The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) saw some celebrity action today when engage:BDR, a Los Angeles-based digital advertising company led by a former MySpace executive, commenced trading under the ticker code “EN1”.
The listing follows a successful offer which closed heavily oversubscribed and raised the maximum of AUD$10 million. The company has an implied market capitalisation of AUD$50 million based on the $0.20 share price
Co-founder and Executive Chairman of engage:BDR Ted Dhanik was in Sydney for the listing ceremony. Dhanik has made headlines for his role in the rise of MySpace and creation of engage:BDR and was recently dating a well-known Hollywood actress.
Ted Dhanik
Dhanik was Head of Strategic Marketing at MySpace as the site made its journey to becoming the most visited website in the world. There, he worked closely founder of MySpace Tom Anderson, who was everyone’s first friend on MySpace and now sits on the Board of engage:BDR.
Towards the end of his time at MySpace, Dhanik began looking for more efficient and cost effective ways for MySpace to handle its ad inventory and engage:BDR was born.
engage:BDR’s core business is “programmatic advertising”, which is an automated system that purchases internet and video and display advertising inventory from publishers and then sells it for display on digital devices including mobile, desktop and smart TVs.
Since its inception in 2009, engage:BDR has been ranked as high as first in comScore’s US Display Ad ratings and ninth in comScore’s US Video Ad Panel rankings.
engage:BDR currently conducts approximately 30-40 billion dynamic ad auctions each day. The company’s cumulative revenue is AUD$170 million with compound annual growth rate of 48% since 2009 and 2016 revenue exceeding AUD$21.8 million.
engage:BDR has also branched out into the growing digital influencer industry with the release of IconicReach, the world’s first and only self-serve Instagram influencer marketing platform. It allows brands to upload campaign information, browse influencer profiles and then select suitable influencers for their campaigns.
With millennials and Gen Zers becoming increasing resistant to traditional forms of advertising, the digital influencer industry has grown substantially in recent years. According to research by eMarketer, 48% of marketers planned to increase their influencer budgets this year and over $570 million was spent on Instagram influencer campaigns alone in 2016.
The capital raised by engage:BDR will be used to support the company’s strategy which involves increasing the current rate of client-platform integrations and making value accretive and strategic acquisitions in Australia, Asia and the U.S.
“The successful completion of this offer ensures we will be able to progress our global strategy and gives Australian investors and chance to be exposed to the exciting U.S digital advertising and influencer marketing space,” said Dhanik.
“We look forward to keeping shareholders updated on the Company’s milestones and encourage everyone to follow us on our website and via our social channels.”