[Interview] Midemlab judge David Raichman discusses startups and disruptive tech

Earlier this week, the winners of Midemlab were announced.  As with most years, the judging panel was quite diverse and I had the opportunity to interview a couple of the judges to get their perspective on the competition.  In this interview I chat with David Raichman, Creative Director at OgilvyOne Worldwide / Head of Ogilvy Lab Paris about what he was looking for from the competition as well as getting more insights on Ogilvy Lab, one of the key strategic partners of Cap Digital, the French non-profit business cluster for digital content and services.

Why are you interested in MIDEM and what are your expectations?
I’m here for the first time, as a judge for the MidemLab competition. My goal is to discover disruptive tech and value propositions from startups. I’m interested in leverage ideas to create something new for brands, through partnerships with the most interesting companies.

Why are startups so appealing for you as a creative director?
Startups are interesting because they have fresh ideas and technologies, business models that can evolve and propositions that can adapt to fit our clients needs. We work to create new experiences for brands and in our ideas there are “slots” available where startups can fit their services, like a sort of missing chain in the service panorama.

A niche startup may not be obvious to our clients and startups sometimes don’t imagine their potential applied to them.  We are here to make them work together, by integrating new ideas into the global service we offer to brands.

What about Ogilvy Lab?
We created Ogilvy Lab in order to boost brands by leveraging marketing propositions and collaborating with startups using their tech is as weapon of creativity.

Working together with Cap Digital, we accelerate and mentor startups, giving them advice on adapting or adding features to their offer, to fit with the creative ideas we propose to our clients.

With startup technology we advise our brands, enhance their DNA and create bounds with consumers, while at the same time, we help startups building their future, creating with them new interesting models and long-term partnerships.

Can you give some advice to startups ?
About the idea :
– Create something new, connected with insight of business and consumers.
– Find the right balance between your technology and the final value proposition
– Solve a problem or create a new need

About the pitch :
– Make a crystal clear pitch and focus on users
– Show what is unique in your offer.
– Make a live demo of your product. Be pragmatic and you’ll be remembered.

You spoke a bit earlier about disruptive technology.  What are your thoughts on about connected objects for example?

It is an interesting topic and a trend in this particular moment. In particular I’m thinking about wearable devices, connected health care and connected cars. It’s a new way to change behaviors, to capture the moment and gather data, but we don’t yet know how to leverage it to brands.

Also, besides obvious issues of privacy, there’s a risk of focusing on complete targeted data, leaving no place for surprise. I’m sure the natural evolution of connected devices will lead to the development of new opportunities of communication.