After leaving jobs in ad tech and the media industry, Oliver Lesson and Tibor Gaddum set out on their own path to found Quarter Media. The two specialize in ad monetization and services for publishers and built their business catering to a variety of publisher needs. "We started with four business services in digital marketing," says Tibor who now serves as CEO of Quarter Media. "We focused on ad sales, ad management, digital rich media services, and newsletter marketing. But today we mostly focus on ad sales."
The team is focused on funding media businesses and providing them the ad revenue they need to thrive. "I've always thought advertising is a very important element of financing media," Tibor says. "And in Germany where we're based, it's a basic right in our constitution (Article 11) to get access to information at a reasonable cost. When I think about what we do and what advertising does, it's enabling people to get free access to information."
Quarter Media now works with over 80 publishers mostly in Germany and has grown their business from a few thousand dollars in ad revenue to a double-digit Million USD/EUR a year. "We work with over 80 publishers and have a really broad audience," Tibor highlights. "Collectively the sites we support today reach about 40 million people in Germany." For Tibor, meeting that audience with the right message at the right time is key to enabling good user experience and return for publishers and advertisers. "Relevance in advertising is both beneficial for the advertiser and the user. If I'm getting ads that aren't relevant to me it's boring and I'm annoyed," Tibor explains. "And it's a waste for the advertiser because I have no interest at all in their product."