Advvy Blog

How media planning differs across regions and how Advvy is solving the challenge of global media plan reporting

tristan@advvy.com (Tristan Ozinga) — Wed, 04 Jan 2023 05:04:39 GMT

Media planning is dictated by media consumption habits

Sources:

USA (2022) : https://www.marketingcharts.com/advertising-trends-114887

China (2021) - https://www.fortuneindia.com/venture/digital-ad-spend-grew-26-in-2019-dan-report/104027

India (2019) - https://hpachina.org/2021/04/20/china-digital-ad-spending-2021-tech-giants-keep-on-cashing-in/

Comparing USA, India and China

These markets were chosen to compare as they have very different consumer habits. The media advertising spend by media type in each market was compared. Note: Cinema is included in OOH in China.

Insights from this data

USA : Ad spend is heavily skewed digital, with still a significant TV spend. And because of the size of the market, radio, print and OOH all play their role on delivering an effective media plan.

India: With over 50% of the population still without internet access , the traditional mediums of TV and print remain dominant.

China: Most of the ad spend is digital. Mobile advertising is a large percentage with apps like WeChat dominating the lives of Chinese people

What does this mean for media planning?

For a global brand that is advertising in each of these markets, media plans are going to reflect the media consumption behaviours of the consumers. After all, the ad spend data comes directly from media plans that are bought for brands in each market.

Due to the ever-changing complexity of the media mix in each market, and due to the different systems used to buy media and invoice clients, Excel remains the go-to media planning tool to plan first.

It’s extremely inefficient forcing media planners to use a centralised media planning software that isn’t fit for purpose in each market. Often these tools aren’t flexible to handle the complex rate calculations and deal structures than many media agencies have with their local suppliers. Further making it harder for local media planners, other media planning tools require a universal naming convention of media reference data that is dictated by the global brand and that may not be logical to other markets.

As a result, media planners servicing global clients in their local market are most often rekeying media plans from Excel into a global media planning tool.

Advvy has solved these big challenges

For global brands that are looking for a global media planning tool to consolidate their media plans, it makes sense to work with the way the local markets are working.

By allowing media planners in each market to plan media their way, Advvy has made the process of consolidating media plan data for global brands not only easier and more user friendly, but also faster and more accurate.

The Advvy Media Planning Excel Add-in syncs data from any Excel media plan template to Advvy's media planning software. This saves media planners hours each week from rekeying data into an inflexible global media planning tool. And it delivers data to the brand immediately.

The Advvy Agency media planning software harmonises data automatically with alias naming conventions for any reference data. This ensures data is presented how it should be without planners needing to learn a non-native media nomenclature.

The Advvy Brand portal then presents a consolidated view of global media plans and detailed media expenditure reports tailored to a global brand.

With Advvy’s post campaign data management approach it’s possible to have actuals reported on against media planned.

Improving Team Collaboration in Media Organizations

tristan@advvy.com (Tristan Ozinga) — Sun, 06 Jun 2021 23:40:47 GMT

6 Ways to Improve Collaboration

Team collaboration is the key to any successful business. Collaborative workplaces see increased levels of trust, a more engaged workforce, and improved performance.

Here are some strategies to improve team collaboration in your media team:

Make collaboration a priority: When you build an atmosphere that is collaborative, your employees become more creative, effective, innovative and productive.
Set up a Workflow: Setting up a workflow will help members work together without trampling each other’s’ toes.
Invest in collaboration tools: Creating a digital workplace is the most practical thing you can do to ensure long-term collaboration among your team.
Improve employee communication: This is incredibly important because it spurs a strong company culture. Advvy is integrated with Microsoft Teams, which allows us to have an excellent team space, being able to make creative decisions and communicate with one another.
Help team members build bonds: One of the best things to establish a connection is to focus on building strong relationships among them, and with the new normal of distributed workers, it’s more important than ever to have digital tools in place.
Highlight individuals' strengths: A successful team grows only when each team member can bring their own set of skills to the table.

Create a collaborative work culture and improve productivity with us!

Advvy helps media planning and buying teams to communicate and collaborate efficiently and deliver every campaign faster.

Why workflow is important for media teams!

tristan@advvy.com (Tristan Ozinga) — Mon, 31 May 2021 00:47:51 GMT

Media workflow is unique!

Media planning and buying teams still mostly rely on spreadsheets to govern the way they work.

Workflow systems are used extensively in creative agencies and project-based teams, but it has always been difficult to implement across media teams.

First of all, workflow is a term used to name a set of tools or methods that serve to govern a company’s processes. A significant amount of work that happens in any organization involves following a sequence of steps repeatedly: creating documents, approving them, onboarding clients, and managing purchases and accounts receivable. Workflows can help streamline these repeatable business tasks, minimizing room for errors and increasing overall efficiency.

For media teams, who often run repeatable processes, there is complexity in the way different media types are planned and bought, and generic project management tools just don’t cut it.

That’s why we created Advvy.

