How Spongecell Helps Agencies Navigate the World of Automated Advertising

Specs

Who CEO, co-founder Ben Kartzman (l.); chief product officer, co-founder Anthony Yam

What Programmatic creative specialist

Where New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, London

Speed is king at Spongecell, which takes the creative assets that agencies produce for marketers and turns them into online ads of different shapes and sizes in as few as 72 hours. Fueling that speed is software the 9-year-old company is constantly upgrading to meet growing demand in the marketplace. "The unique thing that we offer is a software platform that is solely focused on programmatic creative," said CEO Ben Kartzman, who added, "We're still in the real early days of programmatic creative being something that every brand uses, but the desire is there, right? It works. More personalized advertising works." The company's 130 staffers work for both marketers and agencies, with shops like BBDO, Grey and Starcom supplying more than half of its estimated $15 million to $20 million in annual revenue. Marketer clients include Porsche, Canon and Microsoft in Japan.

This story first appeared in the Aug. 17 issue of Adweek magazine. Click here to subscribe.