Our solid financials have also allowed us to execute on a proven M&A playbook, to enhance current
offerings and fill in gaps when we see an opportunity to add to our digital marketing solutions stack. We have clearly defined objectives for our M&A strategy including: building new people skills and capabilities; access to new verticals and
end user markets; expansion of our media distribution and audience reach; and software or technology enablers.
When you add it all together, our complete
set of tools, competencies, expertise and legacy of delivering measurable value is extremely attractive to brand marketers whose jobs are in the balance, based on the partners they select and the performance they deliver.
IPO Edge: Are your services best suited for clients of a particular size or in a specific industry?
Mr. Marinucci: DMS primarily works with brands with large-scale marketing needs to engage and acquire customers, serving a
variety of verticals such as Insurance, Consumer Finance, Education, Health & Wellness, Home Services, eCommerce, Retail, Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) Subscription
and more.
The beauty in our vertical agnostic brand direct solutions approach means not only does the number of verticals we serve expand our TAM, but
our balance of business across these industries insulates our revenue stream from unpredictable market shifts which, in comparison, is a significant risk faced by vertical-specific, marketplace only companies.
In short, with DMS, no audience is out of reach.
IPO
Edge: Why do you feel that this is a good time to take DMS public?
Mr. Marinucci: We think that a combination
of market conditions the secular shift in spending I mentioned earlier and the current stage of our own business makes for an ideal time to take DMS public.
Businesses of all sizes and types are increasingly looking towards digital channels to reach their customers, and we think we are still in the very early
innings of a massive shift from traditional offline channels towards online ones. Digital channels are not only where the eyeballs are increasingly focused, but also offer more predictable and measurable results which ultimately provides greater
returns than the legacy marketing mix which historically prioritized offline and broadcast channels.
Today, there is so much noise and competition for
the attention of the consumer from mobile apps, to streaming, to social media. Over the last decade weve proven to be an essential partner to large global brands in acquiring new customers, which has superseded general brand awareness
in the eyes of CMOs and brand marketers. We look forward to the benefits that a public company profile will bring towards accelerating our momentum in a market that has arguably reached the inflection point where digital has overtaken traditional
marketing mediums.
At the same time, were very fortunate to have found a great financial partner in Leo Holdings Corp. (NYSE: LHC, LHC-WT), who shares our vision towards capturing this large-scale shift of marketing dollars to digital performance-based solutions. We believe our strong technology assets, our diversified blue-chip customer base,
and our strong financial model give us a compelling public company profile.
From an investor thesis standpoint, DMS is first and foremost a brand direct
solutions provider that offers a diversified set of advertising and customer acquisition solutions to a wide variety of industries, most comparable to adtech firms such as theTradeDesk (NASDAQ: TTD) and LiveRamp (NYSE: RAMP). As a complement to our
industry agnostic offerings, we have also developed marketplace solutions that are more vertically oriented to key markets like insurance, finance, education, health and wellness, and more, which are most comparable to marketplaces offered by
EverQuote, Inc. (NASDAQ: EVER), SelectQuote, Inc. (NYSE: SLQT), LendingTree, Inc. (NASDAQ: TREE), QuinStreet, Inc. (NASDAQ: QNST), CarGurus, Inc. (NASDAQ: CARG), and eHealth, Inc. (NASDAQ: EHTH) but with much less risk exposure to a single
industry.
So we feel DMS offers a unique value proposition and opportunity for investors to benefit from both high proficiency as well as balance of both
services and share of revenues across the entire realm of digital marketing services, with what we feel is a more optimal, market resilient blend.