[Advertisement feature by AdLaunch]
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With technology constantly evolving and increased time spent on our devices, it has become paramount for companies across all sectors to create a memorable digital experience. In the spirit of smarter marketing, AdLaunch helps companies easily build engaging promotional videos, that can capture the notoriously fleeting attention of a generation that’s always connected and always on-the-go.
We sat down with founder Joel Hypén to find out more.
In your own words, what is AdLaunch’s vision?
We aim to be the market leader in AI-powered video creation and reversioning. Throughout my ten years of career experience in advertising and video production, I’ve watched an increasing need among our clients to create a greater quantity of high quality video material for social media channels. However, their budgets are not growing at the same rate. AdLaunch is able to cater to this demand by offering advanced technology, powered by AI, that can create videos in seconds for a fraction of the price of traditional outsourced marketing services.
Our patent-pending AI technology empowers marketers to create the videos that they envision for their company, with simplicity and ease. The technology can pull from a multitude of sources including video libraries, image recognition, social media accounts and website data in order to create highly relevant and impactful video content. Our vision is to put creative power in the hands of individual marketers, so they can produce memorable content and reach new audiences.
What was your previous work experience and how did it prepare you for this venture?
I’ve been an entrepreneur for most of my working life – almost fourteen years now! That aside, I’ve always had a passion for videography. Having completed a masters in Media Production and studied Intellectual Property Law, as well as started my own successful video production company, media content creation has always been the crux of my career development. Starting AdLaunch felt like a very natural transition. My co-founder Marko has extensive experience in IT, so together we’re a very solid combination of media, business and tech skills. In this industry, that’s definitely an asset!
What has been the greatest challenge for your team so far?
Finland has fantastic higher education and government R&D grant support, but the venture capital market is relatively small which can make it difficult to secure the funds necessary to get a good idea off the ground. We received our first angel funding round by participating in the Collider adtech accelerator in London. From the very beginning, we’ve felt as though our British investors really understand our vision and recognize our potential within the marketing tech sector. In the future, we hope to enter the UK and US markets both to raise funds and operate commercially, as we develop our patented technology into a commercial product. We’re already in discussions with Adobe in San Jose which naturally is a prospect we’re extremely excited about as Adobe is one of the biggest and most influential players in the media and marketing software industry.
What has been the most exciting success so far?
Definitely our first Seedrs round! This has been an exciting journey – being able to involve so many people in our mission. We’re so grateful to all our Seedrs investors who see the value in what we’re doing and are willing to come along on our journey.
Patenting our technology was also a huge milestone for our team and the company as a whole. We spent a long time developing and improving our software and believe the patent will be immensely valuable in the long run. Another huge success was winning third prize at Slush, which is Europe’s largest startup event. After that one pitch, our website traffic went up 900%, which was incredible.
What’s the key to a great ad campaign?
Successful advertising is a combination of elements working in tandem. A great ad should make people feel something. It should be visually engaging, with clear and effective brand communication, and consistent in both timing and messaging with other campaign materials. If you can get all those things right, your ad will leave a lasting impression.
If you could choose a superpower, what would it be and why?
I would like to be able to see 10 scenarios of every choice I make.
What are you saving for?
Investing more in our startup.
What’s the most valuable life hack you’ve learned so far?
Building a company is a marathon, not a sprint. Learning to become efficient at writing emails, editing videos and other day-to-day necessities have been so integral in helping me and my team stay motivated in the long term.
To find out more, visit AdLaunch’s campaign here.
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