Brkthru

There's nothing more rewarding than when a happy client shares their feelings. Thanks Andrew Mendez-Spera, MS CTA. We're honored to be a partner of Tipsy Social! https://lnkd.in/eeBzBv6u

View our latest podcast “30 minutes w/Brkthru: The Hot 2024 Political Season” to review how this year’s record spend will impact advertising campaigns. Predicted to top $12.32 BILLION, this avalanche of money will lead to tightening inventories, increasing rates, bumped schedules – and will affect all advertisers, agencies and marketers. Two digital media experts from Brkthru, Director of Sales Development Matt Zornes and Strategy Manager Morgan Stroyeck, share their observations, insights and a few recommendations for how digital media can get you and your campaigns through the next few months. https://lnkd.in/e9CdiQwx

Brkthru Summer Client Success Offsite in Detroit! Nearly 50 Brkthru team members from client success, sales development, business development, marketing and sales leadership met in Detroit last week for an informative and energetic Summer Client Success Offsite. On the agenda were an update on digital platforms, sharing client success stories, the state of streaming video, marketing support and of course, some fun social time to connect with colleagues from across the country. The two-day meeting was held at Brkthru’s recently opened 7,000-square foot Detroit Training Center in Southfield, MI. The facility was designed as the hub for all Brkthru department offsites and our ongoing Brkthru U training program for new employees, and as home to our business development and IT teams. Most importantly during the Client Success Offsite, the team focused on a continued commitment to the exceptional level of service we at Brkthru provide to our clients.    If this type of hands-on collaboration with other sales and business development pros piques your interest, swing on over to our Careers page to check out the open positions: https://lnkd.in/gaBappWZ

Want to reach the LGBTQ+ market and make your Pride month more genuine? Hear from two well-known and respected leaders.

Advertisers: Be Authentically Proud Year-Round How can you better reach the LGBTQ+ market during Pride and every month, and be even more genuine and authentic? Hear from two well-known and respected leaders in media and LGBTQ market: Jeff Hastedt, Brkthru Co-Founder & Managing Director and Todd Evans, President & CEO, Rivendell Media discuss brands that have gotten it right, and a few that could do a better job. A few thoughts: ·      Show your brand’s support year-round. Don’t just change your logo to a multi-colored background for a month as an easy marketing ploy. ·      Make a charitable donation. Give to a relevant organization or good cause that helps to provide resources, supports or helps to the gay or LGBTQ community. ·      Avoid “rainbow washing.” And if your company makes a mistake, own up to it and apologize. ·      Foster an environment in your own company where everyone can be their authentic selves every day. Brands that acknowledge and respect LGBTQ+ demand will be ready to claim greater market share. If you are an advertisers or marketer interested in showing your support this Pride and every month, reach out to us Brkthru. We’ve successfully managed hundreds of digital advertising campaigns reaching the LGBTQ+ community. And, along with partners like Rivendell Media - with more than 40 years of experience representing 95% of LGBTQ media – we work with advertisers and agencies to reach LGBTQ community every day. https://lnkd.in/erS2fFT6

Brkthru On the Road: What’s Growing @ NLGS ‘24 Brkthru Director of Client Success Ben Coburn attended the 2024 National Lawn and Garden Show this week in St. Louis, meeting with retailers and manufacturers serving the $130-billion US lawn and garden category. At the three-day event were hundreds of buyers with multi-unit independent garden centers, farm and fleet stores, regional chains, department stores, wholesalers, distributors and e-commerce retailers. They came to see new products and services in garden tools and machinery, landscaping services and supplies, garden decor and accessories, pest control products and more. It’s an industry we know well - the average American spends $1,200 to $2,400 per year on lawn care and landscaping - with most of that happening during the crucial Spring-Summer growing season. Ben shared Brkthru’s experience using digital media tactics to reach homeowners, property owners and lawn and landscape professionals on behalf of retailers and servicing dealers, and the product manufacturers, distributors and wholesalers who get those products to market. Although we just marked the official start of Summer, the lawn & garden industry and Brkthru are already looking ahead to the 2025 growing season. If you are a lawn and garden advertiser, or agency serving clients in the category, we at Brkthru are eager to have a conversation. Reach us info@brkthru.com

