• by Larissa Faw , February 21, 2018

Zenith is partnering with its client Coty to help the beauty company incorporate artificial intelligence and related technology into its brand portfolio.

Expanding on last year's Digital Accelerator initiative that connected Coty to external digital capabilities and start-ups, this new program focuses on a specific series of capabilities, with artificial intelligence selected as the first concept.

Startups submit a brief that outlines a specific Coty brand and demonstrates how that brand will benefit from the startup’s AI technology by March 12.

Coty will then select up to eight start-ups, to present their ideas directly to Coty’s brand leaders at its Digital Accelerator Summit on March 27th and 28th in both London and New York City.

In parallel, there will be a prize fund of up to $100,000, with prizes of $10k - $50k awarded based on criteria fit - such as brand alignment, growth impact, scaling upside - judged by a panel of Coty digital experts.

Zenith has been working closely with Coty over the past year to identify opportunities and potential collaboration. "Our focus has been on assessing Coty’s business and brand challenges and then, through Zenith and Publicis Media’s innovation programs, selecting start-ups that can provide solutions to help solve these," says Benoit Cacheux, global digital & innovation lead, Zenith. "Our intention is to go deeper into the area of artificial intelligence and identify start-up partners that can help support Coty on this journey.

Coty has previously worked with emerging companies such as Beamly and Holition, which launched the brand's first app free augmented reality (AR) experience exclusively for CoverGirl. That partnership is an indication of how "we’d like to bring disruptive new approaches to the market in partnership with unique new players in AI, AR, voice and other rapidly growing technologies," says Fred Gerantabee, vice president, digital innovation, Coty.

Upcoming themes under this 2018 program will likely include AR, voice and 3D printing.