Businessmodel of Adly

Customer Segments

Adly serves two distinct customer segments: advertisers and social media influencers. The Company targets small, medium and large businesses across multiple sectors – including from within the automotive, cosmetic, entertainment, non-profit and retail industries – matching their profiles with social media users through which they can amplify their marketing content and target relevant consumers.

These social media influencers – including celebrities, journalists, bloggers, podcasters and broadcasters – are also considered customers, as they are provided opportunities to monetise their social media activity by endorsing brands that they like.

Adly lists a number of its customers on its website, including big brand names such as Walmart, Coca Cola, AT&T, American Airlines, The Walt Disney Company and Samsung.

Value Propositions

Adly provides value to its big brand customers by greatly extending their social media reach through high-profile social media users. This both increases the audience of the brand, generating new customers, and legitimises the brand’s offerings, with users more likely to use the products and services of a company that is endorsed by a name that they admire and trust.

The Company’s digital marketing services also enable social media influencers to generate income through their social media activity and establish partnerships with brands that they like.

Channels

Adly’s services can be viewed on its mobile and desktop websites at www.adly.com. Customers can enquire about the Company’s digital advertising solutions by providing details of their company and requirements via an online contact form, following which a sales representative will get in touch with the customer, or they can contact the Adly sales and marketing team directly over the phone or using email.

Customer Relationships

While Adly’s services can viewed online, with enquiries made through the Company’s website, all of its products and services are sold through direct interaction with members of the Adly sales and marketing team, enabling the Company to provide custom quotes and tailored services to each of its clients.

Adly’s services require a degree of ongoing personal care after sale to ensure that client needs are met. Adly customers are also able to contact sales and marketing representatives to ask questions about the Company’s service, either through the website or over the phone. In addition to its support services,

Adly keeps its customers updated with corporate developments through a blog hosted by its website and through accounts with Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn.

Key Activities

Adly is a digital marketing and advertising company. Its principal activity revolves around connecting major brands with social media influencers and celebrities who provide sponsored online endorsements. These endorsements serve to both extend the brand’s reach and promote its reputation.

The Company also uses its social media data to provide customers with insights into the way in which Twitter and Facebook mentions are shared and how celebrity posts reach their fans, helping companies to create more effective and efficient marketing campaigns.

Key Partners

Adly’’s key partners are advertising agencies, which help the Company to identify brand customers, and technology companies, which assist the Company with analytics and data services that evaluate the success of customer marketing campaigns.

In 2010 Adly also released its API as part of its Adly for Apps program, which enabled developers to partner with the Company by creating integrated, contextually and locally-targeted ad solutions for third-parties. The Adly for Apps program, however, does not appear to be ongoing.   

Key Resources

Adly’s key resources are its technology, its IT infrastructure, its personnel and its social media partners.

While the Company’s technology, including its marketing technology and data analytics technology, are key to the effectively fulfilling the its services, the Company does not have any patent applications filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office.

Adly’s social media partners are particularly important to its business model, with their services accounting for much of the Company’s revenue.

Cost Structure

Adly incurs costs through the maintenance of its IT infrastructure, the management of its partnerships – with social media partners receiving commission-based payments, and the retention of its workforce.

The Company must also pay fixed operating costs relating to its Los Angeles-based offices.

Revenue Streams

Adly generates revenue through its strategic digital advertising campaigns, charging big brands to obtain social media endorsements from celebrities and influencers. These services are bespoke and priced individually following discussion with members of the Adly team.

While these services account for the majority of the Company’s annual revenue, in recent years Adly has begun to provide additional analytics services to its big brand customers.

The Company has licensed tools that enable it to track and analyse how social media mentions reach fans and followers from celebrities, effectively functioning as a social media listening platform. Adly does not disclose its revenue figures, however, reports estimate that the Company generates seven figure revenue each year.