Unilever, the largest spender in India and the second biggest advertiser globally, is looking to pioneer its future as well as the industry’s. That is the idea behind the two-year old Unilever Foundry. In a world, where startups are disrupting industries, Unilever has built a bridge to tap into the vast potential of young entrepreneurs through the Foundry. Jeremy Basset, head of Unilever Foundry, who led a delegation of 50 startups at Cannes Lions explains more.
Excerpts:
This is the second year of the #Foundry50 at Cannes. What was new this year?We really wanted to bring the technology to life and move away from the idea of startup tech to startup and brands because they are transforming the industry. We have startups ranging from those making an impact on retail and e-commerce, to those connecting with millennials and assisting brands in generating content, among many others.
What are some of the early learnings of the Foundry experience?Come to the process ready to be inspired. Our brand leaders are very good in briefing agencies but when it comes to working with startups, we are better off throwing a challenge and letting them come up with the solutions. A broad brief is the best brief that gives room for inspiration. Also, we have learned to commit upfront. We commit $50,000 for a first pilot if a startup can pitch what it can do with it. We have piloted with over 100 startups and are scaling 48 of these.
How is the Foundry shaping up in India?India is a land of entrepreneurs. You can see that in the marketing and ad tech space. We have quite a few startups piloting with us in India. We also have startups such as Singapore-based Next Billion doing pilots in India, taking Lifebuoy and Pepsodent into rural markets.
For a company like Unilever, tremendous innovation happens within the company, but a lot more happens outside. We want to bring the outside in, and Foundry is our way of doing that. We provide a platform for collaboration. Any startup can go to our website and see a set of challenges live on the site at any point in time and join us.
What are the disappointments so far?It is important to say that we have seen so much more success than issues. We are trying to make the organisations move faster, but I would still say startups have to be patient. Good things come with time. I would also advise them to spend time crafting the pitch, and understanding solutions before bringing technology. We don’t want technology. We want solutions that can transform the world. They need to translate that technology into applications that can be useful to Unilever.
And what are your benchmarks for success?There are three KPIs we look at: efficiency, effectivity and sustainability. Over the last two years, we started by engaging startups to bring innovations but we saw that they increased effectiveness and efficiency. There is a very strong financial case, innovation and cultural case. Wrap it together and you have a very strong business case. And that is good news all around.
