Giving Brands the Tools for Innovation

**This article was first published on The Drum**

Last January Collider welcomed nine new Marketing and Ad tech (or Madtech) startups into our family. These nascent businesses had global ambitions to help brands solve big problems around engaging with their customers. They joined the Collider Accelerator because we could give them access to some of the biggest brands in the UK including: BBC, Camelot, Unilever, Unruly and William Hill.

Over the past 12 months, their ideas have been work-shopped, torture-tested and grilled by some of the most senior marketing people in the UK. These people know their market and they know what they need to help solve some big problems. And it worked. 23 contracts were signed after seven months between our 2014 startups with the likes of Unilever and BBC Worldwide.

This access and approach means that the founders build products brands actually want to buy as they are solving real world problems, rather than just the sigh inducing gimmicks or features that I am sure you see every day.

This process is obviously rewarding for the startups, but crucial is the value these interactions bring to our partner brands and agencies.

Big data, mobile and social advocacy are providing new, sometimes unexplored, ways for brands to communicate with consumers Brands must adopt innovative practices to stay up to date. Innovation at the quickest pace is happening in the startups’ worlds – and brands know this. Instead of waiting for new technology and innovation to come to them through the traditional agency routeour brand partners are  creating direct relationships; speeding up their buying process and disrupting the marketing services value chain.

At Collider, marketers have the opportunity to work with around ten startups. And I mean really work with them. Senior executives get heavily involved by helping the founders shape their products; suggesting new or better product sets that would help sell the product, and of course, providing marketing and branding tips to ensure commercial deals get done.

Brands also know they need to be better at choosing the right company to work with; be excellent at integrating these new technologies more quickly into their businesses; and even work out which ones are not worth the time. By working closely with a number with startups, these senior professionals gain the necessary skills to spot the right kind of innovation for their businesses at the right time. The marketing leaders of the future will be the ones able to do this more quickly and efficiently than anyone else. In short: we believe we are arming them and their organisations to lead in the future as they learn to behave like our startups.

And for the first time some of the biggest agencies in the advertising world. , such as Ogilvy Group UK, The Engine group and Havas, are joining the Collider family in 2015. They see the value in working with startups – to help drive innovation in their business services and strategies, as well as for clients.

To stay ahead of the game, our partner brands know that they need to embrace innovation. That means working with startups.- not just once or twice,- but all of the time. So will 2015 be the year we see brands firmly look to startups to help with their innovation and keep up with their consumers? At Collider we certainly hope so.

The 12 Brand Partners for the Collider Class of 2015

[fullwidth_text alt_background="none" width="1/2" el_position="first"] As the holidays come crashing in and 2014 comes to a close, we are preparing for what 2015 will bring. And what better way than announcing our Brand Partners for the coming year?

2015 is going to be an exciting year for the Madtech world. We're preapring to bring in a new group of Madtech startups ready to take their businesses and products to the next level. But they're potential relies partially on the brands we partner with.

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Rose Lewis, our co-founder and ring leader shares how it is

"These brands play a pivotal role in our accelerator programme each year. Without their dedication and enthusiasm, our startups would not have access to such constructive and critical customer feedback as early on. This leads to a faster market launch of a product responding to brands’ actual needs."

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In the first 17 weeks, brands will literally be colliding with startups - workshops, speed dating, mentor meetings, demo days and more! Te brands will give real-time feedback to these founders, helping them to become revenue-earning businesses. But learning is a two-way streak. It's all about knowledge sharing. So brand mentors take back what the startups have taught them about embracing innovation to their larger organizations and become change makers! As simple as that!

Enough from us, here's what our partners have to say.

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“Working with Collider in 2014 has provided us with a new perspective on technology and innovation and how we can work alongside start-ups to deliver new platforms, ideas and opportunities. We’ve already struck up some interesting partnerships with start-ups as a direct result of the Collider programme, so we’re really looking forward to Collider’s Class of 2015 and helping to unearth those gems that we can work with to develop new ways for brands to engage and inspire audiences across our business” Dan Cresta, Partnerships Director, Exterion Media

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“Ogilvy London Labs has been at the forefront of innovation since its inception. By partnering with Collider in 2015, we are pushing the limits of innovation, interacting with more startups and maintaining our competitive advantage in the advertising industry.” Nicole Yershon, Director of Innovation, Ogilvy & Mather Group UK

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“The wide variety of start-ups served as a great source of inspiration for our innovation.” Edwin Bos, VP Innovation, Reevoo

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“By working with the Collider Class of 2015, we will gain invaluable exposure to the latest technology and talent affecting the marketing industry today.” Tom Crossley, Engine Group

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"Being a modern agile agency requires constant access to the latest technologies and thinking, which Collider start-ups always have in spades. Smart marketers don't just take new products off the shelf, they work in partnership with tech providers to evolve their solutions. We're looking forward to collaborating with the cohort of 2015 to deliver long-term innovative solutions for each of our clients." - Paul Frampton, CEO of Havas

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“To stay in this competitive market, brands must take a proactive stance on adapting new technologies. Collider facilitates this. 2015 will be a big year for social content – especially social video. We’re excited to work more closely with the innovative talent Collider connects us to each year.” - Sarah Wood, COO of Unruly Media

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“We are very proud to be one of Collider’s founding partners. It has enabled us to gain deep exposure to new technologies and pilot those technologies with our brands. Collider continues to accelerate very high quality startups with a strong relevance to our brands. Five Collider companies are currently piloting their technology with Unilever and we are looking forward to seeing what 2015 brings.” - Marc Mathieu, SVP of Unilever

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A Collider Family Reunion for 2015

It’s that time of year – from one Christmas party to a lunch followed by a festive dinner. And we had to partake in this tradition with our 2015 Launch Party on Wednesday evening. In the beautiful Unilever Skyline Restaurant, the champagne was flowing, canapés passing and conversations attention-grabbing.