In general, workflow tools are essential to:

Compete (and survive)
Grow (being efficient and scalable)
Get higher (involving everyone in the way)

Advvy has become a scalable enterprise workflow solution purpose built for the largest media planning and buying organizations. We go the next step, and integrate the workflow to your industry tools - to not only better govern your process, but also deliver you insights never before been achievable. Advvy truly optimizes the way you work.

So, what are you waiting for?

Better manage, analyse and improve your media business in dramatic ways with us.

2021 Message from Advvy's CEO

tristan@advvy.com (Tristan Ozinga) — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 10:45:59 GMT

Surviving to Thriving

I feel like Australia Day (Jan 26th) is always the end of the silly season for us down under and feels like the true beginning of our new ‘work’ year. We've dusted off the quibbles of the first week back to the office, desk, lounge or wherever work is normal these days, and are ready to get stuck into it. So rather than New Year's Day, today seems like the best day to write my recap of 2020, and my first thoughts for the year.

2020, like many, was about survival.

The good bits:

We survived the onslaught of COVID19 v1.0. We instantly adapted to working from anywhere - after all it’s in our DNA to empower work from anywhere as an enterprise workflow software company. Our staff excelled and I’m truly thankful for their dedication and what they have delivered! Our revenue stayed steady and we didn’t lose any clients. And our product has gone from strength to strength as we set up our pivot to enterprise workflow for any industry – not just media.

The bad bits:

Our clients and prospects were all agencies, and their clients are advertisers. When Advertisers stopped spending our 2020 pipeline imploded. We scrambled to cut costs and we found assistance where we could. We looked at new avenues and decided we needed to pivot. Not an about turn, more a broadening of our horizons.

The Ugly bits:

I had a “break-up” with my co-founder, and he left the business. When I stepped up to the role of CEO, it was a calling. I would take a no-bull approach with our investors and staff, and I would focus on what matters. It was no longer enough to sell a great story. We had to prove we were a great story. I would lay it all bare and we would grow this business conservatively until we were ready for rapid growth. I knew it was going to take easily another 12 months. It felt like a reset, and we were starting this journey again.

2021 – is about growth (and still a lot of survival)

While COVID19 has now launched a bunch of updates, I am confident as a world we’ll get on top of it this year. People, families, and businesses everywhere are getting on with the job, surviving new lockdowns and embracing the new normal that is now actually “normal”. We seem to be getting better at actually installing the recommended life patches (social distancing and mask wearing) and the anti-virus software (vaccine) is finally out there.

I feel empowered I now have the position I do and the business I founded over 5 years ago has survived. It has been a long and challenging road, and not at all the quick meteoric rise all first-time founders naively believe it would be. And I am eager to get my teeth into the challenge of this year and finally have our breakout year of rapid growth.

I am looking forward welcoming new media clients this year, and clients from new industries. A big part of this will come from dialling right into the Microsoft partner ecosystem and delivering a new workflow experience for Power Platform partners.

Workflow systems will be powering the “work from anywhere” culture, and for enterprise clients with complex workflows, workforce structures and corporate compliance, I believe Advvy will rise to the top.

Bring it on!

Managing Marketing: The Role Of Technology In Improving Media Agency Productivity

Thu, 01 Aug 2019 05:41:55 GMT

Managing Marketing is a podcast hosted by TrinityP3 Founder and Global CEO, Darren Woolley. Each podcast is a conversation with a thought-leader, professional or practitioner of marketing and communications on the issues, insights and opportunities in the marketing management category. Ideal for marketers, advertisers, media and commercial communications professionals.

Tristan Ozinga is the Co-founder and Chief Vision Officer of Advvy. He discusses with Darren the transformation occurring within Media Agencies as technology such as DMP, programmatic trading desks, AI and blockchain make the business of media agency planning and buying more automated and efficient and in the process improves the productivity of the agency resources for the benefit of all involved.

You can listen to the podcast here:

You can watch the video of chat here:

Reference: https://www.trinityp3.com/2019/05/technology-improving-media-agency-productivity/

Microsoft Inspire Australia Lead – Advvy

Thu, 01 Aug 2019 05:41:53 GMT

HOW MICROSOFT INSPIRE SKYROCKETED ADVVY IN JUST ONE WEEK

Advvy’s co-founders Chris Macaulay and Tristan Ozinga did not suspect that attending their first Microsoft Inspire in Las Vegas in 2017 would set them on course for huge global success.

As they stood at a crossroad for their business, there were a few simple facts at play. They didn’t know what to expect. They were down to their last dollars. And they knew a lot was riding on what was about to happen.

“It was a big gamble for us. We put some of our last money on the line to go to Inspire”, Chris reminisced. “Over the course of one week, Inspire changed EVERYTHING for our business.”

Behind every successful gamble, there is an element of luck. For the Advvy team, this came in the form of Microsoft’s new One Commercial Partner model. Microsoft had an increased focus on business applications, data and AI; and there was Advvy with a compelling business application cloud platform at the ready.

Chris and Tristan had founded their start-up to solve the frustrations of media and advertising agencies. Having worked in the industry themselves, the goal was to help agencies work smarter internally, and better with their clients and suppliers, by providing media and advertising workflow and productivity solutions.

So as Microsoft Inspire unfolded, word spread about Advvy’s solutions and the ever elusive “buzz” started to hum through the right channels. Networking and meetings ensued, and Microsoft placed a bet of their own. Turned out it was the best kind of bet one of the biggest technology companies in the world can make on your start-up – it bet on Advvy’s success.

Microsoft, like Advvy were familiar with the same frustrations for the media and advertising industry. They were also talking with clients (big ones) all over the world about how to partner on better workflows. And so, the offer to open doors was extended to the Advvy team.

With a Partner Development Manager on-board, a global tour started across London, Paris and New York with global decision makers at some of the largest companies in their industry. Ultimately, with the company landing a large contract with one of the largest global media agencies.

“It was amazing to have that kind of credibility of Microsoft walking us into the door,” Chris shared. “It was like they were saying: ‘Hi, Mr. CIO, we have been talking to you about workflow and digital transformation and Dynamics 365, here is Advvy and they do EXACTLY that for your industry.’ Having that kind of credibility was huge for us.”

The tour was filmed, and you can watch the engaging series ‘Behind the Brief’ to learn more. It delivered some brilliant opportunities, and more followed including presenting to Satya Nadella and Microsoft’s senior leadership team in Redmond. Chris and Tristan credit Microsoft Inspire 2017 for skyrocketing them into these opportunities, and so it was a mix of humility, pride and pure excitement that followed them through the door as they arrived at the 2018 conference.

And yes, this time around was a little different. People knocked on their door. So often in fact that the week disappeared in a whirlwind. Of course, there were a few other reasons for that. Amongst the networking frenzy, the team had multiple speaking engagements in keynotes and core notes, met with Microsoft’s Chief Marketing Officer, and threw together a huge pitch on the side. They may have also contemplated getting Advvy tattoos, but that’s another story.

It was clear that Advvy had flipped the script. This was no fairytale ending, it was a fairytale beginning. Advvy won the 2018 Microsoft Global Partner of the Year – Media and Communications Award, just 12 short months after standing at a crossroad wondering what on earth was going to happen.

Now, two years on from that first Microsoft Inspire experience, Chris and Tristan are proud to be co-founders of a successful global company, with an office in New York and one soon to open in London. They are looking forward to heading back this July to the launchpad that started it all and Chris has some advice for those companies still not sure if Microsoft Inspire is worth the gamble:

“Just give it a shot! It’s a huge return on investment.”

Once upon a time indeed.

Reference: https://blogs.partner.microsoft.com/mpn-australia/microsoft-inspire-skyrocketed-advvy-just-one-week/

2018 Lord Mayor’s Business Awards

Thu, 01 Aug 2019 05:41:52 GMT

2018 LORD MAYOR’S BUSINESS AWARDS FINALISTS UNVEILED

Brisbane’s thriving business community is putting on a strong showing in the 13th annual Lord Mayor’s Business Awards, with 55 finalists vying for a gong across the 10 categories.

Lord Mayor Graham Quirk said the finalists exemplified the depth of talent within Brisbane’s business community and ranged from small businesses to larger corporations and individuals leading world-first innovations.

“The Lord Mayor’s Businesses Awards are the benchmark for business excellence in Brisbane, showcasing our city as a great place to live, work and invest,” Cr Quirk said. “Every year the bar is raised higher with businesses and individuals taking our new world city reputation to the next level. “Demonstrating the impact of small business on the community, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland Award for Outstanding Small Business received the highest number of nominations.

“After just two years of operation, finalist Active Truth has garnered a strong following for its locally made size-inclusive active wear. “Virtual Legal is empowering everyday Australians through its online legal platform, and Audeara – also a finalist in two other categories – is meeting a global need with its sound-tailoring headphones.”

Cr Quirk said it was encouraging to see many finalists at the forefront of innovations in health, technology, social enterprise and the creative industries, with many manufacturing their products in Brisbane. “ANZ Award for High Growth Start-Up finalist, Vald Performance, is bringing laboratory-grade hamstring testing technology to elite sporting teams and has quadrupled its workforce over the past year to service 300 clients across the globe,” he said. “Australia Pacific LNG Award for Business Innovation finalist, Real Serious Games, is changing the way engineering and construction companies approach training with its virtual reality technology, and Tritium’s continual innovation is putting Brisbane on the map in the electrical vehicle market and creating more jobs in the process.

“Inspiration can also be found among the Singapore Airlines Award for Young Business Person of the Year and Channel 7 Award for Business Person of the Year finalists. “Alex Moss of Canaria Technologies is commercialising an earpiece originally designed for NASA, which can predict cognitive fatigue. “Another finalist, Elliott Smith is applying artificial intelligence to diagnose cancer faster through his start-up Maxwell Plus.

Another business leader, James Grugeon is growing The Good Beer Co. as a social enterprise beer company, and Tim McGahan, managing director of the Blacklab Group of Companies has carved out a globally recognised film and television brand and provided strong mentorship in the local industry. “The ingenuity and passion displayed among the 55 finalists is nothing short of outstanding. I wish all finalists the best of luck.”

