After dragging Reuters into the digital age, he launched his first adtech startup

Photo credit: mxmstryo

Azhar Rafee had a stellar 20-year career in the media industry, primarily working for Thomson Reuters where he was an executive vice president. During his time at Reuters, Azhar expanded the company’s footprint into markets like China, India, and Japan and also started the firm’s digital presence.

It was this exposure to direct-to-consumer business that convinced Azhar of the vast opportunity that lay ahead in the online space. Until then, Reuters had stoically and resolutely been very much a traditional media company with dated practices that suited the print-only business model. But, as Azhar recalls, the internet had contributed to vast fragmentation. Audiences were no longer at the mercy of publications who determined what content they could consume. On-demand services, as well as the rise of social media, meant people increasingly dictated what they read, listened to, and shared. And if companies didn’t keep up, they ran the risk of eroding their market share.

Coffee chains could use this to push content to consumers, showing things like new menu items.

Azhar understood what new media meant for millennials. As a marketing and sales professional himself, he knew businesses and brands would face challenges in being pervasive whilst remaining trendy, hip, and cool. An explosion of new mediums meant it wasn’t enough just to have catchy television advertising – it had to be sharable on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and maintain engaged audiences for the product to succeed.

Realizing that he needed to fulfill this potential, Azhar decided to start Vertika in 2009.

“The internet fascinated me. I knew I wanted to be a part of it, a part of the ecosystem. The challenge was to find a spot where my knowledge could help drive growth. So I was looking for opportunities, and I saw opportunities merging where TV, web, video, and digital signage was all converging,” he explains.

Targeted messages

To put it simply, Vertika is a marketing communications platform that helps businesses deal with both internal and external audiences. Think of it as a corporate television channel that’s entirely configurable and customizable. It can be used both in business-to-business and business-to-consumer industries. Using Vertika’s proprietary software, businesses can create and curate content and distribute it both to staff and customers alike.

For example, banks with thousands of branches spanning several countries can make use of the startup’s service to address their communication needs. Content can be broadcasted from central headquarters and be displayed on each screen via the cloud. This could be information about the right kind of mutual funds to invest in, or a new type of credit card. Other businesses, such as coffee chains, can use the product to push content like new menu items, or what drinks are trending in other parts of the world.

Azhar Rafee

Every single screen can be a separate channel that’s targeted by audience, language, time, and date.

Not another Skype