/ 3 June 2016

Disrupting a $45-billion global industry

Disrupting A Billion Global Industry

Imagine if you had access to an on-demand network of creative professionals across every African country to get feedback on how well your product would work and to provide feedback on your advertising and marketing campaigns. Such a research resource would be of the highest value in the creative, advertising and marketing professions, an industry that spends trillions of rands annually often without ways of testing or validating in other markets.

Delvv.io has combined the power of research and technology to deliver professional and actionable feedback throughout the creative process within days and at a fraction of the traditional research costs.

The global market research industry, valued at $45-billion, is dominated by a handful of incumbents who have not kept pace with changes in demographic shifts, media consumption habits and online technologies. Delvv.io is revolutionising that process by giving brands and agencies access to thousands of top creative individuals from across Africa and the globe. 

“The old saying that half of all advertising is wasted has a lot to do with poor targeting. The truth is that most campaigns are neither tested nor adapted to suit the needs of the local market, particularly here in Africa,” said Trevor Wolfe, co-founder of delvv.io. “This is not because brand managers and agencies don’t know better, they do, but the existing tools make it harder, not easier to tailor to different demographics and markets. We’re working to change that.” 

Endeavor entrepreneur Trevor Wolfe (32), originally from New York, has led international product and marketing roles at global media and research houses like TNS, WPP, Gerson Lehrman Group and technology startup Moveline. His co-founder Remon Geyser (31) brings his background in brand science and creative analysis from the world’s largest supplier of brand equity trackers, Millward Brown. 

Delvv.io is specifically targeting major brands and agencies but has also begun offering access to SMEs who previously did not have access to research resources. The platform makes the process of research seamless, making it easy to tap into its network of creative professionals and receive immediate feedback on local trends, brand activity and on how best to make a brand’s communications locally relevant to any country or market. This gives brands, among other things, the confidence they need to expand their products into Africa. 

For each project, the algorithm of the platform determines the best panel of the most relevant creative experts to provide external, unbiased feedback in a confidential manner. Actionable insights are gathered and compiled, localised to the target country, region or demographic. This solves the research problem at hand within seven days, instead of the industry average of 60 days. 

With a growing number of global brands, giving their clients the ability to conduct projects in almost any country in the world, having a database of more than a million creatives and currently closing their first round of investor funding, delvv.io is set for rapid international growth and is positioning itself as a breakthrough invention in the market research industry. Geyser mentions that “we’re looking forward to working with any South African brands that want to optimise their creative performance or test the waters in other markets.” Find out more at delvv.io