The player: Anupam Gupta, CEO of Mixpo
The play: Mixpo is an online video advertising company that helps small and medium-sized businesses turn their television commercials into interactive Web spots.
The pitch: Mixpo is angling to help local advertisers take their video ads online. With Mixpo’s technology, advertisers can repurpose their TV spots for the Web and add interactivity to them, Mr. Gupta said. “Let’s say you are an auto dealer and you have a special promotion going on and it’s a $299 lease special. We take the TV spot and add promotional overlays such as ‘contact us’ and ‘learn about our finance special’ or ‘schedule a test drive,’” he said. That sort of interactivity can yield information on leads, click-through rates and effectiveness of the ads, he said.
In the mix: Late last month, Mixpo inked a deal with Comcast Spotlight to turn its advertisers’ on-air commercials into online video units. Under the deal, those ads will run on Comcast.net, a portal that draws more than 14.6 million users per month, or Comcast-owned automotive site Vehix.com. For now, most clients are repurposing their 30-second TV spots for the Web, but Mixpo also offers an online studio for advertisers to craft new creative, Mr. Gupta said. Mixpo doesn’t sell directly to clients, but works with partners instead such as Comcast and other MixPo clients including ActiveRain, an online community of more than 100,000 real estate professionals, Bay Area radio station site KGORadio.com, and ITZ Publishing, an online consultant for newspapers. Mr. Gupta is currently in talks with newspapers and local television firms.
The backstory: Mixpo was founded in 2006 and Mr. Gupta joined shortly afterward. Mixpo spent two years developing the technology and launched the service in April.
The money guys: Mixpo raised $6.5 million in venture funding in a round led by Madrona Venture Group in Seattle. Mixpo makes money via a share of revenue generated from the ads.
The pros: Local media research firm Borrell Associates said streaming audio and video ads currently account for 19% of local online revenue and will rise to 59% in 2013.
The cons: The biggest challenge is landing customers in a tough economic climate.
Background: Mr. Gupta was born in Hungary and raised in India. He earned a master’s in business administration at Cornell. Before Mixpo, he spent eight years as a senior business leader in Microsoft’s online services group. He lives in the Seattle area with his wife and two children.
Who knew? Mr. Gupta said what surprises people most about him is that he was born in Eastern Europe.