Inside the Mind of…Dan Levin
Dan Levin is president and co-founder of ViralGains.
While in his senior year of college, Dan was inspired to start ViralGains after recognizing the storytelling power of video as a medium for building authentic, meaningful connections between brands, and the people they seek to serve.
ViralGains is a digital video ad platform that enables marketers to engage targeted audiences with relevant brand stories. Using the platform to engage in two-way conversations, brands and agencies discover exactly what people want — and how they feel — and leverage those insights to build unique, full-funnel ad journeys that can generate increased awareness, motivate intent, and drive purchasing decisions.
Having raised $23 million in venture capital for ViralGains, and with offices in Boston, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Detroit, and Atlanta, the company is now a powerhouse, and an authority on digital video advertising.
Why was your company created?
Dan Levin: Ever get stalked by the same ad everywhere you browse online for months on end? Ever seen an ad for a product you have absolutely no intention of buying? Ever wished the brand would simply ask you if you were actually interested in the said product, or catered advertising to your personal preferences, and unique buying journey? Yeah, me too!
Brands spend half a trillion dollars per year advertising their products and services globally, while only a tiny 4% of advertising effectively changes a consumer’s opinion about a brand. At that rate, the number of wasted brand dollars every year could solve world hunger 16 times over. Now that is a scary and sad fact.
Building a product that solved the enormous inefficiencies in digital advertising seemed like a win-win for everyone: consumers, marketers and publishers alike.
What’s unique about ViralGains?
Dan Levin: At some point in the history of marketing communications, the industry adopted the idea that advertising does the talking, and the market does the listening. This created a disconnected and siloed approach to marketing and advertising, by keeping the systems that do each, separate.
ViralGains is the first platform that gives the market a voice, using it as fuel for the advertising engine. No more silos. Not only can consumers and advertisers communicate with one another in our centralized platform, but our technology does so in a way that maps the consumer’s journey, from awareness to purchase. No more wasted ad impressions!
What have you learned as an entrepreneur?
Dan Levin: Talent is overrated. Hard work and patience beat talent all day, every day.
Read the full interview on B2B News Network.
