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BFD Expert Voices - Media Deals

BFD Expert Voices

Aarki announced today its new leadership team after spinning off from publicly traded mobile gaming platform Skillz last year, CEO Aman Sareen exclusively tells Kerry.

Why it matters: The ad tech firm has reset itself as an independent company to capture some of this year's estimated $402 billion in global mobile ad spending, per Data.ai.

Driving the news: New leaders include Lisa Hu as CFO, Avi Das as CRO, Chaitanya Upadhyay as CPO and Joe Zachariah as CTO.

Ed Haslam joined as SVP, marketing, Vijay Agarwal as SVP of engineering and Tiffany Flores as SVP, global operations.

Catch up quick: Founded in 2010, Aarki serves mobile marketers. It offers a demand-side platform and creative services and is building more AI-powered and privacy-focused tools.

Skillz, which trades on the NYSE with a market value of $98 million, acquired Aarki in July 2021 for about $157 million in cash and stock. In August 2023, Skillz spun out Aarki. It kept an 80% stake and invested $5 million.

Zoom in: Sareen joined Aarki in January 2023. He says he decided on a spinout a few months later because he wanted to refocus on product versus sales as a "small nimble company," offer employees equity in Aarki and serve Skillz's competitors as an independent firm.

"I realized that our product had actually fallen behind our competitors," Sareen says of his reason for a spinout. "Once the product is great, sales automatically comes."

Aarki went from about 200 employees under Skillz to now about 100 staffers with its headquarters in San Francisco and other offices in Bangalore and Manila. Sareen says about 70% of staffers are new. Some of the new leaders are Sareen's former colleagues at LG Ads and elsewhere.

What's next: Sareen has ambitious growth plans for Aarki, such as expanding the business to owning publishers and offering a supply-side platform. That could involve M&A.

He declined to share if Aarki is operating profitably but says it doesn't need to raise money at the moment.

Aarki plans to announce updates to its platform at MAU Vegas, a conference focused on apps, in April.

1 big thing: Mobile marketing reset

Illustration of a collage featuring three smartphones and pieces of money.

ESPN has committed nearly $9 billion this year to keep some of its prized assets, with yesterday's College Football Playoff renewal the latest.

Why it's the BFD: Maintaining key TV rights is essential for ESPN as it transitions to a streaming-first future and is still looking for a strategic partner, Tim writes.

Zoom in: The new TV deal with the College Football Playoff keeps the tournament on ESPN through the 2031-32 season.

As part of the deal, ESPN can sublicense games to other networks.

What's next: ESPN's attention immediately moves on to its NBA and WNBA renewals. Both of those contracts expire next year.

The network is currently in its exclusive negotiating window with both leagues until April 22.

ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro expects the WNBA to be part of any media rights renewal deal with the NBA, he told Axios' Sara Fischer yesterday.

The big picture: Sports rights are still going up even as the market is tightening.

In January, ESPN agreed to a new eight-year TV deal with the NCAA worth $920 million to cover 40 of its championships, including the women's basketball tournament.

Some leagues are adding extra partners to help increase their payouts.

NASCAR expanded from two to four TV partners as part of its $7.7 billion deal, which was a 40% fee increase.

2. The BFD:

2. The BFD: Showing them the money

Illustration of a suitcase full of different sports balls.  

Retailers and commerce publishers are embracing in-person events and direct mail, executives shared yesterday at an Expert Voices roundtable co-moderated by Kerry that was part of the What's Next Summit in Washington, D.C.

Why it matters: Even with all the growth of online shopping and digital advertising, tangible experiences create brand loyalty.

What they're saying: Tastemade's head of sales and partner experience McCall Gridley said brands typically come to the publisher for digital and streaming partnerships, but she has seen a surge in "content-led plus experiential."

"We talk a lot about how do you build an ecosystem with your content," Gridley said.

Hello Sunshine's senior vice president of growth Kristin Perla said her company seeks to "bring to life" Reese's Book Club, noting 240 billion views of BookTok videos on TikTok. It recently partnered with Sheraton to offer libraries and in-person programming.