THE FINALISTS IN THE 2018 LORD MAYOR’S BUSINESS AWARDS ARE:

ANZ AWARD FOR HIGH-GROWTH BUSINESS START-UP

Advvy
Lawcadia
Outfit
Vald Performance

Reference: https://www.choosebrisbane.com.au/corporate/lmba/news/2018-lmba-finalists?sc_lang=en-au

MediaCom Australia

Thu, 01 Aug 2019 05:41:49 GMT

MEDIACOM SIGNS START-UP ADVVY AS THE TECHNOLOGY

TO POWER THE WORKFLOW OF ITS NEW MARKETPLACE BUYING MODEL

As technology is increasingly being used to power media planning and buying decisions, agencies still rely heavily on offline briefs and documents to share knowledge between clients, departments, teams, and media suppliers. Advvy’s media agency workflow application is poised to bring much needed smarts and efficiency to the way the media agency teams perform their tasks and the way they interact with their clients and media suppliers.

Advvy is a start-up with founders from the media industry who knew first hand the challenges facing media organisations on all sides. From his traditional media sales experience, Advvy co-founder and Chief Vision Officer, Tristan Ozinga, knew there had to be a better way to do business in the media industry. “I was literally banging my head against the desk each time there needed to be a change to my proposal, because with event a single spot changing, meant hours of manual rework”

While the vision of Advvy has always been to improve the way the industry works together, it has been quite the journey towards signing the deal with MediaCom. Tristan says: “We raised some seed capital on the idea that we could improve the way radio is bought by agencies. We built a prototype that essentially showed how we could automate the way an agency could build a radio schedule. While it was well received by agencies as a step in the right direction, the networks were still trying to define what programmatic and all things automation meant for them. It was then we saw a greater challenge facing agencies, media suppliers and marketing teams alike, and that is around workflow and the information that is shared along the campaign creation journey. This then lead us to an amazing opportunity to work with Alex Kirk and the Mediacom team to develop our media agency workflow product”

Advvy is one of the next generation companies building innovative solutions on the latest Microsoft technology – Microsoft Dynamics 365. The Advvy Media Agency Workflow application transforms inefficient campaign planning and buying processes into a cloud based solution that helps media agency employees work smarter, while giving management real-time visibility on campaign planning performance.

Advvy co-founder and CEO Chris Macaulay says “We chose Microsoft Dynamics 365 as the underlying platform to develop the Advvy solution on top of because we knew the significant security and compliance requirements of enterprise media organisations. It also allows us to be super nimble when working with clients to configure the application to their needs, as workflows may be different by client, by team and by campaign type. And with most enterprise media agencies recently having, or are soon to be moving to, Microsoft Office 365, the application becomes a natural extension of the productivity tools standard in the industry. Email is still the number one way people communicate, so we naturally integrate with Outlook. We are also working with Microsoft on how we can leverage machine learning within the platform to help optimize people’s time and remove the need to fill out timesheets. It’s super exciting!” And Microsoft are almost just as exited as Advvy.

Annita Sood Microsoft | ISV & Next Generation Partnerships Lead says: “Advvy came to us after they had built their solution. We were seriously impressed at their approach to use our Dynamics platform to solve an industry problem. Microsoft is a partner driven organisation and our global partnership with Advvy reflects our commitment to support our partners and to help them to accelerate their speed to market, global reach, and technical capabilities.”

Dubbed the One Commercial Partner model, Microsoft is making it easier for partners to use their technology. With Co-Build, Co-Sell and Go-to-Market support, it’s a great time to be a Microsoft partner. While working with Advvy, MediaCom have been showcasing the technology in new business pitches. With Advvy’s help, MediaCom were a step above the rest when it came to answering the Victorian Government media account pitch brief.

MediaCom COO Willie Pang says: “The brief was unique in that it wasn’t about us showing them our best answer to a campaign brief. It was largely around showing them “how” we will be doing the work for them. The Advvy application was perfect to help us respond. For the first time us and our clients can get real time visibility on the process of campaign creation, and we can get new analytics around the workload on our teams, while driving efficiencies across our business.”

MediaCom has recently restructured their media buying teams dubbed “Marketplace”. The media buying teams are becoming a centralised unit that will be given briefs from all client planning teams to buy for. The Advvy Media Agency Workflow application was able to be configured to make this new process possible. Teams will now know exactly who is working on each campaign, and where there are any hold ups along the campaign journey. Willie Pang even says “Once we prove this in Australia and New Zealand, we’ll be looking to deploy Advvy globally to manage the MediaCom Marketplace in each country.”

Leading Aussie partners honoured on Microsoft’s global stage

Thu, 01 Aug 2019 05:41:47 GMT

RHIPE AWARDED THE GONG FOR AUSTRALIA’S COUNTRY PARTNER OF THE YEAR FOR 2018

Rhipe, Velrada, Vector Risk, Adopt & Embrace and Advvy are among the Australian Microsoft partners named as winners in the vendor’s Inspire Global Awards tally, while Datacom has been tapped as a finalist.

