How can MadTech brands & agencies stay ahead?

** This article first appeared in The Drum **

Two weeks ago, we held the Collider Class of 2015 Demo Day. Almost 200 people came to see a showcase of the best global marketing and adtech startups in central London, and give the audience an overview of where the industry is heading. Nine startups, six minutes each, four panellists, three co-founders and one UK trending hashtag. We worked tirelessly to make sure the right people were in the room to have effective synergy.

We brought together people from all of London’s biggest and best brands and agencies. From Aegis, Camelot, dunnhumby, Haymarket, Havas Media, Ogilvy & Mather Group UK, and many more, these individuals were some of the first in their organisations to be fully immersed in innovation. They were not only passive observers, but active engagers. They also inadvertently participated in two powerful, culture shifts:

They were being exposed to some of the best relevant tech to their industries The theme of our Demo Day was to ‘inspire confidence’. We wanted people to feel comfortable in thinking outside the box, not be afraid to ask questions and imagine ways in which they could integrate new tech and working styles into their companies. People had to be ready to think critically about what they were seeing, but not make critical judgements. We encouraged thinking about how these startups could fit into long-term strategy – about the returns in years’ time as opposed to months. And because the audience was so responsive, brands and agencies approached our startups and set up meetings straight away.

They were in a space with their competition, learning with them and getting to know them One of the things Collider is trying to incorporate into the culture of the marketing and advertising industry is the idea of collaboration. One of the forms this comes in is working with a third party, like us, to provide outside expertise. And sometimes that means coming face to face with your competition. We currently have three different agencies signed up as partners. Everyone is constantly learning from their competition – either in formal talks or informal coffee chats. It is great to see agencies coming together in ways they wouldn’t have three years ago. This is a measurable change in the industry mindset.

I am a big advocate of serendipity – taking the chance that you will be able to find answers to your problems in unexpected places. Half the battle is knowing where to look, even if you don’t know what to look for.

We are building one solution to this – by bringing the right people together at the right time and giving each party the tools to have effective conversations. It’s called MadTech.

Introducing: Powr of You

[spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/1" el_position="first last"]

**We will be profiling each company joining Collider’s Class of 2015. Take the time to learn a bit more about them and keep an eye on what’s to come over the next few months!**

[/spb_text_block] [spb_single_image image="14181" image_size="full" frame="noframe" intro_animation="none" full_width="no" lightbox="no" link_target="_self" width="1/1" el_position="first last"] [spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/2" el_position="first"]

Who are you and what do you do?

Powr of You is a data marketplace for consumers and brands to learn and earn from each other.

With Powr of You, Consumers learn about their online footprint and quantified self through beautiful visualizations, while they earn rewards with our revenue share model. Brands learn about their consumers' cross-platform habits, interests, media consumption to make data backed decisions to improve marketing ROI. Brands also earn consumer confidence and loyalty by being consumer privacy champions.

Our consumer facing site is live at www.powrofyou.com and the brand analytics site is in beta being developed alongside pilot partners.

Who are your co-founders & give us one line about each of you!

We are a brother-sister duo. Our quest to answer the question "Why don't we [consumers] get paid for all the data we create?" led us to create Powr of You.

Keshav is a tech geek, a recent alumnus from London Business School with strategy and risk consulting background at Deloitte prior to his MBA and at LinkedIn and Telefonica during the MBA.

Shruti brings ideas and solutions to reality, with over seven years experience spanning strategy, operations and technology consulting with Accenture focused on Consumer Goods, Healthcare and Retail, before and after an MBA from London Business School.

Where in the world are your headquarters?

Headquarters are London, UK

What excites you most about London (one startup point and one non-startup point!)?

London has a bursting startup scene and that brings a lot of excitement, visibility and support for early stage startups. On a more personal note, it’s a new home for us. After living in India and the San Francisco Bay Area for most of our life, we weren’t expecting to love a city as much as we love London, in all its flavours of people, industries, and culture.

[/spb_text_block] [spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/2" el_position="last"]

What insight (competitive advantage, new perspective etc.) are you bringing to the Madtech industry?

Data is the currency of tomorrow. And that’s what we’re helping people enterprise on by building Powr of You. We are changing the Madtech industry by bringing consumers to the table. Instead of being unknowing bystanders, we are giving people an active role to understand and realize value from their data footprint. People also have the opportunity to view their own lifestyle in a quantified way to understand their own online brand and habits through personal insights.

On the other hand, we’re truly bringing marketers closer to their consumers. We’re using consumer’s opt-in data to drive up-to-date, accurate, cross-platform insights about consumer behaviour to improve the return on their marketing investment by being more relevant to their consumers.

What is one challenge you have had to overcome since beginning your journey?

The biggest challenge was building something with our big vision in mind but in a resource constrained setup. In our professional careers there has been an abundance of resources to tap into, which is starkly different than our startup journey.

Tell us about how Collider can (and hopefully will) help you over the next four months.

We are very excited to be part of the Collider 2015 Cohort! It has been an invaluable chance for us to sit across the table from client decision makers of major brands and agencies, Unilever, Ogilvy, Camelot, and Havas Media - to name a few. Simply put, Collider has propelled us significantly towards finding the product-market fit rapidly through exposure to their brand and agency partners, their mentors, and their investors.

We started the program, and continue, with the thought: "Let's do this!"

Here's a funny fact you didn't know about us!

We both love to dance, especially Bollywood.

[/spb_text_block]

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