Startup of the month wants to help campaigns become raging successes
The panel gives their thumbs up to this month’s startup, which has a former creative agency manager at the helm. His company offers tools that make data manageable and can easily translate it into creative messaging that creates in-market effect.
“In a world with fewer cookies, the approach Factive offers can help limit a potential loss of effect in advertising.” This is how Michael Stein, head of marketing for Seat, Skoda, Audi and Volkswagen at Semler Mobility, writes about this month’s startup, Factive.
He sits on the panel, which, with stars and comments, judges this month’s startup. There is broad agreement within the panel that Factive provides some tools to leverage data in a manageable way that not only potentially produces better results, but also integrates the creative process.
For example, Christian Godske, Head of Innovation, addressable tv at TV 2 says:
“Factive shifts the focus back from just looking at large, incalculable amounts of data or to building its knowledge on assumptions; to use digital consumer behavior to generate some concrete insights and outputs that can also be used as a gross list for further idea generation.”
Why aren’t campaigns raging successes?
Factive is a startup that has built a technology that helps base marketing messages on facts with AI as the focal point for both creating wider outcome spaces and making it easier to work with data afterwards.
The first tool Factive launched is called Resonance and is about response modeling. It is used by media agencies, advertising agencies and companies to make sure that they go to market with the messages that create the most attractiveness.
The idea behind Factive’s genesis was a wonder why all the data collected did not lead to better marketing messages, says Thomas Thorstholm, a former CEO and partner in the agencies Orbit Agency and in Halbye, Kaag JWT, who founded Factive.
“Data has been democratized. Almost all companies are gaining access to more and more data, from more and more sources, in increasingly granular forms. How is it that there has not been an acute positive movement in how many product launches and campaigns become raging successes?” says Thomas Thorstholm.
He continues:
“Because even though we have more data than ever before, it is most often that the messages that go out are not fact-based. After all the data work is done, we end up around a table with 4-6 attendees who have to answer the golden questions; What do we do? What do we say and to whom? The four remember the data they have looked through in four different ways and interpret it in four different ways. And at the same time, they decide based on consensus around the table and expectations of how their respective stakeholders will react. It’s impossible to say anything about how fact-based those decisions are. At least there’s a lot of evidence that they rarely are.”
Apart from illegality, lies and corporate policy
With AI, Factive can help spread the outcome space beyond the messages the brand and competitors usually work in, says Thomas Thorstholm, and continues:
“And then we let the team continue to work on those messages, so they get a total outcome space that is wide and deep enough. Anything that is not illegal, lying or going against corporate policy, we would like to help identify.”
Next, the messages are enriched with data from an Internet panel:
“We get about 1000 people on the panel to relate to all the messages, and when they are enriched, the messages go back into the machine.”
He elaborates:
“Instead of working in Powerpoint or Excel, data is on our cloud platform. Here, everyone can find out with just a few clicks in a browser which messages have the greatest effect on the audiences they work with. From there, a widget is also hosted, where anyone who writes messages for the company using AI can generate a prediction score for the texts they work with. And from here, media agencies can activate data for digital media shopping, serving the strongest messages to the most attractive audiences in real time.”
Stolen from design
Within the design discipline, prototypes are used to find out if ideas work in real life as well. Factive has been strongly inspired by this.
“We have stolen the mindset of working in prototypes. You could then say that we power up prototypes by not just prototyping one or few solutions – but whole scenarios across all potential outcomes. Instead of guessing what to do and then only pre-testing it in, say, a campaign, we start by making the room of potential outcomes as wide as possible. We define everything you can imagine doing, we don’t think about whether something is stupid or dangerous,” says Thomas Thorstholm and continues:
“In many organizations, mistakes are taboo, and it is a huge obstacle to innovation and growth. Mistakes don’t have to be dangerous. As one wise person once said: Learn how to fail fast. We love mistakes because the freedom from the fear of mistakes means that we find directions and solutions that end up having far more potential than when people are limited in the first place. And if we work in prototypes that become data-validated, errors never become dangerous or problematic.”
