understand that the world is unjust and business can be ruthless and devoid of conscience. But this week has got his hackles up in a way that they haven’t been raised in some time. And what could possibly have got him so riled? Well, Ryan Reynolds, of course. The Canadian actor that every American housewife secretly (or not so secretly) wants to bang, co-owner of a UK professional Premier League team, founder of a competitive U.S. wireless carrier, and also an equity owner of MNTN, a company that’s built a fortune off bold advertising claims that don’t hold up under scrutiny. This highly questionable company is the Rosemary’s Baby of a third-rate Atlanta agency called Steelhouse and Mr. Reynolds’s ‘Maximum Effort’ creative agency, raising serious ethical concerns in the process. If you’ve never heard ‘Maximum Effort’ mentioned in the pages of AdAge, it’s because it really did very little before the creation of the obviously cynical financial vehicle that is MNTN. Think Elon Musk wealth with a better smile and less likely to want you fired or dead.
MNTN was early to the CTV advertising gold rush and put an interesting twist on the already high expectations for CTV by insinuating that they, and only they, had the magic elixir to retarget people with sloppy online display ads who had been exposed to their CTV ads. Let’s be super clear about this: They aren’t the only ones who can do audience retargeting from CTV, and the way they are doing it is substantially flawed and clearly unethical, despite their assertions. However, the Reynolds brand attracted plenty of swooning agencies and their clients’ money, who, to be generous, neither seem to actually understand the mechanics of how digital advertising works.
Last week, MNTN indicated its interest in sharing its bounty with everyday retail investors by going public, as explained in the S1 document they have just filed. (Nice market timing there, fellas; I can see why you’re so good at everything you do.) So, just to repeat: they want to be the darling of the AdTech finance ball and get theirs before the veil can be pierced on their business practices. Ari Poparo had an excellent analysis of the MNTN proposition, which TSM is pleased to link to here. My role as TSM is to put things into terms regular folk can understand, whether or not they know anything about streaming, advertising, or finance. So here goes:
TSM knows on an intimate level just how bad a proposition MNTN is to an advertiser because TSM was recently asked to review a media plan from an agency that included a sizable (multi-six-figure) spend in Q2 with MNTN. Because this agency bought the MNTN magic hook, line, and sinker, they had no problem reading off the ludicrous “we and only we” claims made by MNTN back to the brand client, literally verbatim. Again, the Reynolds effect. What this plan actually says is that more than 80% of the impressions the brand will receive are low-grade display ads, those distracting and unattractive ads that show up on web pages or, even worse, litter what little mobile app screen real estate we have on our phones. And with a firm handshake and a wink, they are “giving” the brand some bonus inventory for the low, low price of just about a $20 CPM. And for those who don’t want to do the math, this is highway robbery, or better yet, it’s the Donner Party of media deals: someone is getting eaten alive, and it ain’t Ryan.
If this dog has its day on Wall St., it may open up a deluge of other wannabe public adtech companies who also have dubious propositions for the streaming media advertisers, none of which is good news for the streaming ecosystem. Beware the “new and improved” TV format that has bells and whistles above, below, and next to the video ad. Beware the DSP who has taken on hundreds of millions of dollars of investment and has a burning need to repay that largess to the very impatient bankers behind them. Beware the foreign SSP arriving in the U.S. who have rolled up a mishmash of digital businesses suggesting some kind of weird “synergy” and slinging the term “retail media” to make themselves seem to be tomorrow’s great solution. But mostly, beware the grinning billionaire because he’s not grinning because he just did you a solid, he’s grinning because he’s putting one over on us plebes.
The bare naked truth about MNTN is that their special sauce is claiming credit for conversions that aren’t theirs to take, made possible through an opaque process of stuffing the pipeline with cookie IDs they magically match to IP addresses, and “voila”, the performance CTV company is born. This conversion hacking trick, coupled with the low-grade CTV and display inventory they foist on their buyers, makes for nice margins but poor actual results for advertisers. And to add just a bit more insult to this ridiculous MNTN investment proposition, apparently, the creative agency Mr. Reynolds contributed to this steaming pile of a company has now been excised, sold off before the IPO, and not included in the public offering. Yet, for some reason, Ryan remains the current Chief Creative Officer in the filing. This may be to ensure that he can retain and then cash out his stake in the venture once this puppy starts trading. TSM was thinking about what that stock symbol should be and finally arrived at BLST because digging into their nonsense had him screaming “BULLSHIT” at the top of his lungs.
Give the Deadpool guy his credit, he’s getting as far away from this sinking ship as fast as possible, and maybe he’ll even add to his swelling fortune. Some might call it a scam; at the very least, it’s a masterclass in marketing sleight of hand.
This Week’s Music: Stevie Ray Vaughan: Voodoo Chile
Here’s to SXSW and to keeping Austin weird.
[Give yourself the next 8 minutes with your eyes closed and your ears open. TSM can say he had the pleasure of seeing SRV perform live, and yes, it was life-affirming. ]
The views and opinions expressed by The Streaming Madman are entirely his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Streaming Wars or its affiliates.
