Historically we have operated as a digital media holding company for online
assets primarily targeted to the military and public safety sectors. We are
dedicated to providing “those that keep us safe” places to go online
where they can do everything from staying current on news and events affecting
them, look for jobs, share information, communicate with the public, and purchase
products. In addition to our corporate website, we own and/or manage 25 websites
which are customized to provide our niche users, including active, reserve and
retired military, law enforcement, first responders and other public safety
employees with products, information and news that we believe may be of interest
to them. We also own an ad network, Daily Engage Media, which was acquired in
September 2017. We have placed a particular emphasis on providing quality content
on our websites to drive traffic increases. Our websites feature timely, proprietary
and aggregated content covering current events and a variety of additional subjects
targeted to the specific demographics of the individual website. Our business
strategy requires us to continue to provide this quality content to our niche
markets and to grow our business, operations and revenues both organically and
through acquisitions.
While we have had significant losses (a significant part of which was non-cash)
since inception, these losses were anticipated and tied to the strategy described
herein. We have invested in our infrastructure and acquisitions and placed an
emphasis on providing quality content on our websites necessary to drive traffic
to our websites. With the acquisition of Daily Engage Media and the recent completion
of its RTB (real time bidding) exchange platform, we intend to launch the Bright
Mountain Media Ad Exchange Network in the third quarter of 2018. This will advance
our transition to a digital media company. We believe that with these actions
our business, results of operations and financial condition will be positively
impacted.
Subject to the availability of sufficient working capital, we expect to complete
the development of the ad exchange platform that Daily Engage Media has under
development and utilize that technology for the basis of launching our Bright
Mountain Media Ad Exchange Network. Our Bright Mountain Media Ad Exchange Network
will be a trading desk for publishers and advertisers where they will be able
to login and choose from various features to maximize their earning potential.
Publishers will be able to select a variety of ad units for their video, mobile,
display and native advertisements and have the ability to create their own unique
ad formats. Advertisers will be able to choose where their ads will be seen
using our filters or by connection directly with the publisher through our platform.
This new platform is expected to have a significant impact on our revenues
and its capabilities will include:
server integration with several ad exchanges, making for extremely quick ad
deployments;
leading targeting technology, allowing advertisers to pinpoint their marketing
efforts to reach the military-public safety demographic across mobile, tablet,
and desktop;
capable of handling any ad format, including video, display, and native ads;
and
ad serving and self-service features for publishers and advertisers.
The Bright Mountain Media Ad Exchange Network will be a custom-built platform,
which will be user friendly for both the publisher and the advertiser. It will
have technology that will allow ads to be served at the highest speeds in the
industry and the ability to precisely geo target the area the ads will be shown.
We believe that the acquisition of Daily Engage Media and the development of
the ad exchange network has and will have the following benefits:
allow us to immediately begin selling advertising to the thousands of other
publishers (websites) in our military-public safety demographic;
disrupt the digital market for military-public safety audiences and advertisers
by being the first vertically integrated publisher/ad network in our demographic;
and
place us into the position as the only fully integrated digital business that
serves the publisher, ad network, ad exchange and e-commerce needs of the military-public
safety demographic.
The key components of the Bright Mountain Media Ad Exchange Network are expected
to include:
the sale of all digital advertising inventory on Bright Mountain Media owned
websites directly to brands and advertisers, as well as on ad exchanges which
are online marketplaces where digital advertising spaces are bought and sold;
the sale of digital advertising inventory from similar web properties not owned
by us directly to brands, advertisers and ad exchanges for which we will receive
a commission;
software that will facilitate the sale of ad inventory as well as software
that will deliver the paid-for advertising to all websites within the Bright
Mountain Media Ad Exchange Network;
the ability to leverage our combined audience size in the Bright Mountain Media
Ad Exchange Network to command higher paying advertising across our network
of web properties;
the eventual expansion to represent websites beyond our initial niche scope
to include broader male demographic segments; and
expansion of “our heroes” demographic to include all men aged 18
to 50.
