Jimmy Maymann: How I made a million from online advertising

Danish internet entrepreneur, Jimmy Maymann, hit upon his first business idea while on holiday in the US in 1994. "In America the internet was everywhere. I realised that as it became more popular in Europe advertisers would want to get on board."

He left college a year later and created Neo Ideo, one of Scandinavia's first digital branding agencies. "European firms were waking up to the fact that they needed an online presence but there was a lack of digital talent in the region." Maymann helped them design the "brand portals", which acted as a "shop front on the internet. It wasn't just a case of making a website, we had to show companies how to manage their brand online." As the dotcom bubble inflated, Neo Ideo grew. "In the beginning I was working in my basement and I didn't see any money for the first few months." But by 1997 the firm was employing 60 people and "starting to attract big corporate clients".

By January 2000 Maymann decided "it was time to sell up". The 27-year-old knew "five or six companies that wanted to buy" so he got out just a few months before the dotcom bubble burst in spring 2000. Maymann then spent five years working with Leo Burnett, the international agency that bought Neo Ideo, before he decided it was time to start out again. This time he would exploit a weakness in internet advertising. He believed that widespread banner advertising was an attempt to "stick with printed press methods without realising the potential of the web".

Subscribe to MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Sign up

So in 2004 he set up Goviral with an old university pal, Claus Moseholm. The plan was for the pair to become experts in providing platforms for online video advertising. They created a video player, which they persuaded websites to host. They could then offer clients the chance to place video adverts on a pan-European network of targeted websites. The pair were convinced that the internet was on the brink of an online video "explosion" that would change internet advertising. "It might seem like an ob-vious prediction now but Goviral was set up before YouTube made such a success of online video."

Initially, many companies were dubious about the potential of online video. Similarly, the creative agencies that produced the content struggled to adapt the TV format to the smaller budgets of online video. Another challenge was psychological. "It was very difficult to go from the comfortable atmos-phere of working for a large corporation to going back to working in a basement for a two-man start-up."

In the beginning sales were slow, but the firm benefitted from being one of the first companies dedi-cated to online video campaigns. "We now have 12,000 sites across Europe and a sophisticated, pro-prietary video player no other firm on this side of the Atlantic can match that."

The firm has grown to over 100 employees and recorded £2m of profit in 2009. Now 38, Maymann is confident that the business will continue to grow. "Only 0.01% of European banner adverts are actively clicked on by users videos are the future of online advertising."