While Microsoft’s Inspire industry event doesn’t kick off until July, the tech giant has identified the winners and finalists of the 2018 Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards, with more than a few Australian partners making the cut.

In a further demonstration of local success, it should be noted that Microsoft received over 2,600 submissions from 115 countries for this year’s Inspire Awards, with high calibre of submissions, according to the vendor.

Local publicly-listed cloud software distributor Rhipe has been awarded the gong for Australia’s country partner of the year for 2018.

According to Microsoft’s One Commercial Partner area director for the local market, Mark Leigh, Rhipe currently claims an alliance with more than 1,700 Microsoft partners in the local region.

In February, Rhipe revealed that, as at 31 December 2017, it had over 186,000 Cloud Solutions Provider (CSP) Office 365 seats, compared to 126,000 as at 30 June 2017.

“Leveraging Microsoft Azure and the rich array of Microsoft tools and services, Rhipe and its partners are working with organisations in every sector and geography,” Leigh said in a blog post.

“Innovative solutions, such as Rhipe’s PRISM cloud portal that simplifies cloud billing and provisioning, and its smart marketing support for partners is what sets it apart and has led to significant growth over the last 12 months for Rhipe and its partner ecosystem.”

Other winners named from Australia’s partner ranks include Perth-headquartered integrator and advisory firm Velrada, which won this year’s Dynamics 365 for Field Service Award.

With offices in four capital cities around Australia and another in Paris, Velrada specialises in Dynamics 365, Microsoft Azure and Office 365, along with digital transformation and consulting services for a legion of top tier clients such as Santos, Mitsubishi and BHP.

“Testament to the power of those solutions is the fact that Velrada itself is seeing 30 per cent revenue growth – and 300 per cent growth in its facilities management business,” Leigh said.

The vendor’s 2018 Financial Services Award, meanwhile, goes to local cloud-based risk software solutions provider Vector Risk, which taps into Microsoft’s Azure, HPC Pack and SQL Server offerings to develop solutions designed to help financial services businesses comply with compliance obligations.

At the same time, media and advertising workflow digital transformation provider Advvy has been was handed this year’s Media and Communications Award.

Built in Dynamics 365, and leveraging Office 365 and Azure’s analytics capabilities, the company’s media agency workflow solution has been widely deployed to reduce administrative overhead, turnaround and response times.

Consulting and professional services provider Adopt & Embrace, which works with Microsoft partners and customers to consult and improve Office 365 adoption, was awarded Microsoft’s Teamwork Award for 2018.

According to Leigh, the company demonstrated how it is possible to drive broad adoption of Office 365 by aligning closely to C-suite business priorities, in turn securing benefits for all employees across the organisation.

While not among the winners’ ranks, New Zealand-headquartered IT services powerhouse Datacom was named as a finalist in the App Innovation Award this year for its work developing a customer service app for the electricity industry.

“There are also a number of other partners that I wanted to highlight that are also playing a profoundly important role in the transformation taking place right across Australia,” Leigh said in his blog post, noting that IT training provider DDLS claims the largest community of Microsoft certified trainers in Australia.

Other local Microsoft partners of note highlighted by Leigh included Advance Computing, which has leveraged its understanding of agribusinesses to deploy solutions such as an Azure and IoT system developed for Australian Consolidated Milk.

Advance Computing said in November last year it was poised to roll out its milk monitoring platform, built on Azure, to over 180 dairy farms around the country.

Leigh also made mention of KPMG and the Commonwealth Bank, which have developed a new cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) provider named Wiise to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) grow, leveraging Microsoft Dynamics 365.

KPMG Australia, Commonwealth Bank and Microsoft revealed in May that they had banded together to launch Wiise in the local fintech market.

“I’d like to add my personal congratulations to all our winners and finalists this year and look forward to celebrating further success throughout 2018,” Leigh added.

“It’s always a particular delight to be able to acknowledge our standout partners each year and to demonstrate how they have gone above and beyond to ensure the success of our customers.”

Reference: https://blogs.partner.microsoft.com/mpn-australia/microsoft-inspire-skyrocketed-advvy-just-one-week/

2018 Microsoft Global Partner of the Year Award

Thu, 01 Aug 2019 05:41:45 GMT

ADVVY RECOGNIZED AS WINNER OF THE 2018 MICROSOFT GLOBAL PARTNER OF THE YEAR AWARD FOR MEDIA & COMMUNICATIONS.

Advvy today announced it has won the 2018 Microsoft Partner of Year Media and Communications Award. The company was honored among a global field of top Microsoft partners for demonstrating excellence in innovation and implementation of customer solutions based on Microsoft technology.

“We are truly honored to receive this award. Advvy is committed to the digital transformation of media and advertising workflow and productivity, and we could not do it without our amazing staff, our dedicated investors, our forward-thinking clients, and our partnership with Microsoft”

Tristan Ozinga, Co -Founder and Chief Vision Officer at Advvy

Awards were presented in several categories, with winners chosen from a set of more than 2,600 entrants from 115 countries worldwide. Advvy was recognized for providing outstanding solutions and services in Media and Communications with their Media Agency Workflow application.

