The ‘Win a Marketing Agency for a Year’ initiative by the Marketing Agencies Association (MAA) in partnership with Start Up Britain, attracted 113 entries from entrepreneurs seeking marketing expertise to help their businesses, that have been running two years or less, flourish.
The shortlisted entrants will each have just 4 minutes, on Thursday 29th November, to impress the judges who represent ten agencies including; RPM, Cheil, Pulse Group, Initials, Saatchi & Saatchi X, WDMP, HH&S Arc, Ogilvy Action, and Elvis.
After each start up’s pitch, agencies will be invited to raise their hand if they want to work with them for a year. If more than one agency raises their hand then the tables are turned and the agency has to say in 60 seconds why they would be best suited to help the entrepreneur.
This year’s start-up’s include; 5 Point Plus, manufacturers of a children’s car seat safety harness; Able Journeys, a travel company for the disabled; Booksfor, an online platform to sell and purchase pre-owned textbooks between University students; PleaseCycle, leveraging gamification to encourage employee cycling and Safe Apps, a personal safety tracker app.
Formal introductions between the winning start ups and their partner marketing agency will be made after the event. The competition was launched earlier in the year as part of Marketing 4 StartUp Britain week, created in partnership with StartUp Britain, with the aim of demonstrating how marketing can help grow young businesses.
Last year’s winner Safetray and runner up Rocktails, spoke at a Marketing 4 StartUp Britain event about how working with Iris and Pulse respectively had accelerated their businesses.
Scott Knox, managing director of the MAA said, “Marketing has so much to offer the evolution of the British economy. Last year two start-ups benefitted greatly from access to leading marketing agencies and this year we hope to match up even more entrepreneurs with agencies that can help then become the brands of tomorrow.”
