By the end of 2023, Semafor's first full calendar year, the company's co-founder and CEO Justin Smith told Digiday it had achieved two months of profit. This is a remarkable feat for a media startup that debuted in October 2022, just as the recession was beginning. advertising market.
A quarter later, Rachel Oppenheim, CRO at Semafor, took to the stage last week at the Digiday Publishing Summit in Vail, Colorado, to discuss how her sales team sold 30 advertising clients, including Microsoft, in its first year. He talked about whether he was able to add him to the roster. The company launched her 10 advertisers, including Genesis and Verizon, to achieve several months of revenue. Oppenheim would not discuss her financial terms.
Oppenheim said the goal she instilled in her team was to “maintain a lot of control and momentum in the sales and go-to-market process, rather than getting caught up in the RFP vortex.” And in pitching to these clients, her team not only connects that key high-profile moment, but also connects leadership (her 20% of Semafor's audience is executives) and core products (events and She said she is focusing on selling newsletters. Known worldwide leadership calendar.
One example Oppenheim pointed to is Semaphore's biggest event to date, the World Economic Summit, which will coincide with the IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington, D.C., later this month. There is a gap in events held on the sidelines of one of the largest global financial gatherings in the country, providing an opportunity for Semaphore's events and sales teams to set up editorial content and sponsorship opportunities. she said.
“It's basically the same group as Davos.” [World Economic Forum]'' Oppenheim said, adding that BCG, Bank of America and Amazon have signed on as event sponsors for this year's summit, with BCG returning for a second year of the event.
Relying on this “predictable” global leadership event calendar, clients are becoming more willing to plan further ahead and think long-term about brand campaigns, she said. Therefore, “we were able to plan things out. [with] The lead time is longer,” Oppenheim said.
Operating with a modest team of about 65 employees, Oppenheim doubled the size of his events team to keep up with the level of interest and growth in his events business, and now the company's total revenue increases. He said that it accounts for about 50% of the total. He did not provide an exact breakdown of his income.
Additionally, she pointed out that custom content offers with advertisers should not come from RFP responses, but should be created through direct conversations with clients and agencies. One such deal is with Microsoft, which began in February, under which Semafor will use his OpenAI (owned by Microsoft) generative AI technology to create latest news feeds and analytics with Microsoft's own branding. We created a platform, Signals.
“On the launch of Signals…the press coverage, the efforts, and the awareness of the project was very high. [widespread it] We used up the funding we originally needed,” Oppenheim said.
So while things were slow in 2023, with communications from brands and agencies saying they were pausing major investments or not committing to new partnerships due to market forces, in 2023 There was a “recalibration” during the first few months of the year, Oppenheim said. And even at the beginning of Semafor's second year, she said, she's optimistic that this sales strategy holds true: “I'm seeing a lot of tailwinds.”