Strong brands have "deep knowledge of who your customer is and how you help connect that person physically and digitally through your brand as opposed to to your brand," said Caroline Gardner, head of brand marketing and experience at The RealReal.

The intrigue: Gardner noted the power of direct mail, which received nods of agreement throughout the roundtable.

"[We are] in the age of all these opportunities for content across technology, and some of the best performance is still happening with direct mail," Gardner said.

"We're still people, after all," said Doriel Abrahams, principal technologist at Forter. "Some things aren't changing. At the end of the day, we're all people who need actual, physical, tangible things."

Retailers cherish IRL events and direct mail

3. Insights from What's Next Summit

Tastemade's McCall Gridley speaking with her hand held up in a leopard print blouse

Tastemade's McCall Gridley. Photo: Paola Nazati for Axios

Go deeper in our full database in the Axios Pro Deals Tracker.

• Basketball Forever, a basketball-focused media brand that offers free-to-play games, raised $4m in a Series A round led by Yolo Investments. https://axios.link/4cqtwrY

• BBC Studios has acquired Spanish producer Brutal Media. https://axios.link/3vg9Q9N

• Actis is in talks to buy Swiftnet, the mast and tower business owned by South Africa's Telkom that's valued at $332m, Bloomberg reports. https://axios.link/3v8gBuk

• Gannett and McClatchy cut back on its content licensing deals with The Associated Press. https://axios.link/3vnjFCL

4. Deal flow

• Rhona Tarrant was named executive editor of CBS News Confirmed, its misinformation unit. https://axios.link/4anR1jY

• David Pietrycha was promoted to chief business officer of NBCUniversal Media Group. He was previously EVP, strategy and business development. https://axios.link/3vaKQAO

• Eric Menell and Gian Piero Sammartano were tapped by J.P. Morgan to lead its new Sports Investment Banking division. https://axios.link/491B0Pl

• Sam Rogoway was hired as COO and Nic Paul was named president of Spotter. https://axios.link/48Xees0

• Lulu Cheng Meservey partnered with Toya Holness and Sergey Alexashenko to launch Rostra, a strategic communications firm for tech founders and startups, Axios Communicators' Eleanor Hawkins scoops. https://axios.link/49XdJ2h

5. Movin' on up (or out)

🦾 In AI, the big just keep getting bigger (Axios)

"In a surprise announcement Tuesday, Microsoft said it was hiring Mustafa Suleyman — an AI pioneer who co-founded DeepMind — to run its consumer-oriented Copilot business," Scott Rosenberg writes.

🏀 Scoop: A-Rod's financing deal for T-Wolves falls apart (Axios)

"The National Basketball Association rejected a deal involving private equity firm Carlyle that would have helped finance a purchase of the Minnesota Timberwolves by Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore," Dan Primack writes.

🗣️ Exclusive: "We need aspirational AI," Girls Who Code founder Reshma Saujani says (Axios)

"[Reshma] Saujani said a lot of the conversations around AI surround the risk, rather than the questions of 'how we use AI to solve really big problems.' 'We need aspirational AI, not just ethical AI,' she emphasized, noting that the introduction of new technologies in the past fostered inequality and sidelined women," Sareen Habeshian writes.

6. Channel surfing

an illustration of a poster that has a remote control in front of a sunset and says "channel surfing" on a dorm room wall

📺 Situational awareness: Comscore was granted accreditation for some of its TV measurement services, which could threaten Nielsen's longtime supremacy.

@tim_bays: "X-Men '97" on Disney+. The iconic intro music is enough to bring me back to one of my childhood faves. 

@kerrymflynn: "Damsel" on Netflix. I'm a sucker for any dragon movie or show, but Angela Bassett needed more screen time.

✏️ Thanks to Michael Flaherty for editing and Katie Lewis for copy editing this newsletter.

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March 20, 2024

1 big thing: Mobile marketing reset