On July 22nd, The AD Club and REDBOOKS proudly gathered the industry’s top marketers, brand managers, agency figures, innovators, and entrepreneurs at the 5th event in the ongoing AdThink series. A special thank you to our event sponsor, Davis Gilbert, and host, Microsoft who showcased their new Times Square office, attendees were invited to witness the “shark tank”-style action as an all-star panel of industry experts critiqued and evaluated four handpicked, cutting-edge ad/tech start-ups. Speaking to a packed house, each start-up had 5 minutes to make their case to the panelists. Here’s what they had to say:
- Jebbit’s Tom Coburn (@tomcoburn1) talked about powering post-click engagement. Jebbit is not interested in media or driving content; they’re all about the moment a consumer lands on that content and how they engage with it. By incentivizing users to answer simple questions about branded products, Jebbit gathers data about the interaction, which in turn influences the way businesses market their product. Jebbit-generated data drives higher conversion rates, increased engagement, and more time spent viewing content with fewer ad dollars spent.
- Grapevine Logic’s Brendan Latrell (@brendanlattrell) illustrated their advocate-based approach to consumer engagement. The new expert advocate of today is a regular consumer whose voice carries a great deal of weight via social media and video channels. Grapevine has built that idea into an advertising platform with industry-leading click through and conversion metrics. This platform pinpoints appropriate social advocates and curates product promotion while maintaining the authenticity of the specific advocate.
- Placed’s David Shim (@davidshim) discussed how his platform connects the digital space with the physical world, and then utilizes that information to measure true ad-exposure. Their model takes data and translates it into locational information about the consumer. The end result allows Placed to measure the impact ads have on driving in-store traffic.
- Splashscore’s Lyle Stevens (@thelylestevens) explained the premise that friends have the largest impact on consumer purchasing behavior. Splashscore will identify those who are the most influential in any given social circle and activate them as advocates to drive branded content. The results show that this type of influential marketing drastically outperforms ads.
After witnessing some of the brightest in ad/tech discuss their proposed solutions, it’s clear that increasing consumer engagement is perhaps the greatest challenge posed to the industry today. How can these start-ups confront this issue while also maintaining distinction in such a saturated market? Already looking forward to AdThink VI on September 16, where we will surely be wowed once again by the innovative minds leading the charge!
Panelists:
Alan Cohen (@tvac8) – Co-Founder, Giant Spoon
Michael Duda (@MikeDuda) – CEO, Johannes Leonardo + Founder, Consigliere Brand Capital
Sam Olstein (@slammin) – Director of Global Innovation, GE
Moderator:
Joseph Jaffe (@JaffeJuice) – Founder/CEO, Evol8tion