“Our ecosystem of partners is crucial to delivering transformative solutions, and this year’s winners have proven to be some of the finest among their peers,” said Gavriella Schuster corporate vice president, One Commercial Partner, Microsoft Corp. “We are pleased to recognize ADVVY for being selected as WINNER of the 2018 Microsoft Partner of the Year, Media and Communications award.”

The Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards recognize Microsoft partners that have developed and delivered exceptional Microsoft-based solutions during the past year. It was Mediacom Australia who gave Advvy the initial challenge to prove digital transformation of agency workflow was possible.

“Advvy has completely changed the way we work in real time. Our workflow now is clear, it’s accessible, communication is better, we’re more efficient. We see how we’re working, as we’re working. I’ve heard the words ‘digital transformation’ a lot, and this is one of the first times I’ve seen it delivered.”

Willie Pang, Mediacom Australia CEO

Advvy is now also working on a Creative Agency Workflow solution, as well as utilizing Microsoft Cognitive Services and Machine Learning in new projects that will take media and communications productivity to the next level. With a number of the agency and communications holding groups now working with Advvy, Advvy is gearing up for expansion to the UK and USA by the end of 2018.

Future Now Ventures Invests in Programmatic AdTech

Thu, 01 Aug 2019 05:41:43 GMT

PLANNING AND BUYING PLATFORM ADVVY

Advvy, a programmatic adtech startup that automates the planning and buying process for traditional media, recently partnered with Future Now Ventures (FNV), receiving financial, technical development and strategic from FNV. The funds received will be used by Advvy in furthering the development of its integrated platform and launching to targeted segments of the industry.

Advvy has come up with a unique and comprehensive solution for planning and buying media, taking into account the automation and organisation of relevant information such as as customer audience data, and available publisher inventory, to enable media buyers and brands to easily plan and buy inventory across multiple channels.

Advvy is building a single platform that covers all traditional media, including Radio, TV, Out of Home, Print, and Cinema. It replaces or complements different tools used for research, media planning, buying media, and campaign reporting. Through integrated information, the platform allows users to see who their real target markets are, the needs and wants of their client, the real-time monitoring of their campaigns and the most logical type of media to buy. Its programmatic approach to planning and buying advertising inventory gives traditional media the breadth and organisation enjoyed by its digital counterparts.

Time efficiency is also something that Advvy is able to make significant impacts in particularly when working across multiple advertising mediums. What normally would take several days, and often weeks to accomplish is completed in a few minutes depending on the complexity of the campaign.

Dale Rankine, Advisor and Innovation Partner at FNV, sees a lot of promise in this investment given the outdated media planning tools and the tedious procedures that many marketing and advertising outfits experience.

During conversations around Advvy’s inception, Rankine immediately saw potential in the product. “Advvy has 2 non-technical co-founders, but who are industry subject-matter experts and who are very clear about the vision they wanted to achievee. FNV was able to add the technical skills to that team,” he revealed.

“This has been a great example of how FNV brings together its experience in building tech companies and products with its network of support operations to empower founders to accelerate their growth, especially during the early stages of their business,” he added.

ABOUT FUTURE NOW VENTURES

Future Now Ventures is a boutique venture capital firm funding start-ups and innovative companies that specialise in cloud computing, multi-platform integration, and data solutions. Its core team is composed of seasoned professionals with extensive backgrounds in different fields of technology. FNV’s distinguished partners include Cloud Sherpas, LikeJobs, AllFamous Digital, Rollbase Philippines and the TSA Group.

For more information, visit www.futurenow.ventures

Simple and Advvy partner to deliver unified marketing and media work ecosystem

Thu, 01 Aug 2019 05:41:41 GMT

When we talk about partnerships at Simple, there are few that we’re as excited about as Advvy, a technology startup that picks up where Simple leaves off, extending marketing workflow and resource management from the marketing department through to the media agency. We spoke to chief executive officer Chris Macaulay about Advvy, and the benefits it brings to Simple’s brand ecosystem.

Hi Chris! Thanks for taking the time to chat with Simple. Can you talk us through what Advvy does, in a nutshell?

Advvy is a workflow management platform that transforms workflows in the media buying industry from time-consuming, manual processes to efficient, digital processes, beginning with the brief.

How did Advvy come about?

I started Advvy about 3 years ago with co-founder, Tristan Ozinga. We both worked in the media industry, so we saw first-hand the cumbersome processes in our jobs, and we wanted to make that easier and more efficient. Media agencies work on very tight margins — their media commissions have dropped from 10 to 15 per cent originally to sometimes just 1 per cent, so it has forced them to look at new business models. In that environment, it’s a big advantage if they can streamline their workflows with their clients and the media to create operating efficiencies, as well as better campaign governance and greater transparency for the client.

How does this manual media buying process work?

