Working With a Startup -- Nine Things Advertisers and Agencies Should Consider -- AJ Vernet

Hey everyone man itamp8217s good to be back Iamp8217ve taken a little hiatus from this blog after our company Republic Project joined Sizmek formerly DG MediaMind amp8211 a hugely exciting development thatamp8217s taken our team through the notsolittle steps of a global integration Joining a company with the size and scale of Sizmek seismic has opened a lot of doors that were previously shut for Republic Project One big lesson for us has been figuring out that advertisers seem to feel better about working with familiar entities rather than a smaller startup shopamp160With this so fresh in my mind here are a few thoughts on what agencies and advertisers should consider on the path to working with a bustling cuttingedge startup 1 Simple and sweet All good ideas come from a deep well of brainstorming but they take time to surface And implementing new ideas doesnamp8217t happen overnight maybe over two nights 2 Slow down Agencies should take the time to learn as much about the company they want to work with before pulling the trigger Ask a lot of questions A fruitful backandforth can result in even better ideas hitting the table Donamp8217t force an idea into a system that canamp8217t produce the desired results for a client Big nono 3 Agencies give startups a good education on who you are how you work and your expectations around a given campaign When they first pop up on the scene startups are just coming out of product development mode Rarely is anything going to be perfect when youamp8217re in betatesting mode Help them understand the landscape of an agency amp8211 and how to best maneuver inside of it 4 Introduce your startups to all of the partners they will be working with A little intro goes a long way 5 Take the startup through the production and campaign delivery process once twice maybe even three times Walking through potential scenarios is the best way to weed out any pending hiccups 6 Be flexible on your TampampC Startups typically donamp8217t have the legal process ironed out or even the money to spend on it Keep in mind that a huge document can cost more in legal fees than the profit 7 Designate a point person within your agency as an internal liaison for the startup Typically the biz dev or innovations guys initially bring the startup in and once everything is signed off itamp8217s over to the media and operations teams This transition is where everything can go wrong amp8211 set expectations accordingly and take the time to communicate internally 8 Cash flow amp8211 startups would love it but they simply donamp8217t have the dollars of a large company yet Be flexible with payment terms and set payment terms throughout the various stages of the campaign process 9 Ultimately reaching success means a lot of reamp8217s regroup retweak and if all else fails try try againAt the end of the day a good idea is a good idea If you feel good about something do it Just so you know we donamp8217t turn down good ideas at RP and my teamamp8217s motto always seems to be amp8220Find and way or Make a wayamp8221AJ Vernet is Founder and CEO of Republic Project a Sizmek Company Republic is a Los Angeles and New York based digital and video production company positioned to partner with agencies creative firms publishers and brands as a scalable and seamless production resource AJ can be reached at AJrepublicprojectcom Read all AJ39s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Cup of YoCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates at MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries

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Working With a Startup -- Nine Things Advertisers and Agencies Should Consider -- AJ Vernet

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