New Media Strategies

New Media Strategies (NMS) was a social media agency headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. The company was founded in 1999 by Pete Snyder, and as of 2011 has 120 employees. NMS is known as one of the first companies to strictly focus on social media as a form of marketing communications,[1] and is "the largest social media agency in the world" according to The Washington Post.[2] It is a subsidiary of Meredith Corporation, a Fortune 500 media company which acquired NMS in 2007.

New Media Strategies
TypeSubsidiary
IndustrySocial media, marketing, public relations
FoundedWashington, DC
(1999)
Headquarters
Arlington, Virginia
,
United States
Key people
Pete Snyder, Founder
ParentMeredith Corporation
Websitenms.com

History

Pete Snyder founded New Media Strategies in 1999[3] with $150,000 from his own savings, credit cards, and the investments of friends and family. The company initially operated from Snyder's Capitol Hill apartment before opening office space in Washington, D.C., and later moving its headquarters to Arlington, Virginia.[4] Drawing upon earlier experience in political polling and market research, Snyder recognized that companies at the time lacked an understanding of how to interpret and respond to what was being said about them online—prompting him to establish the first Internet firm to offer online conversation analysis and real-time communications consultation to clients.[5][6] The business model was based on treating the Internet as "the world's largest focus group" and the company found its earliest business with film studios,[7] soon counting The Walt Disney Company, ABC and Burger King among its initial clients.[3][4]

In 2005, Washingtonian magazine listed it as one of the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area's "50 Great Places to Work".[8] Though it was created during the tech boom of the late 1990s, NMS expanded in the years following this time period, being recorded by Inc. Magazine' as one of the "500 fastest growing private companies" in the United States in 2004, 2005 and 2006.[9]

In 2011, founder Pete Snyder stepped down from NMS to start up a new company, Disruptor Capital.[10]

Acquisition

In January 2007, New Media Strategies was acquired by Meredith Corporation, a Fortune 500 firm traditionally known for its publishing and broadcasting holdings. Snyder remained as CEO until December 2011.[11][12] At the time of the acquisition, a portion of the proceeds were set aside in an employee stock pool, which appreciated to $2.5 million and in 2010 was paid out to employees who had remained at the company for three years.[13] The New York Post described this profit-sharing arrangement as atypical in the advertising industry,[14] as acquisitions of this nature do not traditionally involve compensation of non-executive employees.[15]

NMS has been integrated into Meredith Xcelerated Marketing (MXM), a Meredith company specializing in content marketing. Currently MXM has offices in New York, Des Moines, Los Angeles, Detroit, Dallas, Windsor, and India in addition to the Arlington office. The company, acquired by Accenture in May 2018, offers solutions in digital, mobile, social, CRM, analytics, strategy, SEO, and more, with an emphasis on shareable, branded content.[16]

Areas of business

Structured as an agency, NMS primarily operates as a consultant which "helps firms develop marketing strategies for social media", according to The Wall Street Journal.[17] The company specialized early on in measuring and participating in online discussion surrounding Hollywood films, and an entertainment division of the organization has since coordinated online public relations campaigns for NBC and other broadcast television networks.[18] A public affairs division[4] has included political and news media clients such as the Fred Thompson presidential campaign[19] and C-SPAN,[20] and a corporate practice represents restaurant chains, retailers and companies within the consumer packaged goods industry.[4]

NMS advised the National Football League Players Association during the 2011 NFL lockout, producing a video advertisement and an online petition entitled "Let Us Play", which addressed the threat of an expiring collective bargaining agreement between the league and its players. A broadcast television network refused to air the ad, prompting news media to draw attention to the video on YouTube.[21] NFL players began to use the hashtag "#letusplay" when discussing the campaign on Twitter,[22] and it became the subject of media coverage for its use of online media instead of traditional media as a means of advocacy.[23][24] The company also engages in organizational training. It hosted a "social media day" at the New York Stock Exchange on November 3, 2011,[25] which was held to teach members of corporations traded on the exchange how to be more effective in using social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for public communication.[26]

Up through 2007, New Media Strategies created and operated a series of websites dedicated to women anchors of Fox News on behalf of then-CEO Roger Ailes. The agency ran blogs devoted to anchors Laurie Dhue and Kiran Chetry that linked to a portal website called Girls of Fox News. That site included suggestive screenshots and degrading commentary on the appearances of Fox News anchors Megyn Kelly, Alisyn Camerota, and Courtney Friel.[27]