Our purpose is not to understand
Unlike the analyses that marketing departments often use, where you find insights in relation to what the target group is interested in, and then make messages based on this, Factive goes directly to the solution with its tools, says Thomas Thorsholm:
“The purpose of analysis providers is to understand. Our purpose is not to understand, we do not care in principle why something is as it is. We are set up to find out what works, and we help our partners and their customers with that.”
He continues:
“The success criteria is not to get a lot of people to spend more time on data. It’s creating more time for everyone to do the work they’re adept at and get better results with it, because data has been blended into the process in a good, natural, and helpful way. Experience tells us that it provides both significant financial and time savings, while performance is subsequently higher. Those who use the tools report a higher job satisfaction that comes from being able to let go of doubt and hesitation – and not least the fear of failing and guessing wrong.”
Here are the comments and ratings from the panel:
Mikkel Hagedorn
Classic message tests are slow to complete and limited by a subjective selection of which messages are most relevant to test. FACTIVE has turned the process upside down and shortened it to minutes and hours, rendered the outcome territory infinite and, using AI, injected message testing with an objectivity not seen before.
There’s so much data out there and that’s why it’s great to see a startup that has actually created a platform that can exchange data for value to advertisers. We don’t need any more data – we need more value – which is why FACTIVE is facing an exciting time.
Mad or brilliant, 5 stars
Will I become a millionaire? 4 stars
Game changer, 4 stars
Christian Godske, head of innovation, addressable tv at TV 2
FACTIVE shifts the focus back from just looking at large, incalculable amounts of data or to building its knowledge on assumptions; to use digital consumer behavior to generate some concrete insights and outputs that can also be used as a gross list for further idea generation. FACTIVE combines both the creative side, consumer insight, competitor image and media procurement; and it is well thought out and can help to remove inefficient silos and ultimately get closer to consumers and effect. Here we even get effect measured in the right way – like interest, commitment and buying intensity.
Mad or brilliant, 5 stars
Will I become a millionaire? 4 stars
Game changer, 4 stars
Michael Stein, head of marketing for Seat, Skoda, Audi og Volkswagen at Semler Mobility
“In a world with fewer cookies, the approach Factive offers can help limit a potential loss of effect in advertising. But it is not necessarily for everyone and requires good management of processes and the courage to let short-term effects test and be optimized. To measure and improve direct effects, FACTIVE is a very good bet for A/B testing on EPO. But how does it work on the longer-term effects may also be significant to look into. Regardless, I’m a fan of something that goes from gut feeling to fact – so sharply spottet with this kind of approach in a digital world with the ability to measure more than ever.”
Mad or brilliant, 4 stars
Will I become a millionaire? 3 stars
Game changer, 3 stars
Miriam Plon Sauer, executive strategy director (EMEA), AKQA
We swim in data, but often lack the tools (and abilities) to see the perspectives and utilize data in the right way. That’s what Factive is very rightly trying to solve. The tools behind the solution are not unique in themselves, but the overall solution is innovative and valuable to both agencies and advertisers. The business model makes it easy to test it out without a large investment, but at the same time the opportunity to delve much deeper afterwards.
Mad or brilliant, 4 stars
Will I become a millionaire? 4 stars
Game changer, 4 stars
Heidi Boye, country manager, Too Good To Go
Data and creativity is a powerful cocktail. FACTIVES adds to a range of great campaign optimization tools. I have no doubt that FACTIVE is onto something, but the willingness to pay for these “nice to have” supplemental products is often challenged, as the money is taken from marketing or the media budget, which is basically earmarked from the start. In addition, competition is fierce, as the agencies also have a number of other services and products that they need to promote. Proven efficacy and financial gain through cases will be crucial in the sales dialogue, as the method is complex to deal with.
Mad or brilliant, 4 stars
Will I become a millionaire? 2 stars
Game changer, 4 stars
Facts
The big idea: We want to help marketing guess less and do more
Founders: Thomas Thorstholm, Shariq Reza, Thomas Havranek
Founded: 2021
Status: Pre-seed
Valuation: 20 mio. DKK
Employees: 10
3YR target: 10 markets, 80 partners, 23-25 mio. DKK revenue
Original article in danish here: https://bureaubiz.dk/startups/maanedens-startup-vil-hjaelpe-kampagner-med-at-blive-rasende-succeser/
