KMGi Group

KMGi
Advertising agency
Industry Internet advertising
Founded 1997
Founder Alex Konanykhin
Headquarters New York City
Key people
 Alex Konanykhin
Silvina Moschini
Nikolai Mentchokov
Elena Gratcheva
Simon Erblich
Services Internet commercials, web presentations, website design, commercial software
Subsidiaries Publicity Guaranteed
WikiExperts.us
TransparentBusiness
Website KMGi Homepage

KMGi Group is a private holding of companies specializing in Internet technologies, public relations, and online visibility. It includes KMGi Studios (an interactive production agency), Intuic (Social Media and public-relations agency), TransparentBusiness (SaaS solution) and WikiExperts (an online visibility company).

Founded in 1997 in New York City as a Russian language advertising agency, the company changed its focus to Internet-related web site construction, webmercials, software, and web-based product demonstrations. KMGi subsidiary Publicity Guaranteed sells publicity for its clients. Another KMGi subsidiary, WikiExperts, creates and develops Wikipedia articles for its customers.

History

Founding and webmercials

KMGi was founded in New York City by Alex Konanykhin, Nikolai Mentchokov, and Elena Gratcheva in 1997. The company name is based on the initials of the founders' last names. It started as a Russian language advertising agency, with its office in the Empire State Building. The company later shifted focus to work primarily on building dynamic web sites for customers.[1]

The company began with 35 employees based in one physical location, but has since moved to the use of a virtual office, a decision that enables it to employ people living around the world. According to TheStreet.com, this change allows KMGi's employees to "save time by not commuting, and they benefit from working with the very best people in the industry, because Konanykhin can look globally, not locally, to hire. This also ends up benefiting the client in terms of getting the best expertise."[2] Many of the company's employees live in Russia.[1]

Within a year of starting, KMGi introduce the use of Macromedia’s Flash Technology into online advertising.[3] KMGi's approach was to combine the interactivity of the Internet with television-style advertisements. Alex Mentchoukov, the agency's chief creative officer, created a way of using vector-based graphics for Web advertisements without using as much bandwidth as pixel-based graphics. KMGi was one of the first companies to create animated, television-style "webmercials" for the Internet.[1][4][5] Production of webmercials costs two to three times as much as web banners, but MarketAdvisors reported in 2000 that ad recall of webmercials was double that of banners among viewers.[6]

In August 2000, KMGi announced that it was teaming with Unicast to move from using the interstitial format for its commercials to the superstitial format. That format reduced the slow-down effect of browser downloads.[6] In 2002 the KMGi website became the first on the Internet to be carried entirely in Flash Lingo.[7]

Products and services

In 2000, in response to the bursting of the dot-com bubble, KMGi altered its business plan. At the suggestion of KMGI's chief information officer, Alex Koshel, the company began selling retail software. By 2004, KMGi had $1.4 million in sales of software.[8] The company did not completely abandon webmercials, however, attracting viewers by offering free anti-spam software to consumers who watched a 30-second commercial.[9] KMGi also created WebPresentations, which were more elaborate product demonstrations that could be viewed online.[10] In 2004 KMGi released a tool called SeePassword, which allowed users to recover hidden or lost passwords from Internet Explorer, in an effort to persuade Microsoft to institute better password protection for its users.[11]

In 2005, KMGi formed a subsidiary called Publicity Guaranteed (PG), which sells publicity for its clients. The company charges only for articles it successfully places in or pitches to the media. In the case of one client, Absolute Poker, PG was able to influence 40 newspapers in 2005 and 2006, including USA Today and the New York Times, to publish articles about Cereus's college-tuition contests.[12] It was during this period that KMGi transitioned to a virtual-based workforce, spreading its work force out over the world instead of employing everyone in its New York and foreign offices.[2]

In 2010, KMGi formed a subsidiary called WikiExperts, which creates and repairs Wikipedia articles for companies or advises them on how to create articles themselves. At the time of WikiExperts' creation, Konanykhin suggested that Wikipedia should use advertising to generate more revenue and pay "qualified experts" to improve its content.[13][14][15][16][17]

