Activate

The leading strategy and technology consulting firm for media, technology, entertainment and information businesses.

Activate works with CEOs and senior management teams to drive growth and position companies to win in the dynamic media-tech ecosystem.

We help optimize businesses and capture the opportunities arising from the innovation and invention reshaping these industries.

As a firm, we believe in the power of real-world connections and networks.

Our entire focus is on helping our clients address their biggest challenge: Growth.

About

These are certainly exciting (and challenging) times for media, technology, entertainment and information companies. New technologies, platforms, distribution models, marketplaces, editorial models and advertising formats are creating growth opportunities. But capturing those growth opportunities isn’t going to be easy. As the business environment gets more competitive, there is a critical need for new strategies and approaches.

That’s where we come in.

Leading companies turn to us to find ways to grow their revenues, take advantage of digital opportunities and get ahead of the forces transforming their businesses.

We also act as advisors for a number of early- mid-stage startups. Our clients benefit from our real-world collaboration with entrepreneurs and tech innovators.

Insight

Ideas get better and more valuable the more widely they’re shared. Here’s our perspective on the industries we serve.

Our Presentations

Activate Tech and Media Outlook 2016

Find out the nine key insights which will drive growth in the technology and media industries in the coming year

Think Again: Media + Tech 2014

Trends in media and entertainment are causing us to wonder and to think again about the evolution of the media and tech ecosystem – and how media and tech businesses will grow their companies.

What Matters

From privacy to policy, sensors to subscriptions, data to design, these are the ideas that Activate identified as mattering most in building business growth in 2012.

Redefiners: Capturing Media Growth Dollars

In 2011, Activate’s perspective on how established media companies can create new growth businesses set a new agenda for many in the industry.

Exploiting The Potential Of Big Data

How are companies creating value from big data? They're developing a meaningful understanding of the users they're working to connect with through data from publishers and advertisers, and not just in real time.

What Will Matter For Media-Tech

The user is what matters for media-tech.

Think Again
Think Again
What Matters
Redefiners: Capturing Media Growth Dollars
Exploiting The Potential Of Big Data
What Will Matter For Media-Tech

Talent

People who join our team are fluent in the worlds of both world-leading CEOs and cutting-edge startups.

Join Our Team

Our clients demand deeply innovative thinking, industry experience, and original insights. The work we do requires a different background than other leading strategy consulting firms. Our clients like that we’re different. If that sounds like you, get in touch.

Know your stuff

We help our clients capture their most significant business opportunities and stay in front of the major changes in their industries. To accomplish this, each and every Activate team member has considerable industry experience that’s grounded in developing strategy.

Fair warning: If you believe that developing business strategy is about helping companies “re-engineer processes” or streamline supply chains or simply cut costs, then Activate is not for you.

It’s not about the org chart

At Activate, you’ll join a highly collaborative and non-hierarchical culture. Teamwork is critical to doing our best work. We are committed to mentoring and as a young firm we can offer a career development track not possible in more established organizations.

We strive to build a team that is diverse not just in background but in outlook. And the most rewarding part of being part of the team at Activate is getting to fully engage with meaningful work that provides measurable results every day.

This isn’t “powerpoint by the pound”

We’re looking for people who are smart and practical. Our biggest value to our clients is in finding the non-intuitive and most innovative answers. Being firmly rooted in the reality of the media and technology businesses today informs our insights. And lessons from the most successful emerging companies and user experiences are incorporated into our strategies. That means people who join our team must be experts, either in established media companies or as technology innovators.

Capabilities

Breakout growth strategy

Identify and exploit new opportunities, define new strategies and create a road map and plan for sustainable growth, for an entire corporation or for key business units.

Sales activation and go-to-market

Drive sales: reinvent the customer value proposition, improve sales force effectiveness, develop new advertising categories and customer segments and improve advertising yield.

Digital strategy as business strategy: reinvention at scale

Formulate strategies and identify opportunities to enable established companies to create new and engaging user experiences, products and services that underpin new high growth businesses, revenue streams and audiences.

Value capture and due-diligence for principal investors

Once businesses are optimized for cost (which is relatively easy), value is created from growing the top line. We help principal investors and their management teams identify and implement growth strategies that leverage existing customer relationships, products and services – into new digital products, markets and customer segments.

Strategic due diligence – providing insight in to how well targets are positioned for growth and whether they are advantaged given the likely evolution of their industry sector.

Create new media products and businesses – inside of large companies

Take advantage of the native capabilities of devices and platforms to redefine content, editorial and storytelling for a new generation of audiences.

Identify opportunities to create new businesses that take advantage of a company’s assets and capabilities.

Pricing optimization

Tap new sales revenues from optimizing yield and sales volume from marketers and consumers – including dynamic pricing, bundling products, packaging audiences and new sales stewardship approaches.

Difference

In the same way that companies need to be reinvented for the years ahead, we’ve reinvented the consulting firm for the challenges of this new era.

At Activate, we are native to the digital world — experienced business builders, industry experts, practical strategists, creative innovators and fast movers.

  • Team with business operating track records, tech startup experience and blue-chip management consulting backgrounds
  • Extensive knowledge, relationships and credibility in the media, technology, information and entertainment industries
  • Deeply involved in the creative and content development process
  • Expertise and credibility with marketers, agencies, ad platforms and advertising decision makers
  • Hands on experience in creating advertising products, packages and activating advertising sales
  • Ability to infuse start-up culture into established culture

The name “Activate” defines the spirit of our firm: we create and set into motion practical strategies, rooted in the realities of how people will use and enjoy media, information and technology into the future.

Results

Industry depth across all businesses we serve.

Consumer & Services
  • Connected services & payments
  • Retail
  • Consumer products
Digital
  • Large scale web
  • Content development
  • Ecommerce
  • Advertising Technology
  • Games
Video
  • Programming
  • Features & production
  • Digital video services
  • Web video
  • Advertising Sales
Media, Information & Advertising Businesses
  • News & information
  • Data & analytics
  • Tools & software
  • Consumer & B2B
Entertainment & Sports
  • Music
  • Teams / Leagues
  • Venues
  • Videogames
Devices & Distribution Platforms
  • Mobile
  • Cable, DBS & high speed data
  • Platforms
  • Devices & electronics
  • Communication
We are successful if our clients are successful. That means we help them create strategies that are real and actionable and create value – top line and bottom line growth and value creation.

What We Deliver

  • Doubling shareholder value for a Fortune 500 company
  • Building a new consumer division for a Fortune 500 business information and media company
  • Increasing advertising sales by 25 percent for a cable television company
  • Developing the strategy for a new education division for one of the world’s largest entertainment companies
  • Exploiting technology to create a new paradigm for storytelling and narrative for a major entertainment company
  • Improving advertising effectiveness for a leading magazine company
  • Optimizing pricing and sponsorship revenues across a multi-business entertainment company

Contact

+1 212 316 4444
activate@activate.com
@activateinc

New York City
156 Fifth Avenue, Penthouse 1
New York, NY 10010

San Francisco
2 Bryant Street, Suite 100
San Francisco, CA 94105