rtobjects Partners with Drive Automotive Design Consultancy

LONDON, 20 June 2016

rtobjects, the visualisation start up, and Drive, the leading automotive design and visualisation studio, today announce their partnership.

Humans are intensely visual creatures, and better imagery delivers clear commercial benefit — both in speeding the design process and helping people research products before they buy them. But the nature of imagery online has not changed significantly in the last 20 years — websites typically just deliver pre-shot images or videos.

rtobjects has developed a ground-breaking technology to deliver personal interactive movie experiences into the web-browser on any device without the need for plug-ins or downloads.

Drive develops and delivers outstanding design and digital visualisations across a range of sectors, with a primary focus on automotive.

The partnership will allow the companies to deliver incredible cinematic and fully interactive visuals in the browser on PCs, tablets and smartphones.

This will allow their clients to conceive, create and deliver entirely new visual experiences on the devices that people already use as part of their day-to-day internet use.

For example, it will allow people to look around and configure a personalised version of a vehicle in real environments with photo-realistic detail, and then see that vehicle driving through any number of locations — desert, forest, city, or off-road. All delivered as movie-quality CGI into the consumer’s browser, and fully under the consumer’s control.

Chris Longmore, Director at Drive, commented: “We’ve worked with pretty much every visualisation tool you can think of, but rtobjects is really offering something new. We were impressed by the technology and the team, and want to work with them to bring completely new forms of visualisation to the market.”

Darren Poore, Visualisation Director at Drive, added: “Clients are constantly looking for more impressive, more immersive and more interactive visuals, and rtobjects deliver just that. And they do it on the devices that people already have — their desktops, tablets and mobiles. This partnership gives us direct access to a cutting edge technology and a significant competitive advantage.”

Craig Walmsley, Co-Founder of rtobjects stated: “Drive is one of the UK’s most respected design and visualisation studios — their track record of incredible work speaks for itself. Using our technology, we can now deliver these incredible visuals as part of a personal interactive movie experience. We are pleased and proud to partner with them — together we can realise our vision of making the Internet cinematic.”

ENDS

About rtobjects: rtobjects delivers personal interactive movie experiences in the browser so people can really see and experience things before they buy them. Combining the rich visual worlds of games and movies, with the interactivity of digital, rtobjects makes the Internet cinematic in the scope and quality of its visuals. The company was created by Craig Walmsley, first and founding Strategist at AKQA, and Ian Monaghan, Neil Hutchinson and Matt Rubin, formerly of Black Rock and Big Bit Games Studios.

www.rtobjects.com

About Drive: Drive has established an enviable reputation for providing quality design and visualisation services to major automotive manufacturers. Their Creative CGI Studio works with automotive brands and their advertising and marketing agencies to create emotive, visual content for advertising, PR, web and print.

www.drivecgi.co.uk

Top Cannes Lions tips for Founders

 

The advertising industry will be swarming the beach fronts of Cannes next week in the hopes of having their dreams fulfilled - taking home that golden Lion. And for first timers this can be an intimidating adventure. So we have compiled a list of things first-timers should know before hopping on the plane.

Prepare

Your prep for Cannes should have started three weeks ago. If you're just getting started, fear not. You can still make it a profitable experience. Set measurable and achievable KPIs for your trip. Be that a set number of meaningful connections, follow-up meetings or journalist encounters. Set up individual meetings with your target list of customers outside of the regularly scheduled Cannes conference. Do your research on the people you'd like to meet. Serendipity can go far, but being prepared for it will help you achieve results.

Look for connections everywhere

Chances are, 50% of the flight you're on are going to Cannes. Your job doesn't start just on arrival at the hotel, but just past security. Start by making small conversation with the person next to you on the flight. Find out what sessions they'll be going to, which parties and why they're going to be there. Maybe they'll even invite you to tag along!

Ask Questions, No Pitching

You’re going to meet a lot of people, some will be potential customers, others maybe even investors. Don’t put them on a pedestal. Be respectful and have your one-liner ready explaining how you might be able to help them solve their problem/challenge.

Think about the questions you’ll ask them before explaining what you do to better tailor your one-liner– are they a connector, a customer, or a potential investor? Remember to keep the pitching to a minimum – no one likes to be talked at. Brush up on your industry knowledge to make starting conversations flow more easily.