Typically, a marketer will give their media agency a brief for a media buy for a new campaign. That goes to the strategy team, who comes back to the marketer with a plan. When that’s approved it goes to a separate buying team to buy it. They send it out to publishers, who each submit proposals. These are assessed by the buying team, which eventually selects their preferred media channels. The bookings are then made. When the bookings have been made, the ads that actually ran are reconciled with the plan, and adjustments made. Then the post-campaign results are compiled into a report that goes back to the marketer. Most of this process is conducted in slides and spreadsheets sent around by email — which can be a time-consuming and error-prone process.

What is Advvy’s role in the process?

We see Advvy as the horizontal layer that functions as the central point of truth across a media agency, centralising all of that information. It removes the need for duplication of documentation and reporting, creates visibility into the process for agency management and marketers, and makes agency workflows much more efficient.

What are the key benefits for media agencies and marketing teams?

When a brief is ingested in Advvy, a campaign is created and tasks automatically generated across users. We can provide campaign statuses across the agency, as well as campaign approvals. We can provide global media reporting data to brand teams and generate insights on what’s working and what’s not. Often it takes weeks for brand teams to get that data.

Why have you partnered with Simple?

We see a lot of synergies with Simple. Advvy is built on Microsoft technology, like Simple. And if a marketer uses Simple for marketing resource management, and Advvy within their media agencies, that creates one interconnected ecosystem for managing planning, briefing, and reviewing of campaigns and media, as well as total campaign reporting.

How will Advvy work with Simple?

When a marketing team fills out a media brief in Simple, that will be ingested into Advvy, giving the marketer the ability to follow the process and understand the outcomes alongside all their other campaign materials in one integrated workflow ecosystem. This is a world ahead of traditional workflows between clients and their agencies — faster, easier and much more cost-effective.

Reference: https://simple.io/partners-advvy-interview/

Media and tech company Advvy expands to NYC and London

Thu, 01 Aug 2019 05:41:40 GMT

Media and technology company Advvy recently opened the doors to their New York City office and have a brand new London office in the works, set to open in March 2019. With two offices already in Brisbane and Sydney, this represents a significant move as part of their rapid international expansion to meet the demands of clients and acquire new international markets.

Founded in 2015 by Chris Macaulay and Tristan Ozinga, Advvy delivers workflow tools for the media and advertising industry – effectively connecting departments, breaking down silos and ensuring a single source of client and campaign information. At the time, Chris was working in digital media and Tristan Ozinga as a sales executive on the publishing side. It was out of frustration over the traditional agency workflow model – or lack thereof – that their idea for Advvy was born. They realised that there were so many manual “clunky” processes and so many legacy systems that made information sharing and real-time collaboration almost impossible. “We built a collaborative workflow platform to streamline the campaign planning and buying processes to make us more efficient, more compliant and give clients more visibility on how agencies are working with them,” Chris says.

“We launched an idea, raised some seed capital, built a prototype to prove the concept, and did a few pivots along the way. “We spent a lot of time travelling across the Asia Pacific meeting with all the big brand agencies and publishers around the world – and they really gave us insight into where the problem was, which really was around agency workflow processes.” For Chris and Tristan, there was a moment in their startup journey when “everything changed”. “We signed a global partnership with Microsoft back in September last year (2017) and everything changed for our business.

The Advvy solution sits on top of some of Microsoft’s latest Business Application technology, Dynamics 365, and because of Advvy’s unique positioning, Microsoft invested cash to fast track product development, are co-funding marketing campaigns, producing a docu-series (www.behindthebrief.com) about Advvy’s journey, and have now incentivised their sales people around the world to co-sell Advvy products.

“Microsoft have been able to open up doors to the global decision makers of the biggest customers in our industry. To say this partnership has changed everything is an understatement,” Chris says. This year the Queensland startup won the 2018 Microsoft Partner of Year Media and Communications Award, acknowledged among a field of international Microsoft partners for demonstrating excellence in innovation and implementation of customer solutions based on Microsoft technology.

Advvy also received the Lord Mayor’s Global Entrepreneur’s Grant in June 2018 and previously received an Advance Queensland Ignite Ideas Grant. One of the biggest questions they’ve faced during this phase of huge growth is: ‘How are you going to scale to support us around the world?’ “That’s why we’re aggressively expanding at the moment,” says Chris. And while he says Australia is a “very sophisticated market”, he says it’s also quite small. “The big opportunities for us are the US, UK and Europe.” Chris will be relocating from Brisbane to New York City to lead the new office in December. Advvy is also currently in the middle of a seven-million-dollar funding round, due to close in late October

Reference: https://www.chiefentrepreneur.qld.gov.au/stories/media-and-tech-company-advvy-expands-to-nyc-and-london

26 Brisbane Startups to Watch in 2018

Thu, 01 Aug 2019 05:41:38 GMT

In the last few months, we have been exploring hot startups in the major Australian cities. We took a look at 40 Melbourne Startups to Watch and 50 Sydney Startups to Watch.

Now it is time for Brisbane, Australia’s third largest city, to get some cred. The startup scene in Brisbane is growing. Of course, the market is smaller than in Sydney and Melbourne but that does not mean this city is failing to innovate.