Brkthru Media Team in the Motor City! The 48-member team of Brkthru media dynamos gathered at our Detroit Training Center this week for their summer department offsite. Theirs was the first department offsite at our recently opened 7,000-square foot facility in Southfield, MI. “This week, the Brkthru Media team got together for our annual department offsite,” said Brkthru Vice President of Media Tom Leone. “It’s always wonderful to meet in person, and this time it was at our brand-new Detroit Training Center.” During their meetings, the team emphasized the importance of thinking beyond the metrics by emphasizing tangible business results for our clients. By leveraging Brkthru's platform agnostic approach, collaboration across Search, Social and Programmatic, they can make an even greater impact to our client’s bottom line. “Of course, no offsite is complete without some fun on the water,” Leone continued. “On Thursday night, we set sail on the Detroit Princess for some food, drinks and a lot of laughs!”

Shut out of advertising in live sports? Brkthru gets you back in the game with streaming sports opportunities reaching millions of live sports viewers across the country. In our video podcast “30 Minutes w/Brkthru: Streaming Sports,” veteran industry pros talk about the disruption in regional sports networks, the non-network entities that outbid others for programming rights, escalating costs that shut local advertisers and agencies out of advertising in live sports, and how Brkthru has a unique solution of streaming digital properties. Click to this informative video podcast featuring Brkthru President Jonathan Mellinger (he/him) Mellinger and VP of Sales Development Nathan Foster: https://lnkd.in/eE5KZ8Nh

The CTV Landscape Looks Great, Especially for Free Ad-Supported TV By Morgan Stroyeck, Strategy Manager 40% of US adults report having increased their viewing time on free, ad-supported TV services (FASTs) in the past year, and now nearly two thirds of us watch free platforms, according to Aluma Insights. That’s great news for advertisers and agencies, and not-so-great news for subscription-based providers.   - 33% decreased their time watching subscription-based video-on-demand (SVOD) platforms. - 23% watched less broadcast and legacy cable/satellite TV. - 22% curtailed their viewing on virtual pay-TV streaming services such as YouTube TV Escalating subscription services will not only grow FAST audience sizes, but also increase time dedicated to them. FAST viewing cuts into subscription and transactional video services as well as traditional TV. This means FAST viewership is contributing significantly to ad spending growth on CTV.   The number of US residents who don’t pay for traditional TV officially surpassed those who do in 2023, and this trend is expected to continue in 2024. Digital pay TV has attracted some viewers as an alternative to cable and satellite TV, but the rate at which digital pay TV is replacing cord-cutters is slowing, and digital pay TV services have replaced just 37.9% of viewers who abandoned traditional TV between 2015-2024. Forecasts anticipate that the CTV ad opportunity is only getting bigger, with almost all of TV’s ad spend growth coming from CTV in 2024, according to Emarketer.   In contrast, linear TV ad spending is dropping faster than expected, with a 9.4% YoY decrease to $60.38 billion from 2022 to 2023. TV ad spending in 2024 will see a minor increase due to political advertising, but the bump is expected to be followed by another decline in spend for 2024. With these ad revenue opportunities in CTV, the key trend to follow is how well platforms balance their revenues and profitability goals with viewers’ ad experiences and desire for balanced ad loads.   The trend of streaming services joining forces through acquisition or bundling services is likely to continue into 2024. Even as streaming services strive to retain customers by offering ad-supported tiers, subscribers are showing a willingness to cut services and manage their streaming expenses by leaving platforms, primarily influenced by rising subscription costs.   The streaming ecosystem continues to evolve, with several changes on the horizon, but the success of the myriad platforms will ultimately come down to their ability to craft a balanced blend of ad venues, ad loads, and content offerings–and viewership data will swiftly show how well they do, or do not, achieve that balance.   The digital media pros at Brkthru are bullish on CTV, and welcome having a conversation about opportunities for agencies and advertisers. Just swing by info@brkthru.com

Brkthru @ SBE Chicago Members of the Brkthru Client Success and Business Development teams attended the Small Business Expo (SBE) recently in Chicago. Director of Client Success Ben Coburn and Business Development Specialist Al Mayberry met with small business owners, entrepreneurs and exhibitors during the event, discussing business goals, marketing objectives and exploring how digital media can help drive their product or service sales. As a digital media services company, Brkthru clients are small business advertisers and their agency partners.