Mahesh Murthy - Pinstorm

Mahesh Murthy is one of those blokes that has made lots of money by thinking big and can’t seem to just sit still. Mahesh made his money in the heady days of mid 90’s Silicon Valley.

He didn’t just retire to the beach, he returned to India to launch and run Channel V, a rival to MTV until it was sold to News corp. Like Dilip Cherian, he seems to have an aversion to staying with the big companies, preferring instead to help start ups with investment and advice. He launched Pinstorm in 2004 with the express aim of making good money out of digital advertising.

What is unique about Pinstorm, is that they are remunerated purely on performance – something Mahesh feels you can only do with digital media. Working across search, display and social media, his team include search experts, media buyers, creatives and technology whizzes.

Working for clients from P&G to Hindustan Times, everything Pinstorm do includes a response – an e-mail address, a social media interaction, a form filled in… and you only ever pay for the end results. As an ex-creative director, Mahesh has a creative team to create ads that hit objectives, but the subjective view of creative is removed from the equation – clients have to go with what works.

From an integrated planner’s point of view I initially had lots of objections about the validity of e-mail addresses, value of those leads etc but it seems that this approach could enhance a brand building or awareness activity by providing tangible leads at the required cost per acquisition.
I wonder whether advertisers in the UK would be prepared to relinquish full control over creative approvals.

Mahesh’s team are totally transparent about where leads come from, just don’t ask them about their margin – it would put us all to shame! If they’re hitting the targets – what’s the problem?