Notable clients

KMGi's webmercial and other services clients have included Volvo, Pfizer, DuPont, Best Western, Verizon, and Macromedia.[2][3] In addition, the agency has produced advertisements for Coca-Cola, Lexus, the New York Post, and others.[5]

Software products

In 2004, KMGi began marketing a product called SeePassword, which allowed users to view passwords on their computers that would otherwise appear as dots or asterisks on their screen. According to PC Magazine, one of the purposes of the product was to pressure Microsoft to improve the vulnerability of password protection in its browser software.[11] In 2011 KMGi released TransparentBusiness software, which allows employers or clients to monitor the activity of those working for them on computers via a cloud-supported activity monitor and screenshots.[18] In 2012 TransparentBusiness received the PC World Latin America Rising Star Award for the Best Cloud Computing Solution for Enterprise.[19]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 McRae, Susan (September 2000). "The Getaway" (article). Los Angeles Daily Journal (reprinted at www.konanykhin.com/). Retrieved 17 May 2012.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Sonnenberg, Danielle (19 July 2007). "Foreign Entrepreneurs Finding the American Dream" (article). TheStreet.com. Retrieved 16 May 2012.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Greenberg, Karl (3 July 2000). "IQ Interactive Special Report - Flash Forward" (article). Adweek. Retrieved 4 June 2012.
  4. ↑ Swartz, Jon (13 September 1999). "The Internet’s Future is Now" (article). Forbes. Retrieved 16 May 2012.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Jantz, Richard (1 September 1999). "Internet Ads Get a Flashy Face-Lift" (article). PCWorld. Retrieved 18 May 2012.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Cotriss, David (25 August 2000). "Net-mercials Combine Affiliate Model With Rich Media Ads" (article). Online Media Daily. Retrieved 18 May 2012.
  7. ↑ Glenn Fleishman, Toby Malina, and Jeff Carlson (2002). Web Design Basics: Ideas and Inspiration for Working with Type, Color, and Navigation on the Web. Rockport Publishers. p. 192.
  8. ↑ Henricks, Mark (1 January 2005). "Tech, Please: 'Next-generation CIOs' offer more than just tech advice" (article). Entrepreneur. Retrieved 5 June 2012.
  9. ↑ Swartz, Jon (24 November 2003). "Marketers hunt for ways to score attention online" (article). USA Today. Retrieved 5 June 2012.
  10. ↑ Ed Applegate (2005). Strategic Copywriting: How to Create Effective Advertising. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 178.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Rubenking, Neil J. (2 November 2004). "Revealing Passwords" (article). PC Magazine. Retrieved 20 June 2012.
  12. ↑ Newman, Andrew Adam (29 October 2007). "Publicity Firm Shames Client for Failure to Pay a Bill" (article). The New York Times. Retrieved 5 June 2012.
  13. ↑ "Empresa propone nuevo modelo de negocio para Wikipedia" (article) (in Spanish). El Mercurio. 14 January 2011. Retrieved 13 June 2012.
  14. ↑ Salvatierra, Blanca (23 May 2011). "Los expertos de pago reivindican un hueco en Wikipedia" (article) (in Spanish). Público. Retrieved 14 June 2012.
  15. ↑ "Wikipleadia: The promise and perils of crowdsourcing content" (article). The Economist. 13 January 2011. Retrieved 18 June 2012.
  16. ↑ McHugh, Molly (15 December 2010). "Analysts advise Wikipedia to stop asking for donations" (article). Digital Trends. Retrieved 19 June 2012.
  17. ↑ Scola, Nancy (27 December 2011). "Jimmy Wales Needs Your Help" (article). The American Prospect. Retrieved 20 June 2012.
  18. ↑ "KMGI control software presents the use of work time". PC World. February 23, 2012.
  19. ↑ "IDG LATIN AMERICA ANNOUNCES: THE 2012 PC WORLD LATIN AMERICA AWARDS WINNERS". PC World. October 26, 2012. Retrieved November 1, 2012.

External links