Startups have ideas and brands have money, says Evol8tion CEO, Joseph Jaffe
Kodak might be thriving today if the camera business had made an early purchase of Instagram, according to Evol8tion CEO, Joseph Jaffe.
Speaking at the ADMA Forum in Sydney this week, Jaffe said the best way for a brand to survive disruption is to invest in technology startups.
“Every brand has a startup soul mate,” he claimed.
Startups are looking to solve the same problems as brands but their lean business model means they can be more innovative and move faster, he said.
Jaffe recently advised Mondelēz International on an initiative to partner the company’s food brands including Cadbury and belVita with startups to innovate its mobile marketing.
“You should be carving out your innovation funds and your innovation budgets. You should be thinking about these connections and the earlier you do it, the better,” he said.
Related: Marketing innovation depends on cultural transformation: Cadbury, Oreo media chief
Startups are full of ideas but have no money, while brands have are full of money but have no ideas, Jaffe said. “Can startups help solve brand problems? The answer is unequivocally yes.”
The arrangement must, however, be a win-win partnership. “This is not about big brands taking advantage of startups and it’s not about startups taking advantage of big brands because [they’ve] got money,” he said.
Investing in startup companies is not as expensive as it might sound, Jaffe continued.
“For less than the cost of a Super Bowl commercial, you could have your own startup. You could start your own startup. You could invest in your own startup.”
Refusing to innovate will cost a brand a lot more, he said.
“How do you kill a dinosaur? The answer is you don’t. Evol8tion does.”
Adam Bender covers digital marketing and emerging technology for CMO and is the author of dystopian sci-fi novels We, The Watched and Divided We Fall. Follow him on Twitter: @WatchAdam
Follow CMO on Twitter: @CMOAustralia, take part in the CMO Australia conversation on LinkedIn: CMO Australia, join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CMOAustralia, or check us out on Google+: google.com/+CmoAu
While approaching a customer in a shop and asking what you can help them with is Retail 101, how many of us actually enjoy being approached? Generally, you have to give the forced, fake smile and say, “Just browsing, thanks,” while screaming on the inside, “just leave me alone!” Maybe it’s just me?
Not a day passes by in the life of business executives where digital innovation or the prospect of disruption is not front of mind. This in turn, drives an unrelenting flow of questioning, discussion and strategy papers.
Unless you’ve been marketing under a rock, you’ll probably have questioned whether your media agencies are offering you transparency.
In Episode 10 of this new podcast series, BrandHook MD, Pip Stocks, talks with Country Road GM of brand and customer experience, Col Kennedy, about how brands enabling teams to support the customer no matter what they want to achieve is vital to the engagement equation.
Minor correct Nadia, just wanted to clarify that the "Marketo consultants" that did this work, were actually Hoosh consultants
Fab Capodicasa
What it's taking for Edible Blooms to grow a stronger personalisation strategy
Im not surprise though, been in the industry for couple of years and I feel and see it with my tow eyes how eCommerce platforms innovated...
Jason Smith
Australia Post earmarks $20m for Australian ecommerce innovation investment
For marketers that are "going Agile" I recommend using Ravetree. It's a really powerful suite of tools for Agile project management, reso...
Janice Morgan
7 ways to run your marketing department like a software startup
Over the years very part of our lives has become technological. That’s why I am not surprised to see that Australian home loans are going...
GreatDayTo
Why Aussie Home Loans is embracing digital transformation
Please be alerted eHarmony is a 17+ years old obsolete site. eHarmony is only supported by a big marketing budget and not by serious scie...
FernandoArdenghi
CMO interview: eHarmony CMO reveals what it takes to foster great team relationships