By Josh Gordon8 Advertising Startups On The Verge of Changing The Industry
There are plenty of programmatic, optimization, analytic, crowdsourced, blah-blah startups out there. I’ve dubbed these companies “Buzzword Startups”, and don’t worry–they didn’t make this list. I wonder if their founders can even explain what they do, let alone attempt the No Comma Challenge. Other startups who didn’t make the list include those whom I couldn’t figure out what they actually did… even after reading their website.
Below are 8 advertising startups who are different. Whether it’s the purity of their concept or their core technology, these companies could potentially be significant in changing the future of advertising. In no particular order, these are the 8 advertising startups who could be on the verge of changing our industry.
Fohr Card— a network for creative brands to connect with influencers to promote campaigns.
Why They Are On The Verge: Awesome design and foothold in the fashion and luxury market. Fohr Card’s network of the top social media and blogger influencers has already started to make native advertising and social media campaigns better. They’ve even expanded into the adorable pet influencer market with Fur Card.
Gimlet Media – storytelling approach to native advertising on podcasts.
Why They Are On The Verge: Is this the renaissance of radio? Maybe! If so, Gimlet’s approach to creating native ads is the way forward. Their ad breaks are just as interesting as their show’s content and include interviews and stories with their advertising partners instead of poorly written ad copy. In heaven, all advertising is done by the Gimlet folks.
Mistaken – take photos that you never see again, and receive photos from strangers.
Why They Are On The Verge: Who would have thought SnapChat was going to be such a big player in advertising, and Mistaken has some similar SnapChat vibes. Maybe we could see some bold brands going with the non-targeted marketing approach with random ads being sent to random people.
Changing The Face of Beauty – promoting the use of disabled people in ad campaigns.
Why They Are On The Verge: Well, “changing” is in their name. They also have a bit of momentum and good press. They’re more of an organization than the next billion dollar buyout, but their message is great and has already had an impact on some cool campaigns that use people that normally aren’t considered for advertising.
Solve Media – turns type-in captchas into ads.
Why They Are On The Verge: In the constant quest to find new places to put advertising, Solve Media has found an interesting one. Replacing those hard to read captchas with targeted ads is a novel idea, and the ability to force your audience to type in the name of your brand is bound to help brand recognition.
OneSignal – push notifications made smarter.
Why They Are On The Verge: Push notifications are annoying except for the rare occasion when they’re not. They’re definitely a part of the now and probably future of advertising with access to instantly bother your customers. OneSignal is trying to make them less annoying and more functional with cool features like A/B testing and segmentation targeting.
Perch – innovative interactive technology for retail
Why They Are On The Verge: If online shopping hasn’t killed physical retail stores yet, Perch has some cool interactive displays for products that might make going to the store more of an entertainment experience that online stores can’t quite offer. When consumers pick up a product and something cool happens, they’re picking up that product again and again. They might even buy it.
Activatr – word of mouth platform that rewards influencers with perks
Why They Are On The Verge: There are a lot of industry buzzwords from this start-up, but the idea of giving perks to encourage customers to spread word of mouth advertising could potentially be cool. Word of mouth is the most effective marketing tool, the problem is getting people to say good things about your product and Activatr could be the solution.
These companies are built on more than buzzwords, and have a great shot at being the next big thing in advertising. Did I miss one? Let me know.
image source: perch interactive
