Inspiring Conversations with John Petrocelli of Bulldog DM

Today we’d like to introduce you to John Petrocelli.

Hi John, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
In the early days of streaming, the industry was in the midst of a format war between Microsoft Windows Media vs. Real Real Player vs Apple Quick Time and I was working at one of the delivery engines or Content Delivery Networks supporting record labels, broadcasters, studios, and sports leagues delivering their content in these three formats. It was an exciting time and super interesting to be acting as Switzerland with these three companies as the internet began to explore video. It occurred to me that eventually this content would need to be monetized in some way and I began to shift in that direction. I got a call from Apple indicating that an artist had approached them about delivering their content directly to the end consumer themselves and would I entertain a conversation with this artist. I said ‘sure – who is the artist?’ The answer was: Prince. I was a long-time huge fan and jumped at the chance.

Explaining content protection, anti-piracy and monetization was no easy task back then and to simplify the process I took a copy of “Purple Rain” from a file sharing network and had it encrypted and sent it to Prince’s team. When you went to open and play the file, it asked you to either pay or become authorized to access the file. I got an email back in the middle of the night that said: ‘Prince says “this is exactly what eye want to 2 do.'” We came to an agreement to build Prince’s Musicology Download Store as part of his website and online fan club. Prince filled the store with singles, EPs, videos, clips of live shows, and all kinds of content and fans loved it. Prince then decided to go on a massive tour that was largely billed as a comeback where he would perform all of his hits and then informed us that he would make the best seats on each date of the tour available only through his fan club. We then had to quickly build a ticketing solution. The store, tour and ticketing were a huge collective success and Prince went on to win a pair of Grammys, a Web Award, a Webby Lifetime Achievement Award and a Billboard Best Use of Technology by an Artist Award.

But the big thing for me was that I got to see Prince perform some tune up shows for the tour, multiple dates on the tour, some incredible 3 hour after parties and a Grammy party performance in his living room with Maceo Parker, Alicia Keys and Stevie Wonder. I thought that there is going to come a time where we could stream and share these experiences together with anyone on their devices.

I had been advising a boutique livestreaming services company for over six years that had been asking me to take the CEO role and based on my Prince experience I decided to accept. Within months AEG acquired the company and I found myself inside the world’s largest presenter of live music and live sports. We became the livestreaming provider for events like the Grammys, Oscars, Masters, TED, and the MTV VMA’s.

Prior to and through the acquisition, I had started a dialog with YouTube about moving into livestreaming as a means to drive viewers to an experience and then expose them to all the content on the platform post-event. The planets aligned and we powered and produced an Alicia Keys concert in an AEG venue in NYC brought to the viewer on YouTube by American Express. Jay-Z joined Alicia to close the show with “Empire State of Mind”. The livestream was a massive success and YouTube had a thrilled audience, a happy artist and a delighted brand.

We structured an agreement to provide the services needed to help YouTube present livestreams and enabled a wide range of events that included Coachella, Bonnaroo, Rock In Rio, Austin City Limits, movie premieres, product launches and tent pole events. Smartphones began to become widely adopted and the world began to move towards an experience economy. I saw this as an opportunity and created my own company with some key AEG colleagues and Bulldog DM was born. We are now in our 10th year and going strong.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Being an entrepreneur is never a smooth road for anyone but the challenges make it an exciting journey. The main struggle we faced was that we were probably too early. I had a long career in sales and learned early on that solving customer problems was the key to winning business and we worked hard to do just that. We also had the benefit of being committed to listening to best understand the challenges that Madison Ave was and is facing as traditional means of marketing and advertising were being disrupted by digital platforms. I got into streaming because of Mark Cuban and read whatever I could about him and his philosophies and even had a drink with him at an AEG event. Mark repeatedly mentions that “sales cures all” for start-ups or “no sales, then no company”. Shortly after opening our doors, we were able to secure Coca-Cola as a client and that changed everything for us.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
“Bulldog DM (BDM) creates, produces and distributes livestreams across all devices and platforms, as well as bespoke white-label destinations. Through compelling interactive livestream experiences, BDM captivates and connects audiences, transforming viewers into participants. BDM livestreams have earned over one billion audience engagements for Fortune 100 and independent clients across music, sports, automotive, beverage and more. Founded in 2012 by serial livestream entrepreneur John Petrocelli, BDM is the world’s most experienced livestream studio.”

I am most proud of our client roster that includes: Spotify, Amazon, Procter & Gamble, Netflix, Xfinity, Apple, AT&T, Samsung, American Express, the NFL, Coca-Cola, TikTok, Viacom, YouTube, Sony, Nestle, Snickers, AEG, Hyundai, Tiffany, Hilton, Nissan, Jeep, and Facebook.

If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
Growing up, I was pretty quiet but was always in neighborhoods with large amounts of other kids my age. I was always very interested in sports especially baseball and at an early age, I took to pitching and tried to learn as much about pitching as I possibly could. As I got older, I began to develop an interest in music. Eventually, I started to value experiences far more than material possessions, especially shared experiences with friends.

Contact Info:

• Website: bulldogdm.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bulldogdigitalmedia/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BulldogDigitalMedia
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bulldogdm