Hive Media success leads to Innovation Works graduation

January 22
By Sean Meyer
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Hive Media Group is a publishing and ad tech company that generates anywhere from 800 million to one billion monthly page views across some two dozen websites it manages on a daily basis.
 
That level of success is impressive, particularly in an internet world dominated by easily available content and constant social media buzz.
 
But even so, Justin Ogglesby — vice-president of audience development and managing director of the Canadian office of Hive Media Group, located on the fourth floor of Innovation Works — has a difficult time explaining to some members of his family just what exactly he does for a living.
 
“Generally speaking, I tell people I work in publishing if they have a very minimal understanding of this world,” Justin said. “To others, I say my job is to find profitable traffic sources for the websites through a lot of different channels. I’ve got some family members though who think I’m a graphic designer. I let them think that because it’s an easier conversation to have.”
 
About three years ago Justin had been doing some consulting work for a number of international publications when he was offered a job helping to manage the social media of professional athletes.
 
Unfortunately, the position was located in San Diego, Calif. and so Justin declined the position to stay closer to home, something particularly important as he was looking at becoming a father at the time.
 
Out of that circumstance came a joint venture called Atsports, which was then bought out by Hive Media Group last December.
 
Looking back, Justin says his current position was something he “kind of fell into,” but has become his passion.
 
“Originally I worked on the ad agency side of the business . . . got into publishing by working at Diply; I was one of the original employees. Then I left to do my own thing,” he said. “I’ve always been entrepreneurial and my background with economics and business, when big data became a thing, the analysis of data and content distribution and digital media, I felt my skill sets would fit well there. I found a niche in that space.”
 
The digital media world has seen a lot of change in recent years, but as Justin describes it, “with change comes opportunity and a strength of our office is finding opportunity in those changes.”
 
One of those opportunities brought Justin and his team to Innovation Works.
 
Justin is quick to celebrate both Innovation Works, and its team, for helping him build up his business.
 
“For me, looking to recruit a team, I needed a space that was affordable, but also a quality of space I could compete with the tech start-ups with sexy spaces. My kitchen table wasn’t quite right,” he said. “Innovation Works, the people here were really good about allowing me to add additional space as the team grew and I could scale the costs with the revenues. We’ve grown as this place has grown; absolutely.”
 
That growth is actually leading Hive Media Group out of Innovation Works and into their own space.
 
Justin said the plan is to do some hiring this year, building up his team to 50 percent more staff in the next six months. 
 
And while Innovation Works has proven a great place to work out of, Justin is excited for what the move into their own space will mean for the future.
 
“It does feel like graduation,” he said. “Moving into our own space, having the resources to spend money on that, having that stable business model and scale and growth is a graduation of sorts, but we still have a long way to go.”
 
For more information, visit http://www.hivemedia.com.


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