- Jun 19, 2018
Updated: Feb 15, 2021
Smartzer is at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the largest gathering of the advertising and creative communications industry. Think meeting-after-meeting with agencies and media companies, the backdrop of the beautiful French Riviera, and yachts. Paradise for the creative mind? Yes!
This is our second year attending Cannes Lions and this year were very honoured to be selected for the R/GA Ventures Start-Up Academy. Smartzer was one of eight female-founded start-ups chosen out of a pool of 250+ applicants for R/GA’s Fourth Annual Start-up Academy. The start-ups were selected from around the globe and include: Perksy, a next generation marketing tool founded by Toronto native Nadia Masri, which powers real-time surveys for millennials and Generation Z through mobile. Camera IQ is a camera marketing tool which integrates OS platforms, AR toolkits, and native apps into a single fabric to make it easy for brands to create mixed reality content and VR experiences for their consumers.
When selecting the start-ups, R/GA Ventures noted that similar patterns emerged between the solutions offered by the start-ups and the current needs of brands and agencies. First off, the struggle for meaningful information. Although it is the information age, with so much data out there it is difficult for brands to identify meaningful insights about their consumers behaviours and beliefs. The start-ups selected for the Academy are developing new tools for data capture that go beyond the traditional – giving marketers information they wouldn’t otherwise come to and enabling them to act on it. Smartzer analytics, for example, give insight into the most engaging products and this can assist the brand in making future production and buying choices.
R/GA ventures also looked for start-ups that are focused on the next generation of social media. Millennials and Gen-Z grew up with social media and they expect more from the platforms they interact with and R/GA saw potential in Smartzer’s ability to make social channels smarter. Smartzer tech seamlessly makes any brand’s video shoppable on website and social channels. The younger generations spend so much time interacting with videos and images on social media that shoppable ads are the best way to reach them, and the fact Smartzer makes the videos for these ads shoppable and interactive within the apps allows for a seamless experience.
The forward-thinking female founders were invited to share their innovative products and services with global brand and agency leaders. These corporates also invest some time advising and coaching the founders. These newly-built relationships foster innovative information exchange between corporates and start-ups.
Karoline and the Smartzer team headed to Cannes on Sunday June 17th to begin an exciting schedule of training and meetings setup by R/GA. Sunday kicked-off with a Meet & Greet between key corporates and the eight start-ups participating in the Academy.
Monday started with an official welcome session, a tour of the Palais Convention Centre which allowed us to see more agencies and companies participating in the event, and speaker session by R/GA’s Jessica Greenwood the SVP of Strategy at R/GA USA. This was followed by very helpful mentor office hours and networking cocktails with Interpublic Group (IPG).
Smartzer kicked-off Tuesday with an informative session with Chairman & CEO of IPG Michael Roth, followed by an informative Q&A on Start-up Press by Campaign US editor Lindsay Stein. Some of the Smartzer team also headed to Teads Salon where CBS, Digiday, and IPG discussed “Video Everywhere” which was the perfect topic for Smartzer shoppable video. After that we met with the Pinterest team at Cannes and got to see the new FabFitFun Pinterest Box which includes all of the product’s top-rated trends in beauty, wellness and apparel. What was next? Sixteen meetings with agency heads and brand CMOs.
We are excited for what the rest of the week has to offer.
Read more about Cannes Lions 2018:
"The Drum @ Cannes Lions 2018: Brands are starting to visually disappear, sonic branding is the future" - The Drum
- Jun 18, 2018
Updated: Feb 15, 2021
Jo Malone recently launched its fun Queen of Pop campaign featuring it-girl Poppy Delevingne and partnered with Smartzer to make the campaign an interactive experience. The limited-edition collection of scents styled by the blonde-beauty was launched with a series of playful videos featuring the model: Delevingne in the bath looking “flawless,” Delevingne flirtatiously wrapping gifts and Delevingne dancing to salsa and ragtime music. The campaign is whimsically-playful and perfect for the fun polka dot and striped collection of the Queen of Pop signature scents, candles and bubble bath.
The video content is strong on its own but how does Jo Malone push engagement with the campaign even further? Jo Malone partnered with Smartzer to make the Queen of Pop campaign videos shoppable and interactive. The clickable videos enable the viewer to engage with the content, discover more about each product in the collection and shop directly from the video.
Jo Malone is featuring these shoppable and interactive videos on their social media channels in the UK & US. The campaign has launched and so far the Queen of Pop interactive video has been an amazing success. Smartzer was so excited to work with Jo Malone and the playful campaign and we cannot wait to work on other campaigns in the future.
- Jun 5, 2018
Updated: Feb 15, 2021
May 24-26
Smartzer joined tech leaders and other startups for Viva Technology Paris. This was our second year attending the globally recognised event, as last July we attended as finalists for the LVMH Innovation Award. This year we were excited to focus on networking with corporates and other startups as well as attending some ground-breaking presentations.
Viva Technology (also known as VivaTech) is a global rendezvous for startups and leaders to meet and celebrate innovation. Key tech and corporates met May 24-26 to discuss today’s technology and tomorrow’s possibilities. Key insight was given into how future tech will transform business and society. How does the event accomplish this? VivaTech breaks down barriers between grassroots innovators and leaders by putting startups and established companies in the same room to brainstorm on open innovation in an effort to problem solve.
VivaTech 2018 marked the event’s third year and received media coverage around the globe as the place to be for anyone in tech. The event attracted over 100,000 attendees and over 9,000 startups. Hundreds of enterprises joined, including 22 companies from the LVMH group. Attendees came from 125 different countries to witness the innovations and inventions, as well as attend the much-anticipated inspirational discussions from tech leaders.
Over the three-day event Smartzer attended a variety of interesting presentations given by global players in innovation. There were over 300 speeches that focused on the impact of innovation on the economy and society. Facebook founder, Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg was greeted like a rockstar at the event and was interviewed by Publicis Groupe chairman Maurice Levy. The enlightening interview touched on some of the hot-button issues currently swirling around Zuckerberg including the Cambridge Analytica scandal, his recent appearance at the European Parliament and the E.U.’s General Data Protection Regulation.
Other interesting presentations included Google CEO Eric Schmidt who discussed AI and how he believes Tesla Founder, “Elon Musk is exactly wrong” when it comes to his views on AI and believes that “AI is fundamentally good for humanity.” Another positive note, French President Emmanuel Macron discussed “Tech for Good”, or how technology can be a positive force for society.
One section of VivaTech 2018 not to miss was the LVMH Luxury Lab, which Smartzer participated in last year. It was excellent to see the technologies that LVMH shortlisted for this year’s Innovation Award as well as see some of the innovative tech being displayed there. Most interestingly, Veuve Clicquot offered a virtual tour of the historic headquarters in Riems and Sephora unveiled its new app which is partnered with Google Home smart speakers. The app allows customers to book an appointment at Sephora stores, listen to podcasts on beauty news and test their knowledge by taking a beauty quiz. It is a perfect example of how tech can make people’s lives easier in the retail space and pair instore and digital experiences.
Smartzer was able to meet, network and brainstorm with leaders from luxury sector and we are looking forward to next year’s VivaTech.
You can read more about VivaTech 2018 at the links below: