Sizmek Chapter 11: Surviving Walled Gardens in Their Ad Tech Empire

Ayelet  Israeli; Danilo  Tauro; Sarah  Gulick

Case | HBS Case Collection | March 2020

Sizmek Chapter 11: Surviving Walled Gardens in Their Ad Tech Empire

by Ayelet Israeli, Danilo Tauro and Sarah Gulick

Abstract

This case provides a post-mortem of the advertising technology (adtech) company Sizmek. Sizmek grew via multiple acquisitions, with the vision of becoming an integrated adtech company that could leverage AI to buy digital media, while creating and serving display and video content. At its peak, one of its acquisitions had an IPO valuation of almost 1 billion dollars. However, Sizmek struggled with an integration that was taking longer than expected, but also with misalignment of agency incentives, stricter data privacy regulations, and the rise of the walled gardens – Google, Facebook, and Amazon – that made the adtech ecosystem very competitive, with dynamics of winners-take-all markets. By 2019 Sizmek had to file Chapter 11, and was sold in pieces. Is there anything Sizmek could have done differently in their go-to-market strategy, product road-map, or overall partnerships to avoid such rapid collapse?

Keywords: Online Advertising; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Mergers and Acquisitions; Software; Internet; Competition; Marketing; Advertising Industry; Web Services Industry; United States; Europe;

Language: English

Format: Print

19 pages

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Citation:

Israeli, Ayelet, Danilo Tauro, and Sarah Gulick. "Sizmek Chapter 11: Surviving Walled Gardens in Their Ad Tech Empire." Harvard Business School Case 520-087, March 2020.

Case | HBS Case Collection | August 2018 (Revised July 2020)

Hubble Contact Lenses: Data Driven Direct-to-Consumer Marketing

Jill Avery and Ayelet Israeli

As its Series A extension round approaches, the founders of Hubble, a subscription-based, social-media fueled, direct-to-consumer (DTC) brand of contact lenses, are reflecting on the marketing strategies that have taken them to a valuation of $200 million and debating changes to them that will allow them to grow their business. Ensuring that their marketing dollars were being spent efficiently was critical to the data-driven management team and proving to be complicated as the company moved spending from digital marketing to offline media, which made attribution modeling more difficult. Decisions pertaining to product extensions, channel expansion beyond DTC e-commerce, and geographic expansion were also on the table to prove that Hubble's customer value proposition and operations could profitably scale.

Keywords: DTC; direct to consumer marketing; health care; e-commerce; mobile; digital marketing; attribution; experimentation; experiments; churn/retention; customer lifetime value; internet marketing; big data; analytics; social media; A/B Testing; CRM; Advertising; Marketing; Marketing Channels; Marketing Strategy; Media; Brands and Branding; Marketing Communications; Online Advertising; Consumer Behavior; Acquisition; Growth and Development Strategy; Customer Focus and Relationships; Health Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States; North America; Europe;

Citation:

Avery, Jill, and Ayelet Israeli. "Hubble Contact Lenses: Data Driven Direct-to-Consumer Marketing." Harvard Business School Case 519-011, August 2018. (Revised July 2020.) View Details

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The president of Harvard University is facing growing pressure from students, alumni, and other climate change activists that are urging the university to divest its multi-billion dollar endowment from fossil fuel companies. The case summarizes the arguments for and against Harvard divesting, examining past examples of Harvard’s investment decisions and the financial implications of divestment.

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Sizmek Chapter 11: Surviving Walled Gardens in Their Ad Tech Empire

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