For any startup, the quality of marketing can mean the difference between a successful product and one that never takes off. Unfortunately, not a lot of early-stage companies have the budgets or resources to bring their branding to the next level. That’s why last year, The Ad Club President Kathy Kiely and David Chang, serial entrepreneur/former head of PayPal’s Boston office, teamed up to launch the Brandathon: an effort to connect top agencies with the startups that can benefit from their creative minds and ultimately, add fuel to the fire for Boston’s innovation scene. Kiely and Chang recruited some of the top teams at leading agencies like Hill Holliday, SapientNitro and Allen & Gerritsen to put together campaigns for the 12 selected startups, which were then judged by a panel of local innovators, marketers and VCs. All startups own the rights to the work created by the agency on their behalf during the Brandathon. And once they submit their pitch videos, it lives on the Brandathon site created by SapientNitro for the community to watch and share.
The first Brandathon was only open to PayPal Start Tank startups, but this year, it’s open to any startup that has fewer than 25 employees, less than $5 million in funding and is past the prototype phase (either already in market or ready to launch). There is no cap on revenue/profits, and startups may also be pre-revenue.
Startup Institute CEO Diane Hessan, who was a judge last year, has taken on the Chairman of the Host Committee role this year.
“I worry that there are startups out there cranking away that have amazing capability—but are clueless about how to market,” she told me in a phone interview. “There’s an unbelievably creative marketing community here in Boston and they have no connection to startups. Startups don’t have the money to bring in a world-class agency. So it’s an opportunity for two communities important in Boston who don’t know each other to collide in the best way possible.”
Beginning on June 15, the second annual Brandathon competition began accepting submissions, and the deadline to apply is June 29.
Here’s everything else you need to know about the hackathon-style challenge.
Timeline
- Interested startups must fill out the application, shoot a 60-second elevator pitch video explaining the idea or concept they’re working on and submit it by July 6. Videos will be posted online, and the general public will vote for their favorite startups by sharing the videos on social media. Public voting ends July 22, and people can vote as often as they like.
- On July 22, the participating ad agencies will view the top 20 startups and select the one they want to be matched with.
- The agency team members will meet with their startups July 23 at Allen & Gerritsen. Each agency may bring as many individuals from their leadership team across disciplines to that event as they see necessary.
- Starting July 24, the agency teams will have 72 hours to develop a full brand campaign for their startups.
- Finally, agency teams will present their campaigns to a panel of judges and live audience on August 6 at the Revere Hotel.
Judges
The committee brought on a diverse panel to pick the winner this year. Judges include:
Paul Schauder, LogMeIn VP of Brand
Jonathan Green, Raizlabs Creative Director
Tod Loofburrow, ViralGains CEO and Entrepreneur in Residence at Center for Digital Business, MIT Sloan School
Stephanie Shore, MOO SVP of Marketing
Scott Bailey, MassChallenge Managing Director
Peter Rinfret, Flyp CEO
Sarah Sykora, Babson College VP and CMO
Marty St. George, JetBlue EVP of Commercial & Airline Planning
Danielle Duplin, Fidelity Investments VP and Co-founder of TEDxBoston
Prizes
The Grand Prize winner reaps a range of rewards, such as a three month full-time flexible desk membership for up to seven staffers provided by Idea Space (value: $7,500), one year’s worth of free Moo printed stationery featuring their startup’s branding (value: $3,000), and $500 worth of legal services from Legal Hero.
The startup that comes in 2nd place wins a three month full-time flexible desk membership for up to seven staffers at Idea Space and $250 worth of legal services.
And the 3rd place startup also receives three months of full-time flexible desk membership for up to seven staffers and $100 worth of legal services.
But every single company involved benefits from a total branding makeover at no cost, as well as free promotion, publicity and increased visibility/awareness and $100 worth of legal advice.
Photo via AdClub.
