Each month as part of Digital.NYC’s Startups to Watch program we connect with the winning company to find out more about them. Here's what we learned in a recent talk with Brian Marvin, COO and Co-Founder of Bringhub.
Digital.NYC: Tell us about your company. What does Bringhub do?
Bringhub is the leading in-content and in-advertisement eCommerce platform. Our technology allows editorial, video, sponsored, and advertising content to become a point of product discovery and purchase. We are the pioneers of contextual commerce, enabling consumers to shop products directly on content sites and within digital advertisements. We currently enable product discovery and eCommerce features on several major media sites including StyleCaster, InStyle, Saveur, and Field & Stream, as well as powering advertising campaigns with brands such as L’Oreal Paris. We have a number of major partnerships in the pipeline, so stay tuned!
Digital.NYC: What is your background?
My background is in publishing and marketing. Prior to co-founding Bringhub, I helped launch a full-service marketing agency specializing in branded content and digital experience activations. Our network included more than 10,000 artists, designers, musicians, and influencers to deliver specialized insight, access and content to clients including Toyota, Microsoft, Casio, Coca-Cola, ASICS and Burton Snowboards.
Digital.NYC: How did you come up with the idea and the name for Bringhub?
Bringhub started as a local marketplace for small businesses to showcase their stores and be a one-stop shop for consumers to buy their products and have them delivered that same day. Thus the name Bringhub. We quickly saw a larger opportunity here. What if we utilized the eCommerce technology that we built to enable content sites to become a one-stop shop for consumers and create new revenue streams for those sites? The rest is history. We saw ourselves as the white knight of the publishing industry. We’ve evolved since then to power eCommerce for not only content producers but for some of the world’s top brands by allowing consumers to purchase products directly from their digital advertisements.
Digital.NYC: Who is your target customer?
While we are B2B contextual commerce platform partnering with advertisers, media companies, content producers, and brands, our end user is the consumer! We see ourselves as the shopping experience for the connected generation. We solve the problem of content and commerce being disconnected. It’s clear that eCommerce is revolutionizing how consumers transact in a digital environment. Consumers expect an intuitive, engaging, and mobile-first online shopping experience that leverages a “one click” checkout process. Now is the time for content producers and media companies to offer a streamlined eCommerce experience directly on their sites by leading consumers from product discovery to product purchase.
Digital.NYC: How do you think Bringhub is going to disrupt the market? What are the main differentiators between you and your competitors?
Bringhub’s mission is to reinvent the online experience, empowering people to discover and purchase from any form of content (such as AR/VR, chatbots, and ioT), anywhere. The convergence of content and commerce is the future of the online experience—and we love being pioneers in the contextual commerce space! Our competitors offer individual components of eCommerce, while we are a comprehensive platform with a diverse technological offering that is customizable, data-driven, and constantly innovating. We also offer data and analytics to achieve eCommerce success. Our partners can know exactly what their audience wants. See who's shopping, what's selling, when, and where—even down to the device! Bringhub generates the data they need to drive intelligent business decisions.
Digital.NYC: Why did you chose New York City as your base for Bringhub?
While our headquarters are in Los Angeles, establishing a New York office was highly strategic. Digital media companies like BuzzFeed are based in both Los Angeles and New York. Los Angeles is the hub for anything TV-related, while New York is home to the traditional publishing industry. Thus, our New York team is sales and communications-centric so they can be on the ground here meeting with our partners and potential partners face to face. We’re excited to see our New York team grow as we continue to establish a presence in New York.
Digital.NYC: What else might our readers be interested to know about Bringhub?
That Bringhub has offices in Los Angeles, New York, and St. Petersburg (FL), our team is extremely tight knit team that works hard and plays hard. Simply put, our team is awesome. Each “Bringhubian” is a well-rounded professional with a sense of humor and a vision to revolutionize eCommerce. We expect to grow considerably in 2017 and are excited to build up our team with experienced professionals ready to disrupt the industry.
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