Advertisers at ad:tech show how to reach big bucks clients directly

A great reason to attend ad:tech San Francisco, London or New York is the bonanza of high value networking contacts this digital marketing conference can provide. CEOs, SVPs and filthy rich venture capitalists tend to mingle freely even with the folks carrying just a last-minute one-day Exhibit Floor pass.

The networking angle is important because you could find yourself unexpectedly referred to a high-value client or account. But some people at ad:tech will connect you to a high-value client or account because, well, that's just what they do for a living.

Consider the case of Martini Media, a boutique online advertising platform catering exclusively to shoppers who make more than $100,000 annually. Martini Media runs full-service ad campaigns across video, mobile and social platforms, ensuring the ads they promote show up on the screens of the very most affluent buyers.

"It’s not the 1 percent," Martini Media CEO Skip Brand told Allvoices at the ad:tech conference. "According to comScore, it’s 25 percent of the online audience here in America that makes more than 100k."

"They’re the most philanthropic, they spend the most, they engage the most online, so we think it’s an interesting audience," Mr. Brand said. "The more money you make today, the more time you spend online. You spend time on your passion, and you spend time on your profession."

Martini Media has the data to back this up. Those who earn more than $100,000 annually spend an average of 34 hours a week online, they're 5 times more likely to share an ad on Facebook and 17 times more likely to tweet.

Mr. Brand's company is driven to understand these behaviors, leading to some surprising findings about the most affluent U.S. consumers. "They buy two times more toilet paper than anybody," he noted. "They just have a few more bathrooms and a few more kids."

Martini Media employs data targeting metrics to address the personal and professional interests of this lucrative niche market. Half of Martini's brand clientele are professional sites like the American Journal of Medicine or Lexus Nexus, and the other half are personal interest sites like World Golf Tour or Runner's World.

Even Mother Jones magazine has published ad buys through Martini Media. Yes, the rabble-rousing liberal news magazine actually has a significant readership in the top income-level demographic. There's a fun factoid to bust during your next Occupy argument!

"I have small sites and large sites," Mr. Brand said. "The combination of those two make a great media buy."

Whereas exposure to movers and shakers like Skip Brand makes attending ad:tech a great networking buy.

This article is part of Allvoices’ series on ad:tech, the largest digital marketing and technology conferences and expositions. Check out allvoices.com/adtech for more of Allvoices’ ad:tech San Francisco event coverage. This series is supported by ad:tech.