Thismoment Interview with CEO Vince Broady

This is the eighth post in a series called Interviews at Content Hero where we chat to thought-leaders, start-ups, SMEs, marketing technology companies, and digital agencies about the content marketing industry.

This week we have been chatting to Vince Broady, the CEO of marketing technology company Thismoment which recently secured $17.6 million in its latest funding round. Thismoment has for the most part flown under the radar since it was launched by Broady in 2009 as its platform – enterprise content management software – is targeted at enterprise customers. But with this new funding, there are signs that Thismoment is ready to start grabbing a little more mainstream attention. What we want to know is how Thismoment has become such a powerhouse in the enterprise content marketing space and what the future beholds.

So, we lined up an interview to talk about the past, present, and future.

What’s the Thismoment story then Vince?

Businesses are searching for authentic ways to tell their story and engage with their customers, and that’s where Thismoment excels. Today we are in chapter 3 of our story; we’re a marketing technology company that enables the world’s biggest brands to connect with their customers in real time, on any device with true authenticity. Our platform, Content Cloud, provides real-time access to any content, anywhere it’s needed across the enterprise. We call this capability “Content on Demand,” and we believe it will transform the way businesses interact with their customers, employees, and partners.

Like any good story, there are important chapters that brought us to todays Thismoment. In chapter 1 we launched a consumer-focused, digital media-service for “saving and sharing the moments of your life.” We put our heart and soul into it, and built exactly what we wanted. The foundation we built in chapter 1, authentic engagement and UGC, led us to chapter 2 – the evolution of the tech we’d developed for consumers into a scalable platform for brands. We called it DEC (for “distributed engagement channel”), and it allowed brands to create and manage a single brand presence and distribute to multiple social end points, especially YouTube and Facebook. DEC was very successful, but ultimately had a lot of dependencies on the host/3rd party environments. We quickly realized the need to maintain control of our product and roadmap, which brought us to chapter 3, the development and launch of Content Cloud.

Coca-Cola, GM, Hasbro, Nestle, Oracle, Pepsi, Xbox – Thismoment has a very impressive client list. Did you envision Thismoment becoming such a success in 2009?

We call them “customers” not clients, because we’re a product company, not an agency. It’s a small distinction, but I can tell you it’s critical in the way you think about what it is you are trying to accomplish. Apple has customers; WPP has clients. I envisioned Thismoment being successful, and based on prior experience, knew we’d likely work with these types of brands. But in the early days I expected the product we’d be selling to be media (I.E. advertising), not software.

What do you feel is the biggest digital challenge enterprises face right now?

The biggest challenge is delivering digital experiences that are comparable to the digital native companies. These companies continually raise the bar of consumer expectations about what a digital experience should be, in terms of speed, relevance, availability, ease of use, you name it. Unless and until enterprises can match the digital experiences delivered by the likes of Amazon, Netflix, and Uber, they are at risk of seeming outdated and out of touch, and vulnerable to being displaced by a competitor who gets it right first.

Read, react, amplify. Is this how social media technology success is measured?

To me, there is no such thing as social media success, only business success. Catch phrases like “read, react, amplify” make social media seem like a novelty item rather than a central component of business process.

Enterprise customers have enjoyed using Thismoment since 2009. Will SMEs get to enjoy using it in 2015, and if so, why should they?

Thismoment is squarely focused on Global 1000 companies. This is because they have both the need and the motivation to remake their digital presence, and the ability to pay for it. That being said, unlocking the value of content is a universal problem, one that every business, every organization, and every individual shares. Eventually, we’ll serve the entire market.

How big of a deal is the Thismoment Development Platform; is this going to play a key role in the growth of Thismoment over the next 12 months?

Our developer platform is a huge deal, especially the release of our Experience SDK, which bridges the gap between rigid template-based systems and raw APIs. Marketers want to deliver differentiated experiences in digital, and creative agencies want to design them. Using our developer platform, they can both get exactly what they want, with a minimum of hassle.

Coca-Cola or Pepsi on a hot summer’s day?

Coca-Cola for sure, along with a nice bag of Taco Doritos.

We would like to thank Vince for his time and for helping us to make this interview happen. You can connect with Vince on LinkedIn. Be sure to check out the Thismoment platform and the fantastic Thismoment blog.