A Wrap-Up to the MadTech Event of the Year

Collider Demo Day Class of 2015 from seenit on Vimeo.

Congratulations to the Collider Class of 2015 startups, who last week crushed the MadTech event of the year - Demo Day! With over 175 people in attendance and leading the MadTech charge from across the marketing, advertising, and investing communities, it was an event not to be missed! But if you couldn't make it, fear not - we've compiled a wrap-up of the event. And there's much more exciting news to come...

Visionary and Co-Founder Rose welcomed the audience to the MadTech event of the year. She explained where Collider started, how we have evolved over the past three years, and what everyone is the audience could do to help build the London MadTech Community - become a MadTech advocate beginning with a conversation or an introduction.

Each startup had 6 minutes on stage to inspire the audience - explain who they are, what they're doing and why they are solving a problem you should care about. Warm introductions from our brand and investor partners made it an easy transition for the founders to the bright lights.

And the startup announced as having the Winning Pitch is... Pixoneye! The audience voted using an online voting tool Sli.do, and collectively agreed Ofri's pitch was the easiest to understand, and had the most interest both commercially and financially. Congrats to the Pixoneye team up on stage with Collider!

And what's next for Collider? Well, as Co-Founder Andy mentioned, as MadTech doesn't stop, Collider won't either. Year-round applications and two programmes per year, it's non-stop innovation in the heart of London! Applications are open on F6S now!

Brands and Agencies Must Embrace a 'New Startup Order'

** This article first appeared in The Drum Opinion **

During Advertising Week Europe, there was a lot of talk about how brands and agencies need to embrace innovation. And on the panel Collider hosted, moderated by Stephen Lepitak of The Drum, senior brand and agency executives from Havas, Ogilvy & Mather Group UK and Unilever talked about how one of those ways is by working with startups.

Common questions from the audience reflected how major changes would need to happen internally to effectively be able to work with startups. Here are a couple of the arguments and solutions I think people can take action on.

Argument: The agency model is fixed on business objectives, generating revenue from clients and it won’t change.

Solution: Embrace serendipity and open up the boardroom doors to collaboration

At its core, marketing and advertising is about creativity, thinking outside the box, and selling products. A huge part of that is embracing adventure to achieve unimaginable heights. Sometimes that means investing in long-term returns rather than immediate ones. And that is what working with startups can do. Start by bringing startups into your boardroom meetings. Let them sit at the table with you. Put to rest the pedantic monologues and open up a dialogue.

Don’t be afraid to try new things (meaning you might try a lot of things that don’t work before finding some things that do). Get out there and start working with startups to see what solution exist to your problems. Start small – a short trial will do to start.

Argument: The culture of agencies won’t change. And that’s what is needed to work with startups.

Solution: Empower your staff with the knowledge and tools to understand new tech and innovation.

As one of our panellists mentioned: “The cultural shift must be embraced within brands and agencies from the top." And that means educating your staff to work with new technologies. We call this becoming ‘tech natives’ as opposed to ‘tech tourists’. Give your staff members interested in new technology the tools and space to play with it. For tech natives, it’s as natural as breathing.

The company culture is echoed in business policies as well. Reflect on your business practices and make the necessary procurement changes internally to accommodate startups. After their first year of working with Collider, Unilever changed its procurement process from 90 days to 30 days, and has now made working with startups a part of its culture.

Both of these solutions lead back to creating innovative spaces within the organisations for teams to delve into new tech and ways of working. Through innovation labs, workshops led by experts in these fields, and making the necessary procurement changes, you can stay ahead of the game. Don’t shy away because it’s hard. The first step is always the hardest.

One Month to the Class of 2015 Demo Day!

Clear your calendar - it's going down! The Collider Class of 2015 Demo Day kicks off on April 23rd at 2:30PM, and we want you there. No, we need you there. Because this is going to be the MadTech event of the year - and you are the people who make it extraordinary. Come see nine of the hottest Marketing and Adtech startups from around the world showcasing how they're changing the MadTech industry. 

