Joanne Bradford, corporate vice president and chief media
officer of MSN Media Network, decided to join SpotRunner, a Los Angeles advertising startup. According to
a press statement released by SpotRunner Bradford, who is veteran with more
than 20 years of experience in the media industry, will be responsible for
leading the business unit focused on national advertisers.
Spot Runner co-founders, Nick Grouf and David Waxman, first
joined forces in 1995 to create Firefly Network, Inc., which was acquired by
Microsoft in 1998. Its core product, the Firefly Passport, became the
foundation for Microsoft's Passport and .NET initiatives. Next, they launched
PeoplePC, Inc., which went public in 2000 and was acquired by EarthLink, Inc.
in 2002.
Spot Runner is the first Internet-based ad agency that makes
it easy and affordable for local businesses to advertise on TV. The company offers
a complete solution for television advertising - commercial production, media
planning and media buying - in a single turn-key, self-service system. The
entire process, which traditionally takes months and hundreds of thousands of
dollars, now takes just days at a fraction of the cost.
"Hiring Joanne is a huge win for Spot Runner and we are
tremendously excited about the contributions she can make across our entire
organization as a key member of the executive team. Her background in both
online and offline media is a perfect fit for us," said Nick Grouf,
chairman and CEO of Spot Runner.
Before being corporate vice president and chief media officer,
Joanne Bradford, served as Microsoft's corporate vice president of global sales
and marketing and chief media revenue officer for Microsoft Digital Advertising
Solutions across all Microsoft properties, including MSN, Windows Live,
OfficeLive.com, Microsoft.com, Xbox, the Microsoft TV Internet Protocol
Television Edition software platform and mobile content.
At Microsoft, Bradford was
to report to Satya Nadella, promoted last month to the role of senior vice
president in charge of search, portals and Microsoft's advertising platform.
"We thank her for her many contributions in helping us
build a world-class advertising sales organization, bringing the advertiser
point of view closer to Microsoft and evolving the MSN experience through
partnerships and branded entertainment," Nadella said in an e-mailed
statement, quoted by AP.
Joanne Bradford is leaving Microsoft one month and a half
after the company launched its bid to acquire Yahoo and warned it would
eliminate overlapping operations.
