Moontoast
Moontoast is a social media advertising platform providing a form of rich media for the social and mobile web. They are headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, with offices in Nashville, Tennessee, and San Francisco, California
The company's advertising units are distributed as social status updates within a social network such as Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. Users view the ads either in their social stream if they Like or Follow the advertising brand, or via paid social media advertising.[1]
History
Moontoast was co-founded by of Joe Glaser of Glaser Instruments, Chief Technology Officer Marcus Whitney[2] (a former partner at EMMA), and pedal steel guitarist Bucky Baxter,[3] who has performed with Bob Dylan, Beastie Boys, and R.E.M..
The company launched at SXSW in 2008[3] and added the social rich media platform in September 2010.
Moontoast's sweepstakes unit was used for Nissan's 2013 "October Car Care" campaign. Fans could enter the sweepstakes by clicking the ad in their Facebook News Feed and entering their information, including their vehicle identification number, with a prize of car maintenance for life.[4]
In 2013 Toyota and Moontoast also created an Instagram gallery which played 15-second Instagram videos within a swipeable video gallery.[5]
The company worked with Lexus to show the 2014 Lexus IS live from the Detroit Auto Show, which received over 100,000 video views in 10 minutes.[6]
In 2014 the company and the television channel TBS created a live, multi-screen addition for to the sitcom Cougar Town. Using a Moontoast ad unit, social fans voted to name Courteney Cox's wine glass in the show. Results were announced in a subsequent episode of Cougar Town. A second ad unit was used to ask fans to vote for the best wine pairing with the sitcom on National Drink Wine Day.[7]
In October 2014, Moontoast changed its name to Spendsetter after buying loyalty rewards company Spendship. Co-founder Marcus Whitney announced that he is leaving his CTO position in the company and will be replaced by Spendship founder Jason Weaver.[8]
Awards and recognition
Moontoast was the winner of the 2013 Facebook "PMD Innovation Award".[9]
Management
Moontoast's CEO is Blair Heavey.[10] Prior to Moontoast, Heavey was CEO and President of MyPerfectGig and as CEO of Directorym, Inc. He was SVP of Worldwide Field Operations of LiveVault, an online backup and recovery service, and Executive Vice President and General Manager of affiliate marketing company Be Free Inc., and was Head of Sales for electronic commerce company OpenMarket. Heavey received an MBA from Babson College and a B.A. in Computer Science/Political Science from Boston College.
The company is funded by The Martin Companies and music industry angel investors.[11]
References
- "Moontoast Closes $4.5 Million Extension To Series B Funding". MarketWatch.
- "Billboard's Twitter 140: Music-Industry Characters You Need To Follow". Billboard.
- "Moontoast". crunchbase.com.
- https://finance.yahoo.com/news/nissan-announces-moontoast-social-rich-143600815.html
- "Toyota Is Using Instagram Videos in Its Facebook Ads". AdWeek.
- "Lexus' Facebook Video Stream Gets 100K Viewers in 10 Minutes - Adweek". AdWeek.
- Moontoast (18 February 2014). "TBS And Moontoast To Build Real-Time Social And Interactive Multi-Screen". prnewswire.com.
- "Moontoast becomes Spendsetter as new CEO takes helm". The Tennessean. Retrieved 2020-04-07.
- "Innovation Competitions". Facebook Developers. Archived from the original on 2014-03-11. Retrieved 2014-01-29.
- "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-05-14. Retrieved 2011-05-31.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- "Moontoast Raises $5M For Premium Social Ads". TechCrunch. AOL.
External links
- Southern Alpha: How Moontoast Engages Fans with Cougar Town on National Drink Wine Day, February 2014
- Yahoo Finance Moontoast Partners with Toyota to Help Automaker Achieve Impressive 85 Percent Opt-Ins with Social Rich Media Ads September, 2013
- Billboard: Carey Kolaja of PayPal on the Looming Battle Beyond Digital Music Distribution April 2011
- Hypebot: Moontoast Impulse: A New Social Commerce, Music Application For Facebook January 2011
- Mashable: HOW TO: Buy & Sell Music Directly on Facebook January 2011
- Nashville Business Journal Moontoast app gives musicians new tool to sell albums online January 2011
- American Songwriter: Moontoast Launches Free “Impulse” Tool For Facebook January 2011
- Boston Globe Moontoast, a 'social commerce' start-up spawned by Nashville's music scene, heads to Mass. September 2010