Response Magazine - December 2008

That’s because the Google TV Ads service, quite simply, brings more Inter-net-style accountability and measurability to TV ads. Through its deal with DISH, Google is capable of reporting the exact number of DISH set-top boxes that tuned into an ad bought through its system, allowing marketers to pay only for the number of impressions netted after a spot airs. This capability adds an extra layer of measurement for DRTV advertisers already used to turning over metrics in order to maximize media efficiency on television.

With the technology, Google has drawn advertisers from major marketers like Lenovo, Priceline.com and Liberty Medical (see sidebar, page 30) to test the TV Ads platform in its infancy.

From Consulting to New Media

That Steib would be involved with a new technological breakthrough that would bridge the divide between the Web

The Brand

DRTV Agency

Innovative marketing through direct response television.

creative

production

management

strategy

ATOMIC DIRECT

Portland, Oregon 503.296.6131

and television is not a surprise. Though he now oversees sales, inventory acquisition and the marketing operations team for Google TV Ads, he’s found ways to revolutionize businesses since graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in the late 1990s.

“When you graduate with an economics degree from Penn, there are two job options — investment banking or consulting. My wife went into banking. I became a management consultant at McKinsey & Co.,” he says with a chuckle.

After spending two years there, he joined Walker Digital LLC, where he was tasked on launching new media businesses. “I founded and led their new media business, where we worked on things like the Virtual Lottery, which allowed states to bring their regular paper lottery games to the Internet,” he says.

While there, Steib became a patented inventor on a pair of digital media products. “The company is really an idea incubator with a huge focus on intellectual property,” he contends. “One of the things that we were really interested in when I was there was finding ways that would allow business to be conducted differently online. We were intrigued by the Priceline model, in which technology was employed to allow consumers to trade brand preferences and convenience for price reductions.”

Steib left Walker Digital for a vice-presidential job at NBCU, where he took on a bit of a new role for him. “One of the great areas of guilt for a consultant is that all of their friends are good at finance and mergers-and-acquisitions (M&A),” Steib says, tongue firmly in cheek. “When I joined NBCU, I took a corporate development job, working on strategy and acquisitions.”

While there, he worked for Brandon Burgess (now CEO of Ion Media Networks), and saw his role move more into a broader business development area. “We started an organic growth function inside the company,” Steib says. “It became apparent that launching new, organically grown products could complement NBCU’s growth through M&A.”

MICHAEL STEIB

Director, Google TV Ads, Google Audio Ads, Google Print Ads

Resides: New York

Education: B.A., economics and international relations, University of Pennsylvania

Recent Honors: Crain’s Magazine 2008 New York “ 40 Under 40”; TV Week’s 2008 “Twelve to Watch”

Family: Wife, Kemp, and their infant son, Owen

Defining moments: “On May 17, 2003, I married a wonderful woman who is extremely supportive. As a vice president at Allen & Co., Kemp’s understanding of the media industry and what it takes to be successful has been and continues to be crucial to me. She understands my goals in life and business and supports me with an incredible strength. Professionally, when I was hired by NBC in 2001, it was my first time in the media industry in a non-start-up role. The transition put me on a path to doing things that I really enjoy. Working for Brandon Burgess to create NBC Weather Plus was a first for me — creating a new product with new technology. It was the first-ever joint venture between a network and its affiliates. The project launched a path of creating and implementing new technology and business answers, leading me here to Google TV Ads.”

Greatest career accomplishment: “You’re looking at it here! At Google TV Ads, we’ve assembled an incredible team of people. I’m proud to be on their team. We’ve challenged conventional wisdom by introducing technology into a part of the advertising industry where it wasn’t before. We’ve made an incredible amount of progress in the past 18-24 months, and I believe we’ll continue to make more and more.”