The Class of 2015 has spent the past four months running from brand meetings to coaching sessions, to workshops on everything from Purpose, positioning and personality, to prising and praising (and business development, UX, UI, and hiring for ones not beginning with P). And they've made progress. From having just an MVP at the beginning of 2015, by the middle of Q2, they have trials lined up with some of the world's largest brands.

Catch a senior brand or agency creative, innovative startups or a seasoned Angel for a drink in the evening. It's going to be great.

Confirmed panellists include:

Sarah Wood, COO Unruly Media                                                                                     Emily Forbes, CEO Seenit

Paul Frampton, CEO Havas Media                                                                                   Rod Banner, Agent of Change

Gabbi Cahane, CEO Meanwhile

Miappi brings music's social presence to life with Sony Music

Collider12 alumnus Miappi have had some big news this week - they've just begun working with Sony Music! After using the British start-up on sites for Neon Jungle, UnionJ and The Kinks, Sony Music is now using Miappi to power websites for artists as diverse as 70’s rock legends Judas Priest, British crooner Olly Murs and Irish rock band Kodaline. On all of these websites Miappi is used to collect fan generated content via hashtag campaigns on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Vine. 

Andrew Foyle, co-founder of Miappi said "It’s fantastic to see Sony Music using Miappi on repeat. There are more big name artists in the pipeline. Watch this space."

Miappi, lets brands collect and display all of their social media content in one place. The resulting ‘social media magazine’ is something fans can use to get the very best of social content...all without logging in and out of different social media networks! For mroe information you can review their press release.

They have previously worked with Bauer Media on Grazia magazine, a fashion, beauty, and lifestyle magazine, as well as with Diageo and BeReal on engaging the customer online by bring all media to one place. The team, led by Andrew, Lee and Toby, have also raised £500K in funding to date. We love working with our current and past startups, and are also working with Miappi to bring the Collider social content to life in our other social channels - you can check them out on all of our blog posts on the Collider website!

Andrew has also been making waves in the MadTech press. You can read up on an interview published in BrandRepublic where he talks about the where social media will be going in the next three years, some of the best MadTech innovations to date and some of his biggest influences thus far.

AWEurope is quickly approaching...

 

In less than two weeks the Advertising and Marketing creatives will gather in Central London for a week filled with debauchery involving speakers, panels, conference style meetings, drinking, drinking and more drinking. But somewhere in between all of the drinking, there will be insight and new perspectives and inspiring talks and, hopefully, some amazing OOH, interactive, advertising. It's called AdWeek Europe. And New York is afraid because they're in for a shock at how established the marketing and advertising industries are in Europe. Particularly London. This is the place to be for all things MadTech. We're keeping it that way.

And as part of our mission to make London the beating heart of the MadTech ecosystem, we're getting up on stage and bringing some amazing people with us. And we're going to be talking about what we do - bringing in the people who do it everyday. Our ring leader Rose Lewis will be speaking alongside Alper Eroglu of Unilever, Paul Frampton of Havas Media and Nicole Yershon of Ogilvy & Mather. Stephen Lepitak of The Drum will be moderating  between these four powerhouses, asking the tough questions the audience wants to hear.

And we have some free tickets to give out to the panel. Are you interested in checking out what we do? Who our brand and agency partners are? How they might have worked with startups in the past and how they are doing it now - especially with new and innovative technologies popping up every other day. How do you work with a company who seems to be speaking in an unfamiliar dialect of English, we call it Tech Talk, and how do we work with it tomorrow?

Contact our Community Manager Ali at alexandra [at] collider.io if you want to come along. Tickets are limited, and on a first-come-first serve basis. If you're interested in the #MadTech scene, or thinking about joining us on the front-lines of the MadTech movement, get in touch!

Can't make it to the live session? Tune in to the online livestream at 3PM to hear from our awesome panel!