Tapinko – Online Marketplace for Offline Ad Space – DreamIT Funding Day

Tapinko is one of the startups to come out of the DreamIT startup incubator. Tapinko President Peter Groverman opened the presentation by explaining that there’s currently no place to purchase multiple offline ads (e.g. to purchase in every newspaper in Philly). My initial thought was that Google provides this type of offline newspaper ad buying already.

Peter took us through his presentation and overall I was very impressed with the service. Basically the Tapinko service is an outsourced offline ad management application. The service makes it easy for offline media to sell ads online. Tapinko only charges a transaction fee when sellers make a purchase which basically leaves no reason for media companies not to try it. The service can work with any offline advertising including outdoor advertising (i.e. billboards).

They are currently working with a variety of college daily newspapers in the Northeast with a 3-5 year plan to move into local publications and magazines. A 3-5 year plan is way too long – by then Google will own the space and/or the space will transform yet again. If they want to own this space, they need to buildout the "mall" of offline advertising options and sign-on as many partners as possible.