BY SHOBHANA NAIR
The Festival of Media Asia 2013 at Singapore picked UK-based Future Ad Labs as the ‘Hot Company of the Year’ for its disruptive new form of digital advertising called Play Captcha that puts an end to Captcha problems and error messages. Four other companies, including India’s Undercover Productions, were in the shortlist for ‘revolutionizing the way advertising is created, distributed, traded or evaluated’
There are those that have made it big. And there are those who dream of making it big… entrepreneurs who are buzzing with innovative ideas and want to take the world by storm.
Innovation was at the centre of conversations at the recently concluded Festival of Media Asia 2013 at Singapore, with attendees getting a unique glimpse of five highly innovative businesses hand-picked by 12 members of the Media Accelerator Programme Screening Panel, made-up of some of the world’s most influential VCs and consultants. It was the culmination of a global entry process which involved research into hundreds of game-changing companies in the media domain.
At the end of presentations made by these five companies, and voting by about 600 delegates at the festival, UK-based Future Ad Labs emerged as the ‘Hot Company of the Year’, edging ahead of TubeMogul, SpotXchange and Outbrain (all from the USA) and Undercover Productions from India.
On choosing Future Ad Labs as the winner, Charlie Crowe, Founder of the Festival of Media and CEO of C Squared, said, “The Hot Company of the Year is selected by popular vote; delegates at the Festival of Media Asia 2013 voted after seeing all five shortlisted companies make their pitch on the main stage. All of the shortlisted companies made fantastic pitches, but the delegates decided that it was Future Ad Labs that was the most deserving of the accolade as a new breed of technology company that is revolutionizing the way advertising is created, distributed, traded or evaluated.”
The Media Accelerator Programme (MAP), launched by the Festival of Media, gives an opportunity to upcoming companies with innovative and game changing ideas to come to the forefront.
The innovations of the Top 5 companies highlighted here are highly applicable to the media industry and digital domain in India.
The winner
FUTURE AD LABS
USP:
It created playcaptcha, a Compelling new form of Digital advertising with Potential to disrupt a large Global market. Playcaptcha Is an alternative to Captchas And puts an end to Captcha Problems and error Messages.
BACKGROUND:
The company, founded in 2012, Is London-based and has 10-12 Employees.
INNOVATION QUOTIENT:
Most of us would agree that Captcha codes keep spammers Away. But there is nothing more Frustrating than being unable to Type in a correct Captcha code Countless number of times, and Keep getting error messages. Future Ad Labs’ Play Captcha is An alternative to Captchas (those Hard to read words at the bottom Of forms to prove you are human), Replacing them with short fun Mini-games that are unique to a Brand. According to Future Ad Labs, the brand recall with Play Captcha is 12 times more than the Normal irritating Captchas. Says co-founder and ceo of London-based Future Ad Labs, Howard Kingston,”The whole Future Ad Labs team is thrilled to Have won The Festival of Media’s ‘Hot Company of the Year’ award. For a start-up like us, winning This prestigious industry award Will help open doors and give us Some rocket fuel to grow Future Ad Labs into a global business in The coming year.”
Others in the Short-list
TUBEMOGUL
USP:
Created innovative method of “real-time bidding” in selling & Buying online display advertising
BACKGROUND:
Founded in 2006, tubemogul, a Brand-Focused Video Marketing Company, is based in Emeryville, California with offices in New York, London, Chicago, Detroit, Austin, Los Angeles, Sydney, Singapore And Toronto. John Hughes, Cofounder And President of Products, Is responsible for architecting and Building the world’s first video Demand-side platform (DSP), Tubemogul playtime.
INNOVATION QUOTIENT:
Tubemogul has integrated realtime Media buying, ad serving, Targeting, optimization and brand Measurement into its playtime Platform. It simplifies the delivery Of video ads and maximizes the Impact of every dollar spent by Brand marketers. Talking about tubemogul, Chip Hall, Google’s Head of Buyer Development for double click Ad Exchange said, “tubemogul Is an aggressive market leader In buying video via real-time Bidding.” Tubemogul provides Optimal inventory access; all Video formats and unmatched Performance and insights, Making it stand apart from other Companies.
SPOTXCHANGE
USP:
Skipit, a service that addresses the High abandonment rates in online Video advertising, and levels the Playing field between publishers, Advertisers and consumers
BACKGROUND:
Spotxchange was originally founded As a division of the search engine Marketing technologies and services Company, Booyah Networks in the US in March 2007. Mike Shehan is The Founder, CEO & President who Leads spotxchange. The Denver Post Identified spotxchange as one of the Metro area’s top workplaces in their Annual survey of best places to work.
