Brand Thunder

Jul 13, 2015

Eight years after it was founded, Brand Thunder LLC is able to enact its original business model. The Dublin-based maker of custom browser themes for sports teams, bands and media websites has built enough audience to actually get its rainmaking from those brands instead of fans, CEO Patrick Murphy told me. “I made a lot of nickels and dimes from you, the user,” Murphy said. “That adds friction to your experience. ... We’re always trying to clean out those elements.” Related Content Ohio State letting voters decide on key issue: its official T-shirt Brand Thunder’s first major client , the Washington Capitals, paid up front in 2007 to promote the hockey team via browser themes and remains a customer today . But quickly after signing the team with tech-friendly owners, Murphy ran into walls with other brands. For years, Brand Thunder instead made its money through ads and deals with search engines to get paid when users searched or shopped online. But that in turn affected browser performance, slowing adoption of the custom themes by users. But now its themes aren’t just a toolbar with widgets across the top of a browser, but fill the entire page every time a user opens a new tab. Teams or news sites share information nuggets – such as when draft day is coming up – tweets or Instagram photos. About 15 percent of users click to the brand’s page from those tabs, Murphy said, instead of heading straight to whatever they intended to search for in the first place. Click-through rates of 1 percent to 2 percent are “good” for a lot of pay-per-click ads. “If I can start getting traffic to these guys, the value goes up dramatically,” Murphy said. Brand Thunder also now designs Facebook apps and mobile themes that can send push notifications to fans. It runs fan polls, such as choosing player of the week or this year’s official T-shirt for the Ohio State University Buckeyes. Brand Thunder also can provide its clients aggregated data on their fans, such as top search terms. At the peak, ad revenue was about $1 million, Murphy said. The company hit the break-even point two years ago and has six employees who work remotely. Now annual revenue is trending about $750,000 as the company turns off add features while rebuilding with the new model: Brands paying monthly subscriptions of $500 to $2,000 depending on features. But that source will be steady and predictable as it grows, as opposed to depending on peaks and valleys of online activity. Want Columbus Technology news in your inbox? Sign up for our free email newsletters. Industries