This was a chance for our Alumni, investors, brand partners and the Class of 2015 to come together and mingle. Brands chatted with investors, startups chatted with Alumni and everyone learned something new about the Collider Family. Larger groups broke off into one-on-one chats. Introductions were seamless and plentiful, friendships established and business chats initiated. Our investors learned more about the Class of 2015 and had the opportunity to catch up with our alumni. Our Brand partners also learned more about what was to come next year and had the opportunity to learn from our recurring brands. Jeremy Bassett of Unilever and the Unilever Foundry highlighted the journey they have taken as one of the founding brand partners of Collider. He looks forward to 2015 as a year for brands to fully embrace innovation and encouraged the brand partners to let the startups challenge them as much as they may challenge the startups. Next up, Carl Wong of LivingLens spoke to the Class of 2015, letting them know what to expect from Collider during the programme – as he called it SPANC. Speed, Proof of concept, Accelerate, Network and Change. We couldn’t have said it better Carl! And that’s a wrap for 2014! We cannot wait to get started with 2015. Even if you couldn't make it on Wednesday, we have so many more events to come. It's going to be an exciting year for the Madtech world!

Alumnus Locomizer partners with TAPTAP Networks

Collider alumnus Locomizer, a provider of location analytics technologies, announced a partnership to enrich TAPTAP’s Sonata Ad platform today. TAPTAP Networks is the largest independent mobile advertising company in Spain and Latin America.

Locomizer’s proprietary algorithm uses geo-data in a combination with points of interest (POI) data as its input. These are then converted into individual geo-behavioural user interest profiles – a new way to interpret, store and use positional information. User interest profiles are created with Locomizer’s behavioural model, which was developed through studying cell movements and interactions in live systems. This model analyses user’s behaviour to understand real-life interests and preferences, making it ideal for matching with relevant services and offers.

“Our ability to translate geo-data into a very sophisticated set of user-interest-profiles and distinctive segments has a natural fit with the mobile advertising world” said Alexei Poliakov, Locomizer co-founder and chief scientist. “We are delighted about the partnership with TAPTAP and thrilled to see that the trial campaign was so successful. It translates now into a commercial proposition to advertisers and marketers”.

SONATA is the first global mobile advertising platform aimed at brands and local advertisers seeking local contextual awareness, increased physical store footfall and in-store analytics. Built mobile-first by former retailers and AdTech experts, Sonata’s technology leverages geo-enabled devices such as smartphones and tablets, socio-contextual signals, and in-store audience data, enabling attribution between local contextual advertising and real-time, in-store foot traffic data.

“Physical presence provided by opt-in users through their mobile devices convey the same information that legacy cookies on the internet once did," said Alvaro del Castillo, CEO and founder of TAPTAP Networks. "As mobile usage takes over the internet cookies become irrelevant and presence signals allow for the creation of geo-behavior profiles that both global brands and local advertisers value in order to drive people through the purchase funnel. Locomizer’s bio-enabled proposition truly enhances our ability for out of the box mobile audience profiling."

Congratulations to Alexei, Alex and Roman! We're looking forward to following your expansive journey into new markets and becoming industry leaders.

Using Crowdfunding as a Marketing Tool

Crowdfunding is not only a platform for raising money, it can also be used as a tool to spread awareness for your brandIt was a campaign for Chapel Down on Seedrs, the UK-based crowdfunding platform, which caught Collider's interest. They had orchestrated a community of strangers to participate in their mission and vision – and people had responded by investing in their campaign. We wanted to do that for the Collider Class of 2015.

One of the things we take pride in at Collider is investing in smart people with smart tech - but only with the smartest money. Our investor portfolio has some of the biggest names in MadTech behind it: Richard Fearn, Andy Porteous, and Deb Hennessy to name a few. But we wanted more. We wanted not just specialist angel investors but the whole ad community to get behind Collider. How could we do that? Seedrs was the answer. One of the more interesting things we found was the ability to use our campaign as a marketing tool.

Crowdfunding is a tool, not only a platform

First off, it’s perfect for market validation. As Dr. Phil Windley notes in this Forbes article, “The big payoff [to a crowdfunding campaign] is the information about the potential market we’ll get.” The Seedrs campaign showed us the sheer depth of enthusiasm for new digital marketing tech. MadTech is working for advertisers and marketers; the community not only wants more of it but also wants to support it. In only 13 days we were able to raise 100% of the funds. By the time the campaign closed, in a following 14 days, we were almost £100,000 over capacity and had over 100 investors from across Europe.

Secondly, the Seedrs campaign allows us to better relate to and reach our investors, brands and startups. The campaign embraced a new and innovative way of doing business, just as we encourage our brands to do with the startups. What better way to support innovation than to embrace the same values we teach to the startups?

Finally, it is an interactive addition to traditional press. It allows people to become a part of your greater marketing strategy by letting them participate in a small part of it. Philips used a crowdfunding campaign to actively engage with their customers through competitions, and we want to get the marketing and advertising community just as engaged with our startups by having a small equity stake in them. It was a risk to take on a crowdfunding campaign as a means for investment. There’s no testing to be done to figure out if it will work – no A/B testing, no focus group options.

In retrospect:

Calling the process stressful would be an understatement. After our campaign reached around 58%, we had a completely funded campaign within 25 hours. It was mental not being able to keep up with all of the investment coming in. Within 13 days we had exceeded our £330,000 goal – less than half the average time of a crowdfunding campaign. There were scary moments where things didn't look to be moving at all. But we kept pushing forward and being proactive to make things happen.