Jeff Lanctot, who stepped down as global chief media officer at Razorfish in August, has a new gig. The seasoned digital-agency (and briefly, Microsoft) exec will take the reins at Mixpo.
A longtime board member at the Seattle-based video ad server, Lanctot was immediately sought as a candidate to run Mixpo when CEO Anupam Gupta signaled his intention to leave in July. Another board member, Madrona’s Matt McIlwain, approached him after learning of his intention to move on from Razorfish.
Mixpo has kept an obscure profile lately, but Lanctot said the company is in good health. Its three-year compound annual growth rate is “nearly” 100% (top-line revenue), and headcount has roughly doubled over that same time period, to 85 people. However the company has arguably failed to distinguish itself as others in its category (Tremor, Yume, SpotXchange, TubeMogul) have luxuriated in the froth around digital video and ad tech.
Unlike Tremor and YuMe, both of which IPO’d over the summer, Lanctot said Mixpo is a pure technology business – comprised of ad serving, social tools and analytics.
“The difference between a Mixpo and a Tremor is Tremor tends to be more dependent on publisher inventory – a media play — whereas Mixpo is a platform. We don’t resell media.”
Lanctot said the publisher business is strong, but he wants to help Mixpo step up its marketing to agencies. “We need to raise the profile. We have an amazing product, we need to get it in the hands of more customers,” he said.
Lanctot’s career at Razorfish spanned more than 10 years and a range of owners (Avenue A, aQuantive, Microsoft and finally Publicis). He briefly left the agency after its sale to Publicis to become managing director for the Advertiser & Publisher Solutions group at Microsoft.
