I’ve lost count. The number of innovative startups that dot the landscape between marketer, agency, publisher and consumer has grown exponentially in the last decade. In 2009, Terry Kawaja’s original LUMAscape highlighted less than 100 display-advertising companies. That compares to 11 separate LUMAscapes today boasting thousands. And Scott Brinker’s Marketing Technology Supergraphic featured roughly 150 companies in 2011 compared to 3,874 logos across 3,500 separate organizations in its 2016 revision. The explosion in the number of smaller, more nimble innovators reflects the last decade’s unquenchable thirst for the next new thing.
But this explosion has actually made it harder, not easier, for marketing, media and entertainment companies to find, vet and partner with the most promising of today’s disruptive adtech and martech startups. For example, DMA reports in its just-released Statistical Fact Book, that 80% of millennials are using their phones in-store and 74% are willing to receive location-based mobile alerts. Stats like this call for innovation in location-based marketing and media. However, for those seeking such solutions, finding the true innovators capable of meeting their needs at scale is both costly and incredibly time-consuming.
(DMA’s HOT ZONE is part of &THEN in Los Angeles – Oct. 16-18)
That’s where DMA’s HOT ZONE competition comes into play. The HOT ZONE competition culminates during DMA’s annual marketing experience conference, &THEN. Designed to credential up-and-coming market entrants, the HOT ZONE gives 20 top startups the opportunity to pitch in front of thousands of potential customers from across the marketing and media ecosystem. Through two rounds of independent judging – and the voice of the &THEN audience – five top startups pitch in DMA’s version of “Shark Tank” where the finalists vie for guaranteed pilots with marketers, agencies and publishers who are eager to try out their products and services. Startups win by gaining access and exposure to many of the industry’s top media and marketing executives, while &THEN attendees win with access to a group of curated, vetted innovators all in one place at one time.
Since the birth of the Internet as a commercial media platform, startups have led the market in disruption and innovation. We witnessed the explosion of startups filling up real estate on their respective LUMAscapes and Martech Supergraphics, and we’ve all benefited as participants in this high-growth digital media and marketing economy.
But for marketers, more startups mean more time, effort and cost. This dynamic has lengthened the odds for early-stage innovators wishing to get through the door. The HOT ZONE addresses this challenge. The HOT ZONE makes it easier for innovators to find each other on both sides of the buy-sell transaction. It’s a win-win for all those that participate.
David Kohl is CEO of Morgan Digital Ventures, a strategy and operations consultancy that grows digital businesses. David has nearly 25 years of experiencing delivering top-line revenue growth and performance improvement to some of the world’s largest entertainment companies, global advertising agencies, early-stage digital media service providers and several media industry trade organizations, including the DMA, for whom he leads DMA’s HOT ZONE startup competition. David was formerly the Advertising Sector Leader with Ernst & Young’s Media and Entertainment Advisory Practice, and prior, was a member of PwC’s Global Entertainment, Media and Communications Advisory leadership team.