References
  1. Beyers, Dan (28 October 2011). "Editor's note: In the digital age, the revolution is all around us". The Washington Post. Retrieved 14 December 2011.
  2. Heath, Thomas (23 October 2011). "Capital Buzz". The Washington Post. Retrieved 14 December 2011.
  3. Adelman, Ken (1 October 2006). "Arlington's New Media Strategies: Interview With Peter Snyder". Washingtonian. Retrieved 11 July 2011.
  4. Hart, Kim (28 January 2007). "Tracking Who's Saying What About Whom". The Washington Post. pp. D01. Retrieved 14 December 2011.
  5. Heath, Tom (11 August 2008). "Value Added: A Pioneer in Consumer Communication". The Washington Post. Retrieved 11 July 2011.
  6. Javers, Eamon (October 2000). "The Next Network". Washington Business Forward.
  7. Bond (21 March 2003). "New Media taps Internet power; Firm is 'eyes, ears' for movie studios regarding online buzz". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on 9 March 2016. Retrieved 14 December 2011.
  8. "Great Places to Work: Who's Best". Washingtonian Magazine. 1 November 2005. Retrieved 14 December 2011.
  9. "Inc. 500 Company Acquired by Media Firm". Inc. Magazine. 11 January 2007. Retrieved 7 December 2011.
  10. "Pete Snyder Steps Down From New Media Strategies to Start up Disruptor Capital - Washingtonian". 2011-12-15. Retrieved 2023-08-03.
  11. Adler, Neil (10 January 2007). "New Media Strategies sold to Meredith". Washington Business Journal. Retrieved 6 November 2008.
  12. Cotton Delo (2011-12-15). "New Media Strategies CEO Pete Snyder to Step Down". Ad Age. Retrieved 2012-03-03.
  13. Bedard, Paul (26 July 2010). "Loyalty Pays at D.C. Marketing Firm". U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved 12 July 2011.
  14. Tharp, Paul (30 July 2010). "Ad Boss Shares Good Fortune with Staff". New York Post. Retrieved 12 July 2011.
  15. Patel, Kunur (28 July 2010). "Agency Chief Gets Earn-out, Spreads Wealth to Employees". Advertising Age. Retrieved 12 July 2011.
  16. "New Media Strategies Founder & CEO Pete Snyder to Step Down From Executive Duties at End of 2011". Meredith Corporation MediaRoom. Retrieved 2023-08-03.
  17. "NoVa CEO to ring opening bell on NYSE". The Wall Street Journal. 3 November 2011. Retrieved 8 December 2011.
  18. Burkitt, Laurie (15 June 2009). "NBC Tips An Ear To Web Chatter". Forbes. Archived from the original on 23 January 2013. Retrieved 12 December 2011.
  19. Skalka, Jennifer (6 June 2007). "Who's With Fred? A Look At Thompson's Web Team". National Journal. Archived from the original on August 4, 2008. Retrieved 14 December 2011.
  20. Lai Stirland, Sarah (24 August 2008). "Gadgetry at The Democratic National Convention". Wired Magazine. Retrieved 12 July 2011.
  21. Brown, Maury (31 January 2011). "Black Eye? CBS Rejects NFL Players Union Ad Before Super Bowl". Forbes. Retrieved 9 December 2011.
  22. Thomaselli, Rich (26 January 2011). "NFL Players Association Breaks Spot in Battle With League". Advertising Age. Retrieved 8 December 2011.
  23. Farrar, Doug (2 February 2011). "NFLPA makes 'Let It Air' ad after 'Let Us Play' is refused". Yahoo! Sports. Retrieved 9 December 2011.
  24. Klopman, Michael (3 February 2011). "NFLPA's 'Let It Air' Ad: Union Creates Follow-Up Commercial". Huffington Post. Retrieved 9 December 2011.
  25. "Social Media Day at NYSE". The Bell (NYSE Euronext). 3 November 2011. Archived from the original on 30 January 2013. Retrieved 9 December 2011.
  26. Riffee, Mark (4 November 2011). "NYSE Tries to Get on Same Social Media Page as #OWS". Wired Magazine. Retrieved 9 December 2011.
  27. Sheffield, Matthew (April 18, 2017). "Roger Ailes' fake news empire: Former Fox News head presided over a panoply of phony "sock puppet" blogs". Salon.
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