Sell Solutions

These people want solutions to existing problems, not products. They don’t care about your tech, they care about whether you can make the famous (we are in Cannes, dahling)! Tell them how you’ll be able to make them more money or save them a ton of it.

Hustle Your way In

Hustle – big time. This is where your preparation will come in to play. You’ll know exactly who you want to meet, and where to be prior to checking in for your flight. Have your business cards at the ready. Want to get into that exclusive party? Make sure you know who to ask about that. Can't decide between the sponsored beach, and going off with your newest pals to maybe get into that brand party? Choose wisely. Keep a level head and don't float away with the hype. Though do go with the flow.

Take cards

As they’re always handy, but there’s a high chance you’ll lose them. Use LinkedIn there and then rather exchange cards if you can – the internet doesn’t get lost as easily. How about that Cannes Connect app? Have you downloaded it yet?

Reach out

Don’t stay put in one place. People move around, and you might miss an opportunity by staying at that party for one more drink. Go with the crowd, but also know when it’s time to walk your own path through the festival. Set up a messenger group with friends before going down so you can rely on multiple sets of eyes to know what's going on.

Aqua, Snacks, Data

Dress for a 14 hour day filled with walking. Take everything you'll need to go from conferencing, to partying on a yacht. Bottles of water are always handy to refill, food will be fleeting when paid for, and expensive when it's out of your own pocket. And pay for those four days of data - wifi is reliable at best.

Sleep

Make sure you are well rested before heading to Cannes. You need to be on your best form. And be sure to get some sleep in Cannes. No one likes an early morning meeting where you’re still boozy from the night before.

Smile & Have Fun

You are in Cannes after all. Allow yourself to get wrapped up in the hype to get your adrenaline pumping, but keep your feet firmly planted on the ground. Enjoy the buzz of the industry celebs, but always keep your objectives in sight.

A Collider Pop Up in Amsterdam

[spb_video link="https://vimeo.com/171726210" full_width="no" width="1/1" el_position="first last"] [spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/1" el_position="first last"] June 15^th, 2016 | Amsterdam

On June 15^th & 16^th, Collider, London’s Leading MadTech Accelerator, heads to the Heineken Experience for two days of brand and investor interactions in the Dutch capital.

The brands are household national and international names from the FMCG, Technology, Insurance, E-commerce and Retail sectors. Representatives from each brand will be led through a day of workshops and interactive sessions aimed at fostering an entrepreneurial mindset, introducing them to new technologies and how to use the new technologies to solve new and existing challenges.

Collider Class of 2016 investor Ellen Bark-Lindhout says;

"We designed the Popup as a highly interactive workshop - for brands to learn about the various technologies the startups offer, and for startups to gain insight in the brands needs. The startups bring innovative marketing and advertising technologies, including e-commerce enablers, that help brands better understand, engage with, and sell to their consumers. We like to think "action", so we aim to go beyond the talking and identify tangible opportunities for pilot projects."

Rose Lewis, Co-Founder of Collider says;

“Amsterdam is a natural first city for the first Collider pop up. Its creative-minded, multicultural residents, support from the government, and headquarters of international brands, there are plenty of opportunities to help startups move between the Netherlands and London. We are looking forward to becoming involved in the ecosystem.”

This is the first international Collider ‘pop-up’ aimed at spending a short, but impactful amount of time in a MadTech hub.

Seven Collider London-based startups will be joined by four Amsterdam-based startups, who have been hand-picked by Bark-Lindhout. This will encourage a cross-cultural exchange of ideas and experiences between all the founders, with discussion opportunities built into the programme.

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Locomizer Raises $300K for International Expansion

Class of 2013 alumni Locomizer have received $300K seed round investment from international funds Impulse VC and Phystech Ventures. The follow on investments in Locomizer may go up to $1.5M by the end of 2016, and the funds will be used for international expansion of Locomizer, who currently operate in London, Japan and the United States.

The investment firms have expertise in scaling technological-focussed businesses and large networks in the US, Asia an Central Europe.

“Locomizer is a good example of how the real world is being digitized and converted into big data, to create value-added products and services for their customers and end-users. This is just one of a few projects that bring a real ‘tech’ meaning to adtech,” says Impulse VC managing partner Kirill Belov.

Major case studies in London have helped provide the market traction Locomizer needed to raise these funds. First, a partnership with Havas Media for their client Jameson, where Locomizer created a 'Lads Map' in the UK exceeded expectations and all KPIs within months.