INNOVATION QUOTIENT:
Spotxchange helps companies Tailor their bids on an impressionby- Impression basis when bidding On in-stream and in-banner video ad Inventory made available through Spotxchange’s auction-based Marketplace. Spotxchange is the Largest global marketplace of video Ad inventory, reaching 110 million Unique visitors each month in more Than 35 countries. In April 2012, Spotxchange launched skipit - a New service that allows consumers to Control their online video experience By skipping ads whenever they want Across the web. Skipit was created to Address the high abandonment rates (averaging between 16-37%!) In online Video advertising, and to finally level The playing field between publishers, Advertisers and ultimately, consumers. With skipit, everyone wins. Consumers Have the option to skip video ads for The first time, publishers get paid to not play ads, and advertisers don’t Pay for skipped ads.
OUTBRAIN
USP:
Looks beyond related links to help people find interesting content through personalized recommendations
BACKGROUND:
Outbrain, founded in 2006, is headquartered in New York City with offices across the US, Israel, Europe, Australia and Singapore. The company now serves over 38 billion content recommendations each month. Yaron Galai is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Outbrain.
INNOVATION QUOTIENT:
Outbrain provides content recommendations on a lot of the world’s leading websites. As per Nielsen Global Trust in Advertising Survey, Q3 2011, marketers in digital lack trust. What people do trust are recommendations, consumer opinions online, editorial content and branded websites. And this is where Outbrain gets the opportunity to tap into this trust. Outbrain uses its best-inclass algorithms to help publishers become smarter about how to engage their audience. This means users stay on the site longer, drive more page views and are able to discover more content. It has a content marketplace where publishers and increasingly brands bring their content and Outbrain amplifies this content by dynamically serving it to the people interested in reading or watching it. If they are interested, they’ll click and go straight into your content.
UNDERCOVER PRODUCTIONS
USP:
Owns one of the longest running Online shows which became the First web show to be syndicated On broadcast television anywhere In the world
Background:
Undercover Productions Ltd., is a 360-degree India-based content Company whose founders have Created more than 10,000 TV episodes. The Production house launched its first Production ‘Sacred Evil’ in 2006 in Association with Percept Pictures & Sahara One Motion Pictures. Founders Mrinal and Abhigyan Jha have created content over the Past 20 years across platforms like Terrestrial (Doordarshan), Satellite (Zee, Star, Sony, Imagine, Colors Etc) & Online of Drama, Comedy, Reality, Music & Non Fiction Categories.
INNOVATION QUOTIENT:
Undercover Productions created & produced the online talk show Jay Hind in 2009. In early 2012, Jay Hind became the first web show To be syndicated on broadcast Television anywhere in the world When Colors aired 24 episodes As The Late Night Show from March to June 2012. The show is Also syndicated on Zee TV’s OTT Platform Ditto TV. From August 2011 to August 2012, the show Registered an earnings growth of 2480% including youtube, Canada Syndication, Colors Syndication.
THE JURY PROCESS :
The process to choose the winner across 50 new media businesses that entered the MAP over the last 18 months involved a panel of entrepreneurs, investors, advisors and strategists in global media across the world. They assessed the candidates through a unique scoring point system to arrive at the shortlist. Finally, the winner was selected by popular vote when delegates at the Festival of Media Asia 2013 voted after seeing all five shortlisted companies make their pitch on the main stage.
THE JURY :
The jury members included Rothin Bhattacharyya, CEO, HCL Security; Philip Beck, CEO, Dubeta Venture Capital China; Barry Cupples, CEO, Omnicom Media Group APAC; Harry Dewhirst, SVP & Managing Director, Asia Pacific; Chiradeep Gupta, Global Media Innovation Manager, Unilever Asia; Masaru Ikeda; Co-Founder, Startup Datin; Bernhard Glock Partner, MediaLink USA/India; Vinnie Lauria, Founding Partner, Golden Gate Ventures; Ken Mandel, Jam Ventures; Greg Paull, CEO, R3 Media China; Hugh Mason, CEO, JFDI. Asia; Jeffrey Seah, VivaKi Country Chair, South East Asia; Yinglan Tan, Venture Partner, Sequoia Capital (India) Singapore.
