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‘We need to communicate better what we do’ says Pureprofile CEO

Pureprofile’s CEO Nic Jones has defended yesterday’s half year reported losses, saying the $7 million write downs that contributed to the results are a necessary part the company’s transformation as it looks to ‘join the circle’ between advertisers, publishers and consumers.

Jones, who took the CEO role in December, admitted to Mumbrella that the survey and technology company needs to be better at explaining what it does.

Pureprofile CEO Nic Jones: “We need to communicate better what we do.”

“I have every belief, and the reason I joined, I think we’re moving towards a very different marketplace where it’s getting harder and harder for content distributors and creators to monetize that content,” Jones said. “By the same token, the huge amount of data that exists through people actions and behaviour has real value.

“We have the capabilities of putting together those disparate bits of information and joining the circle.

“What Pureprofile has intended to do is to bring all of these things together. We need to communicate better what we do. One of my jobs to do is to better explain what we do.”

Part of that “joining the circle” is the Cohort lead generation business, which Pureprofile acquired in 2016. Cohort accounted for much of the write downs and operating costs in this week’s financial figures.

“Predominantly what we’re talking about is the impairment on an asset that we’ve written down.

“We’ll be bringing everything onto the one platform. Cohort has been on a different platform for a couple of years and that’s not great for how we want to integrate this business.

‘So there are a bunch of things I’m in the process of doing. I’ve just literally come up to my ninety days here and I’ve spent most of that listening and understanding hearing where the opportunities lie.

“The reality is the business is, as I said, in a transformational period,” Jones said.

“One of the reasons they brought me in here was to simplify the message and to make sure that we get, for example, sales people selling across our suite of products and not individually. In those situations, we’re focusing on resources and costs.

“We’ve investing in those businesses and we’re making sure we are set up for success.”

Jones cited the company’s recently announced deal with APN Outdoor as an example of what Pureprofile can do.

“In building data sets for APN, we can also use that as a way of getting our brand out [there]. There’s a lot we can do together and hopefully, we can announce more in the future.

“If we can get our business ready to perform in the areas we have capabilities in. I think we’re able to fit very squarely in the middle of brands, content, creators and consumers. At the moment each one of those isn’t getting what they need at the moment. We’re in a grey period when everything is changing.”

On the departure of founder Paul Chan earlier this year, Jones said he believed it reflected the diverging ambitions of Chan and the company he established.

“Paul is a very big character as the founder of the business. When I first came in, both Paul and I were conscious of how it would work moving forward. Paul had already decided his ambition, his passion, is about startups and innovation and I need execution and implementation.

“I’m really sad as I like the guy and we got on really well, but we realised that where he wants to go with his career and what I need here are two different things.”

In Jones’ view, the value Pureprofile offers is in helping publishers and advertisers access user data.

“If you can find the right way to share data there are a lot of benefits, including financially to get from it. I don’t think there’s any content distributor or creator today that isn’t very aware of the difficulties in monetising what they do.

“What excites me the most is we can be in the centre of those relationships. We can help everyone be successful, and that’s what we’ll be successful in.”

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