We believe that the combination of our owned websites’ ad inventory with
an ever-growing ad inventory from websites which we represent will uniquely
position our company as the largest single source for brands and advertisers
to reach these desired ‘hero’ audiences.
The Bright Mountain Media Ad Exchange Network, a programmatic and directly
sold advertising network, is a key element to our strategy. The Ad Network will
allow us to substantially increase the size of our audience within our niche
demographic that can be sold to advertisers and brands. Programmatic advertising
networks are designed to help marketers and their agencies connect with consumers
through digital media at moments when that connection is most likely to be influential
and most likely to achieve the advertiser’s objectives. Programmatic buying
is the automated purchase of digital advertising inventory through a combination
of machine-based transactions, data and algorithms. RTB, a subset of programmatic
buying, is the real-time purchase and sale of advertising inventory on an impression-by-impression
basis on ad exchanges. Programmatic buying and RTB are emerging and growing
trends in the buying and selling of digital advertising inventory. The recognition
by advertisers that an increased use of programmatic buying and RTB systems
may constitute an effective way to achieve their campaign goals and cost savings,
and the recognition by digital media property owners that they may achieve greater
returns from an increased use of programmatic buying and RTB systems may prove
beneficial to us. Daily Engage Media has just launched an RTB platform.
The Bright Mountain Media Ad Exchange Network is expected to market all the
Bright Mountain Media owned advertising inventory together with similar websites
in our demographic. We believe this strategy will create scale to attract interest
from potential brands and advertisers, advertising networks and advertising
exchanges. Simply put, the programmatic nature of this network will allow for:
first, selling the advertising inventory in real time at the highest possible
price;
second, the program will interact with all the publishers in the Bright Mountain
Media Ad Exchange Network reporting impressions, ad fill rates, CPMs, click
through rates, and estimated revenue; and
third, we plan to incorporate into this software a platform where advertisers
can directly make purchases on the Bright Mountain Media Ad Exchange Network.
To implement this strategy, subject to the availability of sufficient capital
we intend to:
accelerate the growth of the Daily Engage Media acquisition;
achieve a dominant market share of our ‘heroes’ and young male
audience segments in order to be a single source for advertisers and brands
to connect them all;
add IT, administration, sales support and advertising operation personnel;
and
acquire additional websites and improve existing websites.
Currently, in addition to our corporate website, www.brightmountainmedia.com,
we own the following website properties which we have acquired or developed
since 2013:
Advertisetothemilitary.com
Leoaffairs.com
BlackHelmetApparel.com
Militaryhousingrentals.com
Bootcamp4me.com
Militarystarter.com
Bootcamp4me.org
Popularmilitary.com
Brightwatches.com
Sargeslist.com
BrightMountainMedia.com
Thebrightnetwork.com
Coastguardnews.com
Thebright.com
Fdcareers.com
Thebrightmail.com
Thebravestonline.com
Usmclife.com
Firefightingnews.com
Wardocumentaryfilms.com
Gopoliceblotter.com
Warisboring.com
JQPublicblog.com
Welcomehomeblog.com
We also partner with four parties on five additional websites, havokjournal.com,
Article107News.com, 24HourCampFire.com, and yuuut.com, under revenue sharing
arrangements.
BrightWatches.com, BlackHelmet.com and GoPoliceBlotter.com are web-based “stores”
where shoppers can purchase a variety of products including watches, clocks,
apparel and accessories. We maintain an inventory of watches and clocks. The
proprietary Black Helmet Apparel product line of clothing and accessories features
designs that are hand drawn, unique and relay the fearless side of firefighting,
including:
T-shirts
jackets
sweatshirts
drinkware
wallets
knives
hats
jewelry, including bracelets, earrings and pendants
decals and patches
phone accessories
sunglasses
backpacks
We sell these products through various distribution portals, which include
Amazon and eBay, and through direct sales.