Alongside Posterscope and Target Media, Locomizer also won the Clear Channel Outdoor Planning Award for their work on the OOH campaigns for Fallout 4. The virtual hotspots were used to create engaging out of home creative, providing the right information to the right consumers at the right time.

Alexei Poliakov, Co-Founder of Locomizer explains the technology in more detail, “Our technology is a smart geofence. Instead of relying on target customers’ close proximity to key locations, we discover and recommend non-obvious places with high affinity to brands, which has never been more possible than with Locomizer’s insights. Our targeting is not location-based, but better – it’s based on where you’ve been in the past. There is an important difference here; while we recognize the significance of location as an indicator of your interests, once we have a good understanding of your profile, relevant offers can be sent to you, regardless of your current location.”

Locomizer continues to improve the functionality of its Affinity(BI) technology by designing new patent applications and adding filtering, matching, and predictive algorithms. The aim is to enrich the generated profiles with more granular information, allowing segmentation across multiple customer attributes in a campaign planning and real-time mode.

Phystech Ventures managing partner Olga Maslikhova adds, “At the moment, Locomizer is focused on winning in adtech space, but the company is not limited to just adtech, as it has all of the capabilities to push its ‘data-as-a-service’ analytics platform across multiple verticals. The startup has already gained a foothold in EU, Japan and US markets. We recognize a huge opportunity for Locomizer to enter and be successful in the Southeast Asia markets as well. Phystech Ventures has a strategic presence there and will support Locomizer’s business development.”

Locomizer’s unique technology of audience discovery and segmentation, called Affinity(BI), is based on biological research into cell behavioral models by Dr. Alexei Poliakov, a cofounder of Locomizer. They continue to improve the functionality of its Affinity(BI) technology by designing new patent applications and adding filtering, matching, and predictive algorithms. The aim is to enrich the generated profiles with more granular information, allowing segmentation across multiple customer attributes in a campaign planning and real-time mode.

Collider unveils the CEOs & advertising scalers joining the Mentor Network

 

Over 10 changemakers have signed up to partake in a recently launched, structured Mentor Network for a selected number of Collider scale-ups. These founders are ready to scale their marketing and advertising technology startups, taking on a large number of clients, entering into new markets or raise their next round of institutional funding.

The hand-picked changemakers, CEOs of the UK’s MadTech success stories, will be actively coaching the next generation of leaders based in London – securing our status as the global leaders in MadTech. They include individuals who have previously scaled world-leading agencies across the world, built and sold industry leading MadTech companies, and are influencing the thought leaders of tomorrow.

Rose Lewis, Co-Founder of Collider says: “To help Collider startups maintain the UK’s leading position on the world map in marketing and advertising, they need to learn from the best in the industry. So we have chosen the most successful leaders to give back to the industry by becoming dedicated mentors.”

These twice yearly sessions will be designed for maximum impact in the shortest possible time. Within a matter of hours, startup founders will create personal relationships with individuals who have scaled the industry’s brightest agencies and tech companies, setting the industry standard with their track records and best practices. Mentors will have the opportunity to network amongst their peers who have reached similar career milestones, as well as individuals just beginning on their journeys.

Sarah Wood, Co-Founder of Unruly says; “When you’re starting up a tech business, the learning curve is unbelievably steep. Talking to someone who’s “been there done that” can save both time and money and help to evolve a product, team or business model that’s far more likely to succeed. The best mentoring relationship is not a lecture; it’s a conversation between two people who are on the same journey and it is a privilege to be participating in Collider’s Mentoring Network, where I can share what I’ve learned with the next generation of leaders, and have the opportunity to learn from them as well!”

Sarah Wood founded Unruly in East London in 2006 and was acquired in 2015 by News Corp for £58M. She also champions internal mentoring programmes within Unruly, Co-founded the City Unrulyversity for aspiring entrepreneurs and lectures at the University of Cambridge.

Other mentors include; Jessica Butcher, Co-Founder of Blippar; Helen Calcraft, Founding Partner at Lucky Generals; Gabbi Cahane, Chairman Multiple; Richard Fearn, Founder of the Friday Club; Simon Menashy, Investment Director of MMC Ventures; Giles Palmer, CEO Brandwatch; Guy Wieynk, CEO Western Europe at Publicis Worldwide.

The first mentoring session will be held early July in Central London. Interested CEOs can get in touch with Rose Lewis, Co-Founder of Collider directly.