Our industry has relapsed into a high digital startup fever, but this time with a new twist— brands working directly with entrepreneurs in order to find the next hot digital companies at the earliest possible stage and to stay at the sharpest edge of marketing innovation.
We’ve seen this elsewhere with the PepsiCo10 in New York and Europe, the Brandery in Cincinnati, and now PIE, the Portland Incubator Experiment, is about to launch its fall class right here in my town — Portland, Oregon – smack dab in the middle of the Silicon Forest.
What’s in it for the startup? $18,000, office space for three months and a rich community of other startups, PIE alums, the digital team at W+K and a mentor network that includes thought leaders from companies including Target, Coca-Cola, Nike and – as of just last week — Google.
You don’t have to be a Portlander to apply—applications so far have come in from the Northwest and as far as Vermont and Tennessee.
The deadline is August 8 at 11:59pm, so don’t wait—get cracking on that application today!
Imagine being an entrepreneur with a nifty idea who gets to work directly with folks who have rich startup experience of their own from Google and YouTube.
And on the flip side, many young digital companies begin with technology, then move to a terrific user experience, and only then do they think, “Hmmm, what about revenue? I know, let’s sell some ads!”
But that’s not how major brands want to get involved—they want to get baked into the process early, and they want opportunities beyond advertising, including strategic, technological and other communications-related innovations.
And what terrific advocates for brand-centric development in Target, Coca-Cola and Nike!
Further reading:
- Details on how PIE works.
- Learn more about PIE in this February 2010 interview with co-founder Renny Gleeson (who also happens to be global director of interactive strategies at Wieden + Kennedy) from the iMedia archives.
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