On Monday, 10th September we teamed up with The Marketing Society to host our first major brands speed networking event with some of our best startups! We did a shorter smaller version with Albion a few months before and found it extremely highly rated. Albion connected us with The Marketing Society and off we went, the 3 of us working together.
The Marketing Society is dedicated to encouraging their members to become bolder marketing leaders. To enable this The Marketing Society helps their members develop new approaches to the business challenges they face. It is a very compelling organization with a deep understanding of the needs of Marketers and a trusted relationship with many of UK’s top brands. We are privileged to work together with their team.
Startups have disruptive technology with fresh solutions to longstanding industry problems and ground-breaking ideas for Brands/Corporates to excite their customers and either get ahead of their competition or be absolutely blind-sided by this disruption.
So how do these 2 great forces come together for mutual benefit? We provided the missing ingredient to make this event happen; Seedcamp has a portfolio of Europe’s best up-and-coming technology startups, a great and growing relationship with The Marketing Society, and a tried and true platform for making long-term connections happen.
Ten of our most promising startups presented their propositions to some of the biggest brands and brand agencies including; ASOS, Blast Radius, Barclaycard, Digital UK, Freeview, Herd Consulting, HSBC, LBi, MBA, Outside Line, Razorfish, RBS and Vodafone. This was a truly unique opportunity, as partnering with larger corporates is crucial to the startups’ growth and staying on top of disruptive forces is a big part of a Marketer’s role. Essentially a recipe for a perfect match-up.
Speed networking followed lightning fast intros from the brands and startup presentations. Here is a quote from one of the brands present.
“Set amidst the celebration of sporting achievement during the London Olympics, it was a privilege to partake in a celebration of sorts of some of the most promising minds the digital space has to offer in the UK.
Amidst the crowd of industry leaders, it was stimulating to see the innovation brought forward by this promising new wave of tech entrepreneurs, and a great opportunity to assess and consider how such products and their application can offer value to our product offerings going forward, fundamentally supporting our aim to provide the best experience we can to our customers and partners alike.
We can certainly see us actively following the platform going forward”. Saj Arshad, Group Marketing Director at Vodafone.
This is what Gemma Greaves, Marketing Director, The Marketing Society said about the event;
“We were completely energised by the appetite of both our members and Seedcamp entrepreneurs to meet, learn and share ideas. We pride ourselves on leading the agenda across all things marketing and partnering with the great guys at Seedcamp allowed us to showcase the latest technology and smartest entrepreneurs that our members need to know about in a very inspiring setting. This will definitely be a key part of our programme in the future. Very exciting”.
The startups also had hugely positive feedback:
“An excellent brand and partnership event from Seedcamp! It’s always difficult to get in front of the major players in digital marketing and to have such a strong audience of major decision makers in brands was extraordinarily valuable. Thank you!” Rob Stevenson, Sales Director Hooplo Media
As the event proved of great value and some good fun to all participants, we have decided to make this a fixed biannual event in our calendar. We’re sure the afternoon will result in great partnerships between the brands and the startups with many business cards swapped and conversations still on going.
