Why Ryan Reynolds pitched his ad platform MNTN during Friday’s ‘Shark Tank’ premiere

MNTN, the connected-TV ad platform that offers performance-optimized media buying, nicely optimized its own TV buy this past Friday—by advertising on the season 15 premiere of “Shark Tank.” The 30-second spot, creatively crafted with the ABC reality show in mind as well, featured company founder Ryan Reynolds introducing MNTN, which at first he says “sells itself—no pitch necessary.” Though he backtracks on that fairly quickly. Advertising on “Shark Tank” is a smart move for MNTN, since the kinds of companies that compete on the show—and the like-minded entrepreneurs watching at home—are more likely to want to use MNTN’s services. Two out of every three (66%) of MNTN’s customers are venturing into TV advertising for the first time, according to the company—and more than 20 brands featured on “Shark Tank” have used the MNTN platform to advertise on TV, including BabyQuip, Enso Rings, Spoonful of Comfort, Swimply, TA3 and Tipsy Elves. “It’s the only technology company turning TV into a true performance channel so it made tremendous sense for us to let small businesses know there’s a Plan B for growth in case the sharks don’t bite,” Reynolds told Ad Age in a statement. Notably, the creative on the spot is strong as well—as always with Reynolds productions, even when the product for sale is ad-tech. MNTN appeals to startups in particular, which are often looking for a combination of the emotion TV advertising provided with the performance metrics they needs. Several “Shark Tank” veterans offered their own statements for this story endorsing the platform, including: • “Sharing comfort and compassion is central to our brand—and those stories and emotions shine on MNTN. TV helps people understand and feel what we do. We feel that impact, too. MNTN helps us speak to the people who resonate with our brand so that we can scale our top-of-funnel efforts in an incredibly effective way.” —Marti Wymer, CEO, and Scott Gustafson, president, Spoonful of Comfort • “Shark Tank showed us that television is still a great way to acquire customers so we were excited to work with MNTN and the results did not disappoint. While we didn’t get an investment from a Shark, keeping CAC low with blockbuster content and great partners like MNTN has allowed us to bootstrap to $40 million in sales.” —Leila Shams, founder and CEO, TA3 Swimwear • “We’re genuinely impressed with MNTN’s capabilities to optimize our campaigns to achieve our ROAS goals. Also, the extensive audience targeting options have proven highly effective in reaching our ideal customers. It’s so much fun to hear, ‘I saw your ad on TV!’” —Nicole Kitzman, VP of marketing, BabyQuip MNTN advertisers can target over 85,000 third-party audiences based on interests, geography, shopping habits and more—as well as retarget website visitors—so they can reach high-intent consumers with TV ads. MNTN has over 700 advertisers using the platform today, the company said.

Why Ryan Reynolds pitched his ad platform MNTN during Friday’s ‘Shark Tank’ premiere

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