Boasting many global successes and world firsts, here are 26 Brisbane startups paving the way in Australia.

ADVVY

Advvy is a media technology company leading the digital transformation of workflow in the media and advertising industry. The Advvy platform transforms inefficient manual campaign planning processes into a workflow solution to allow enterprise Media Agency employees to work smarter while giving management real-time visibility into their campaign activity and performance. Founders, Chris Macaulay and Tristan Ozinga, both from the Media, saw a need to move away from the manual, clunky systems and processes. The Advvy platform was built alongside some of the largest multi-national media agencies in the world. They have raised over $1M to date from VC fund, FutureNow Ventures and are currently raising a $2 million pre-series A round.

Reference: https://www.themartec.com/insidelook/26-top-startups-brisbane

Brisbane startup Advvy goes head to head with top 100 Asian startups

Thu, 01 Aug 2019 05:41:36 GMT

Brisbane-based media management startup Advvy will be battling it out against the top 100 startups in Asia at the Echelon Asia Summit in Singapore next week.

Advvy is the only Australian startup selected for the Top100 Fight Club pitch competition, and will be pitching to the likes of Sequoia Capital, 500 Startups, Golden Gate Ventures, Vertex Ventures and other prominent venture capital firms to raise its $500,000 goal.

Created as a media workflow platform, Advvy was founded by Chris Macaulay and Tristan Ozinga after they became tired of the manual, clunky systems they were using in their day jobs in the media industry. The platform solves this problem by streamlining the media campaign planning processes so employees can work smarter, while giving management real-time visibility into performance.

Co-founder and chief executive Chris Macaulay has targeted Asia as a top market for expansion, but says Australian startup founders often eschew Asian investment in favour of US venture capital funds.

“There’s so much focus on companies from Australia going to Silicon Valley, but there’s such a huge opportunity in Asia,” Macaulay says.

“If you look at the Asian market it’s the fastest growing economy at the moment — you’ve got the rise of the middle class happening at a rate we’ve never seen, and with that comes the demand for consumer products,” he says.

“I think there are a lot of missed opportunities for Australian startups who are only focused on the US.”

Advvy previously raised $700,000 in October 2015 in a seed funding round from an Asian-based venture capital fund, as an “alternative to raising in Australia”.

Macaulay says it was easier to raise funding from Asian venture capital firms than look for investment at home, but he believes the landscape for investment in Australian startups is changing.

“We did that raise almost two years ago, and the whole [Australian] ecosystem has evolved since then,” he says.

If Advvy come out on top in the Top100 Fight Club pitches, the startup plans to use the funding to become a US entity, grow its product development team and monetise its current client engagements. According to Macaulay, the startup is currently running “pilot programs with the biggest media agencies in the world.”

The Echelon Asia summit will be held on June 28 and 29 and will see more than 5,000 attendees across the investment, tech, innovation, business and government sectors in the Asia-Pacific region

Reference: https://www.smartcompany.com.au/startupsmart/news/brisbane-startup-advvy-goes-head-head-top-100-asian-startups/

Save time, play more Pong!

james.jones@droneit.com.au (James Jones) — Thu, 01 Aug 2019 02:35:45 GMT

A revolution in media trading begins, while you put your pong game to the test. With the promise of full electronic trading of traditional media still years away, and “programmatic” being just a buzz word trying to find relevance in the traditional media industry, Advvy is proud to present its first product that lays the foundation to realise the full potential of automation – Advvy Unibrief – The Universal Briefing System.

Advvy Unibrief is more than just a briefing tool; it’s a platform that will power a media agency’s workday. It will save time, it will create a new way for buyers and sellers to communicate with each other, and it begins to solve the biggest problem in the media industry – the futile rekeying of data. And the result of all this time saved? Giving Adland people a little bit more time to do what they are really in the media industry to do… Play Ping-Pong.

Advvy Unibrief is launching at the Adnews Media Sales Summit May 19. To celebrate, Advvy has enlisted Australia’s first Olympic table tennis qualifier, and highest-ranking Australian on the World Table Tennis Ranking List – David Powel. “Advvy is calling on all the office Ping-Pong champions in the media industry. You know who they are, there’s one in every office that claims they are the best. Well, they may have everyone in their office beat, but how good are they really against one of Australia’s best? Come to the Media Sales Summit, and find out!” said Tristan Ozinga, Cofounder of Advvy.

Up for grabs is a brand new table tennis table for your agency or media organisation valued over $1000. Every player who takes on David Powell will go in the draw to win the table. Advvy looks forward to meeting you at the Media Sales Summit, and is excited to bring to you the beginning of the future of media buying and selling. Advvy builds cloud based workflow automation software for the media industry. The vision is to revolutionise the way media is bought and sold, and to provide a platform to make the seamless transfer of data from booking to billing possible, across all mediums.

Advvy was founded by two media industry fanatics, who were fed up with the incumbent ways of doing business. They are passionate about media, and truly understand what the industry needs now, so they may be best placed to build what is needed in the future.

Reference: https://www.bandt.com.au/technology/advvy-launches-new-briefing-communication-platform-media-industry