Let The Games Begin: Mindshare, K-C Launch CES Competition

WPP’s Mindshare and client Kimberly-Clark are upping the ante in their efforts to nurture start-ups in the advertising and marketing technology sector with a new competition that they are launching at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show in January. They hope to make the event an annual CES staple.  

Mindshare has teamed with the Kimberly-Clark Digital Innovation Lab and several venture capital firms to create the program, which will culminate with presentations by start-ups at CES.

Given the rapid pace of innovation and change in recent years, a number of agencies and marketers have accelerated their efforts to identify and support startups that they believe might help them better connect with consumers. OMD and GE have held competitions in the past to identify relevant start-ups. UM, Y&R and others also have ongoing incubation programs.

Mindshare and Kimberly-Clark indicated that they see CES as unique venue to explore “opportunities to gain competitive advantage, new customers, and new margins by using accelerated innovation techniques.”

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For the CES competition, dubbed “Fast Forward At CES,” Kimberly-Clark will provide briefs to a pool of pre-selected start-ups lined up by Mindshare and several venture capital partners. A short list of companies, based on responses to the briefs, will be invited to present their ideas in person at CES. Kimberly-Clark will review the ideas and will determine whether it wants to proceed with further exploration and/or investment in them.

“At Kimberly Clark we do not do digital marketing, we build brands in a digital world for a digital consumer,” said company CMO Clive Sirkin. “These digital consumers continue to erase the boundaries that once defined distinct marketing channels. That requires us to be relentless in our commitment to marketing technology innovation.”  

Mindshare Global CEO Nick Emery added: “It is our job to constantly bring new thinking and provocative ideas to our clients. We believe Adaptive Marketing is about using data all the way through the marketing and sales cycle to new product development.”

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