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LONDON – December 4, 2013 – Global media agency network Mindshare Worldwide is connecting Kimberly-Clark Corp. to the future of innovation at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January 2014 in the first annual Mindshare Fast Forward event.
Mindshare has partnered with Kimberly-Clark, through the Kimberly-Clark Digital Innovation Lab, and several venture capital firms to create an innovation competition culminating in a live pitch held at CES 2014, with the chance to make start-up ideas a brand and business reality.
The cycle of innovation has become accelerated in a world of constant consumer adaptation, Mindshare said in a press release. From mobile phones to refrigerators, products are becoming smarter, more connected and are constantly evolving to meet the needs of ever-adapting consumers. Opportunities to gain competitive advantage, new customers, and new margins by using accelerated innovation techniques are becoming vital and CES is a unique date in the calendar to explore these opportunities.
The first of this yearly event sees Kimberly-Clark providing briefs that are sent to a pool of pre-selected start-up and technology firms through Mindshare’s VC partners. A shortlist of companies based on responses to that brief will be invited to present their ideas in-person at CES. Kimberly-Clark will review the ideas and will determine whether it wants to proceed with the ideas for further exploration and/or investment.
Clive Sirkin, CMO, Kimberly-Clark, said, ““At Kimberly Clark we do not do digital marketing, we build brands in a digital world for a digital consumer. These digital consumers continue to erase the boundaries that once defined distinct marketing channels. That requires us to be relentless in our commitment to marketing technology innovation and, within that, accessing the very best open source innovation through programs such as Fast Forward at CES. We want to turn the world into our lab and we’re delighted to be working with Mindshare to connect with the future first.”
Nick Emery, Mindshare Worldwide CEO, said, “We believe that everything begins and ends in media and that Mindshare sits at the centre of innovation powered by data and technology. It is our job to constantly bring new thinking and provocative ideas to our clients. We believe Adaptive Marketing is about using data all the way through the marketing and sales cycle to new product development and we’re delighted to be partnering with Kimberly-Clark as part of Fast Forward.’
