Emerging Bets at the Intersection of Technology & Culture

CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 – Deutsch LA 2012 VOLUME 01, MA 2012 Y EMERGING bets OF TION RSEC INTE E T H A T TE CH NO LO GY & CU LT UR ECREATED BY Deutsch LADeutsch LA’s Invention Strategy team journeyed to South by Southwest 2012to document the birth of over 100 new digital startups. What follows is anexploration into the emerging trends and lessons, culled from that adventure,that brand marketers can apply to their own businesses. Page 1 of 12

CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 – Deutsch LA 2012ABOUT THIS REPORTThe discipline of Invention Strategy was created atDeutsch LA with the mission to solve complex business START-UPS CONSIDEREDproblems through means that fall outside the typical mold FOR THIS RESEARCH:of advertising deliverables. Our team is charged with 5Degrees - AdGlue - Aglocal - Apptopia - Arqball -developing disruptive offerings, relationships, and business Banjo - Bloomboard - Bodimojo - Book Brewer -models for our clients and for ourselves. To that end, we BrandYourself - Brass Monkey - BuyVite - BuzzData -attended SXSW 2012 to study this year’s crop of fledgling Cellscope - CFA - CompathMe - ConditionOne -digital start-ups. Crowded Comics - Dead Social - Echoer - FitOrbit - Forecast - Funf Project - Gauss - Geeklist - Getwear - Giftiki - Ginger.io - Glancee - Glomper - Goodzer -When we study start-ups, we examine their offerings GooseChase - Grandstand - GeurillaApps - Highlight -through two strategic lenses: Hipswap - Hoot.Me - Jiff - Just.Me - Kiip - KULA Causes - Learnboost - Lemur IMS - Local Wiki - Localmind - Medify - Meeps - Meexo - Modo Labs -1) Start-ups represent emerging bets at the MoPix - Mowgli Games - NextDrop - Nowspots -intersection of technology and culture. Any product Offermation - OneID - OneSchool - Parking Panda - Peekseed - Personal - Picle - Pixable - Prism Skylabs -that a company produces is inherently a prediction for the RAVN - ReferralBonus - Rock Your Block - Roximity -future. The start-up community, especially at SXSW, SaneBox - SceneTap - Scrible - Sensecast - Shapeways -represents a rare opportunity to view hundreds of those Shelby.TV - Shortlist - Simplee - Sizeseeker - Sonar -predictions in a single location, all vying for attention and Sourcemap - SpotFlux - Springpad - StitchLabs - Switchcam - TappedIn - Taskrabbit - Thirst Labs -adoption. Toopher - Trapit- Tugg - Uberlife - Umbel - Veenome - Verbling - VitalClip - Vitzu Technologies - Votifi -2) Clusters of start-ups help to identify what’s broken Voxio - Vsnap - Wanderfly - Wemo Media - We Video - Whodini - WooCommerce - Zaarly - Zamp - Zeel - Zeroin current industries and where there’s opportunity for Desktopdisruption. If we look at a specific industry, say healthcare,and what problems are being consistently targeted by start- ABOUT DEUTSCH LA:ups in that industry, we can begin to identify opportunitiesand threats for our clients in those industries. Deutsch LA is one of the most well-respected and successful integrated advertising and digital agencies in the United States. Deutsch LA producesWe’ve structured this report based on those two strategic award-winning and results oriented work for clients likelenses. In addition, in the final section, we’ve included our Volkswagen, Sony PlayStation, Dr Pepper, and HTC.recommendations to brand marketers based on the Deutsch LA is at its core a business building machine. Its not just about making ads. It is about developinganalysis in this report. We hope you find this useful and, strategically sound, insightful creative that connectsof course, we’d be more than happy to speak to your with people at the right moment in the right organization more deeply about environment. Deutsch LA specializes in Digital, Design, our recommendations. Media Planning and Buying, Search, PR, Experiential, and Data Analytics. Thank you. New Business: Bud Caddell Chad Saul – Chad@deutschinc.com VP, Invention Strategy Careers: Bud.Caddell@deutschinc.com Lionel Carreon – Lionel.Carreon@deutschinc.com Page 2 of 12

CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 – Deutsch LA 2012OUR METHODOLOGYThe South by Southwest Interactive conference has At the event, our team divided our time betweengrown into the definitive launching pad for the Startup Village and various panels to learnstartups. SXSW attendees are an attractive user base about current trends around technology andof early adopters and select venture capitalists. culture. We sat in on pitches, collected flyers,Moreover, the media and tech press use the event interviewed founders, and struck up hallwayto crown the next big web hit. In years past, small conversations. After the conference, we cataloguedunknowns like Twitter, Foursquare, Gowalla, and the startups we found and sorted them by theirGroupMe came out of SXSW as winners and went feature set, user base, and the technology at theon to wider success. core of their offering. From there, similarities became apparent, and patterns emerged. And sinceThis year there were nearly 150 official panels and the conference, we’ve been monitoring socialevents around startups, including the SXSW mentions and press around each startup.Startup Accelerator competition, which had 670applicants from around the world. This year also One pattern we immediately noted was the shift inmarked the introduction of the Startup Village, startup origins. Silicon Valley has always been thewhere startups had their own venue to meet center of digital innovation, but now startups areinvestors and exchange ideas with fellow founders. popping up across the nation, especially in Boston, New York, and DC.WHERE THIS YEAR’S STARTUPS CAME FROM Page 3 of 12

CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 – Deutsch LA 2012 KEY STARTUPS AND TRENDS of 2012 Health & Wellness Gamefication Quantified Self GeurillApps Ambient Cellscope Data Analytics Serendipity Goosechase Bodimojo Zamp Gauss Lemur IMS Jiff Mowgli Games Echoer BuzzData Vitalclip Glancee Zeel Grandstand Kiip Funf Sonar Future Project Medify Sharing MeepsEducation Personal Learningboost Ginger.io Glomper Bloomboard Highlight Modo Labs RAVN Simplee Ban.jo Forecast Uberlife Oneschool Video SXSW Chat Niche Networks Verbling Voxio 2012 Whodini Hoot.Me Geeklist Social Vitzu Arqball Shapeways Thirst Followthis Curation Wanderfly 3D Tech Switchcam Taskrabbit Pixable Shelby.TV WeVideo Zaarly Goodzer BrandYourself The Visual Web Video WooCommerce Aggregators Buyvite Giftiki AdGlue Tugg Group Buys Getwear Personal SEO Source Map Parking Panda SizeSeeker Votifi Rock Your Block Adopt-a-Hydrant Offermation DataCouch The Neighborweb Local Wiki Crowdsourcing Ecommerce Tools Next Drop Civic Startups Page 4 of 12

CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 – Deutsch LA 2012KEY TRENDS 1 Future Check-Ins Ambient Serendipity Startups:Social networking sites such as Facebook 1, Twitter, On the web, meeting people is easy. Facebook andand Foursquare were designed to help users Twitter use algorithms to match you with othercatalogue their “now”– what they’re up to, what users with similar interests and friends. But in thethey’re thinking, and what they’re currently sharing. real world, these sort of valuable connections canAs a result, these tools have created a culture of only happen by chance. Even before SXSW began,spontaneity. We use these tools to make quick plans this batch of startups, promising to deliveron the fly by finding out what people are doing and invaluable chance encounters, was already a hotwhere they are in the moment. topic.However, new startups are recognizing that humans Ambient geolocation technology is at the core ofare, at their core, future-planning animals. These this trend’s offering – location awareness pairedstartups are making it easier for people to plan with data on your friends and your interests. Thisahead in a public forum: technology is highly controversial due to privacy and safety concerns, but nonetheless, there were aForecast and Uberlife are mobile apps that allow number of startups experimenting with thisusers to see what their friends are going to do. functionality.Friends can post events they plan on attending orgatherings they are organizing, to get others to join. Highlight, Glancee and Sonar connect you with people near you that you might know throughRAVN is a similar app, but aggregates a list of mutual friends or shared interests. These servicesupcoming local events that users can choose to run in the background of your mobile device andattend. Users can also connect their social networks can therefore alert you to someone nearby at anyto invite their friends to join. moment. Banjo is a similar service, but it also allows you to find out where interesting conversations are taking place nearby and who is participating. Meeps can also show you conversations taking place near you, but layers in a mobile chat experience similar to the chatrooms of the ‘90s. Users can partake in conversations that are location specific, or on random topics of interest. Since Meeps is separate from other social networks, these dialogues are more intimate and there is no risk of Forecast makes it easy to scroll through future plans. being judged by your Facebook friends. 1Recently, Facebook has been focusing a lot of their efforts on the past, with the integration of Timeline, which emphasizes a user’s or brand’s history. Page 5 of 12

CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 – Deutsch LA 2012key TRENDS Micro-Networks The Visual WebWith the explosion of social networking, across With a glut of information piping through ourgenerations, and the resulting scarcity of our social networks, users tend to gravitate to the mostattention, comes the inevitable urge to pare back. easily digested form of content – visual content.Now, users are seeking more intimate networks. Flipboard helped start the trend by creating aPath was one of the first of these “small social more visual experience to feed our social networks,networks,” with a limit of 50 members, but new RSS feeds, and curated news articles. Now, newstartups continue to experiment with this trait. startups are taking all text out of the equation, and creating an aggregated experience of visual contentGeeklist is a network for developers to trade from our networks.information, advice, and job openings. Pixable is a new web platform that aggregates allWhodini is a network strictly for members of the of the photos and video that your Facebooksame organization, looking for specialties and talent friends post into one place.to assist on certain projects. It’s primary function isto find experts in the office, but the service can Shelby.TV is a similar service, but focusesfoster new relationships by creating these exclusively on video. It essentially creates a TVconnections. channel out of your various social networks.Hoot.Me is a social network for students and We also see this trend manifested in sites liketeachers. It allows students to collaborate and Pinterest, which allows users to collect images anddiscuss homework assignments outside the display them in a very visual, inspirational way.classroom. This is one example of new startups Many sites are adopting an almost identical usertackling the education space, which will be interface to put the content front and center.discussed later in this report.Everything is an (API) remixApplication Programming Interfaces, or, APIs, are packages of Popular APIs amongst the startupscode with certain functionalities that developers can use withoutreinventing the wheel. Startups are becoming variations of existingstartups, utilizing social APIs as the basis for their applications. Butthis doesn’t make them any less innovative. A unique recipe ofsocial integrations can drastically differentiate one app fromanother.Many of the startups this year used social integrations to expeditelogins, personalize web experiences, or make content easilyshareable. Facebook is the most popular API, since it has a widerange of your personal data, tailoring experiences based onanything from your email address to your favorite band. Page 6 of 12

CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 – Deutsch LA 2012KEY TRENDS The Neighborweb Quantified SelfCraigslist has long established itself as the primary Data, by itself, is cold and daunting to digest. Yet,digital community board - the place to post when we’re given data about ourselves and ouranything from used furniture, to apartment listings, behavior, we find an abundance of interest andto personal ads. But what Craigslist lacks (and what intrigue.new startups are helping to create) is a sense ofcommunity and trust among its users. One of the very first places this was realized was in health and fitness products. Nike+ was one of theTaskrabbit is a peer-to-peer task and errand first services to make personal data useful,service for local communities. Users can find motivational, and shareable.vetted, trustworthy people in their neighborhoodsto help them with chores ranging from housework Now, visualizations of personal data are movingto picking up the dry cleaning. into our everyday lives. Zamp is a new startup that provides metrics around travel. It tracks information such as airports, distance traveled, types of aircrafts, and cities visited, and it visually represents the aggregated data. Grandstand is a platform for businesses to develop unique ways of visualizing data. The service pulls in social data from a particular venue Taskrabbit caters to both major cities and small towns or place of business, and repurposes the across the country. information into social games or full-scale interactive installations.With Zaarly, people can post any item they need,and the price they’re willing to pay for it. Users can Personal is a tool that aggregates data from aalso post their own items they want to sell to their variety of sources: your social network, bankneighbors. statement, purchase history, and travel itineraries - and turns these secure pieces of information intoParking is typically a nuisance both in big cities and “gems.” These gems make sharing to a select groupsmall towns, and Parking Panda is putting the simple, removing the hassle of logging in to severalpower in the hands of the neighborhood to solve accounts to access the same information.this problem. Members of the community can rentout their own parking spaces to local car owners inneed. Some of the “gems” available with Personal. Page 7 of 12

CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 – Deutsch LA 2012Industries poised for disruption EducationEducation is becoming an increasingly hot topic in Problem: Higher education institutions are great atthe tech world. New companies are proving that building physical community spaces for students toeducation at any level can be accessible and learn and connect with others, but rarely is there aportable, moving beyond the typical classroom hub for students that exists online.structure. Solution: Create mobile apps that help studentsThe Kahn Academy has been a game changer in navigate their campus, connect with other students,the industry. Offering a diverse range of free, and better organize their college lives.online classes to anyone, anywhere in the world,shows how a simple tool can foster learning. Most Modo Labs is a simple service that buildsrecently, Facebook has created groups for schools optimized mobile sites for Higher Educationto allow students and teachers to interact and share dotcoms so that students, prospective students, andinformation online. faculty can access information on smartphones and tablets.These examples are a sign that tech companies andstartups are acknowledging the shortcomings of OneSchool is a mobile app that bridges campusthe education system, and looking for ways to navigation and information with social tools.improve it. Students can connect with other students in their classes and form group discussions within the app.Problem: Teacher evaluation systems are broken. It also encourages them to engage in discussions around interests (another rising trend) with othersSolution: Give administrators and teachers better who may not necessarily be in their immediatetools to assess performance and motivate overall group of friends.improvement.Bloomboard is a tool for school administrators tobetter evaluate their teachers. It organizesclassroom evaluations with personalized feedbacksystems. It also provides individual training andprofessional development for teachers.Learnboost is a platform that integrates lessonplans, schedules and gradebooks into one place forteachers to organize and share information.Through data visualization, a multimedia lessonplan builder, and sharing capabilities, teachers can Bloomboard was one of the winners of SXSWedu’sassess performance, organize class time, and share first annual LAUNCHedu competition.information with administrators and parents. Page 8 of 12

CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 – Deutsch LA 2012Industries poised for disruption HealthOne of the biggest trends in startups this year is Problem: Healthcare expenses are difficult tothe rise of health-related tools and applications. As manage, let alone understand.healthcare has become an increasingly hot-buttonissue in politics, startups are beginning to address Solution: Create a platform where patients canthese issues through innovative private solutions. organize their health plan information, medical records, and bills, all in once place.Problem: Patient visits to the doctor are oftenunnecessary, unproductive, and too frequent. Simplee is a dashboard, similar to Mint.com, where users can access personal records, pay bills,Solution: Provide patients with the right and see how much they have saved. Simpleeinformation up front. Give them the tools that educates the patient as well on confusing orempower them to take ownership of their health. complicated healthcare information. People are seeking transparency when it comes to their health,Ginger.io aims to provide doctors with accurate and with Simplee they have control over theirbehavioral data on their patients. Often, patients personal data.with chronic diseases have to track their behaviorand symptoms with a pen and paper, which leads to This service can also address the problem of lackpotential errors and misdiagnoses. Now, these of information, providing insight into their medicalpatients can track their behavior on their mobile history and any patterns that emerge.device and the data is immediately transferred totheir doctors for further analysis. Ginger.io is powered by patient behavior data. Simplee makes healthcare manageable.Medify creates a better system for illness andsymptom research. The internet is filled withinaccurate, biased content on health and wellness,and people are seeking real information. Page 9 of 12

CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 – Deutsch LA 2012Industries poised for disruption Local GovernmentThe last keynote at SXSW and one of the more Problem: Local government has a limited budgetinspiring speeches of the conference was from that prevents them from tending to all civic issues.Jennifer Pahlka, the founder of Code for America.CFA is similar to Teach For America in that it looks Solution: Empower citizens to take on issues as afor individuals across the country to use their talent community. Jennifer Pahlka said, “Government iswhere it is needed. But instead of teachers to something we do together.” And one program thatschools, CFA matches developers to local came out of Boston proved that.governments to create innovative tools that addressspecific local problems. Adopt-a-Hydrant was first created in Boston as a way to save hydrants from being buried during major snowstorms. Each year during a major snowfall, fire hydrants would get buried, rendering them useless. The government didn’t have the time to shovel each one out. In response, a Code for America fellow called on the community to pitch in. Adopt-a-Hydrant uses data to show every hydrant in the city and users can indicate which hydrant they can dig out of the snow. The idea was so successful it was taken on by Code for America’s site serves as a hub for tools and apps. several other cities across the county.Problem: Government holds tons of big, valuabledata, but very few people know how to access itand to use it to its full potential.Solution: Create a tool that converts big data intoan API that developers can quickly understand andbuild upon.DataCouch is a Code for America fellow project.It is a web platform that serves as a store for open,accessible government data. Developers cancreatively use the data to build apps for the localcommunity or outside visitors. The site also servesas a forum for coders to share knowledge and Adopt-a-Hydrant, one of CFA’s most successful projects.collaborate on projects. Page 10 of 12

CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 – Deutsch LA 2012OPPORTUNITIES FOR MARKETERSSo, what can be learned from these trends? How want to focus in these areas, they must be mindfulcan marketers make them actionable for their of the local companies that already exist. Tobusiness? Admittedly, most of the startups listed compete in this space, they must find a sense ofhere will not become the next Twitter or Facebook. authenticity and trustworthiness within theWhat is far more likely is that many of their traits community.will survive in later ventures or will be adopted bymajor players. Because of that, consumer behaviorand consumer expectation will be shaped by thesetraits and we believe that the following lessons will Build ecosystems of value.therefore be critical for marketers to heed in thefuture: Historically, brands have been obsessed with the value their product provides to their customers. Cut through the noise. Now, brands should be just as obsessed with the value their customers can create for one another. With new peer-to-peer networks, people arePeople are seeking more intimate networks, apps increasingly more comfortable sharing theirthat unlock deeper new relationships, and tools that garages, cars, homes, and personal items withparse their overloaded social accounts for the most others. They are consciously negotiating theirvaluable content. Brands, first and foremost, should privacy for returned social value. Brands canbe concerned about not adding more clutter to the leverage this culture of openness by becoming aalready noisy social spaces online, as consumers will social matchmaker, introducing the consumer tobe more willing than ever to opt out of brand new experiences, new information, and even newcommunications. However, there is also an connections.opportunity for brands to offer services and toolsthat cut through the online din, make the webeasier to digest, and deliver what the user is lookingfor more easily. Capitalize on consumer intent. As users broadcast their upcoming plans, or opt in Create experiences on a local level. to events in advance, brands can begin to have a presence in the future. With current social networks, such as Foursquare, brands provideMobile certainly allows for more geotargeted content or deals in the moment. Now, there is anexperiences - especially with ambient technology opportunity for brands to craft a message forthat delivers content based on our whereabouts. future patrons, and incentivize a potential customerBut local also applies to our neighborhoods. to keep their plans. As consumers being to think ofTechnology is bringing our communities together, their activities further in advance, brands should beand individuals are finding a sense of pride and strategic in how they time their messaging as well.solidarity as a result. However, if larger brands Page 11 of 12

CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 – Deutsch LA 2012OPPORTUNITIES FOR MARKETERS MAKING INVENTION Use data to earn loyalty. WORK FOR YOULooking at the range of startups this year, it is “Disrupt yourself before someone does it for you.”apparent that the most salient theme among them – Googleis data. Data is being put in the hands of theconsumer as both a utility and a means of self- We believe that in order to survive,expression. Whether it is the number of miles you organizations must myopically chase their ownran, or your progress as a student, data can obsolescence. All businesses face anempower individuals to take action and potentially increasingly connected and therefore morechange behavior. If brands can provide worthwhile uncertain world, and with it, we all compete indata, and a utility that surrounds it, they can turn a smaller pool, full of more demanding andengaged users into loyal customers. We think that a less attentive consumers. Advertising can be astrong data offering could be a potent lure in powerful driver of growth, but advertisingloyalty programs. alone cannot steer a firm to future success. That’s why we’ve created a department of Invention Strategists – a mix of researchers, creatives, technologists, and entrepreneurs – to help our clients experiment with new tools, Always be inventing. START-UPS CONSIDERED products, and business models. FOR THIS RESEARCH: Our group specializes in conceptingSXSW 2012 was unique in that there was no clear and developing pilot programs that disrupt“winner” among startups, like there was in years the status quo, ignite culture, and createpast. The most talked-about company was not a business change. We also help brands find theirscrappy bunch of young founders, but rather a social mission and work with the largerhighly established brand. Nike stole the show with advertising force at Deutsch LA to pursue thatthe introduction of the Fuelband, the simply mission through interactive ideas. If youre adesigned wristband that tracks a users’ physical business with an appetite for experimentation and marketing innovation, wed love to partneractivity. Even the retail space and events around with you.the launch were new and exciting. Nike is anexample that brands can create innovative products Get in touch.that intersect technology and culture. By instilling asense of fearlessness and a habit for Bud Caddellexperimentation, brands can be inventors, too. It’s VP, Invention Strategyalso critical to remember that the success ofFuelband began long ago, with Nike’s first forays bud.caddell@deutschinc.cominto developing products outside of their typicalofferings. Page 12 of 12

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Emerging Bets at the Intersection of Technology & Culture

by Bud Caddell

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Emerging Bets at the Intersection of Technology & Culture Document Transcript