Media Maestro: dmg ventures’ new competition to bring start-ups to the masses
dmg ventures is excited to be launching Media Maestro, a new competition where the winner will receive a £250k advertising budget with dmg media, as well as consumer insights, expert support and account management.
dmg media is the largest news media group in the UK, reaching 33.4m UK consumers each and every month. The group owns some of the UK’s largest print newspapers (Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday, Metro and i), their digital equivalents (MailOnline, metro.co.uk and inews.co.uk) and a handful of more sector-specific publications (incl. New Scientist and This is Money). Globally, the group has a whopping 172m unique browsers per month!
MailOnline, in particular, is a behemoth, reaching 23.1m+ consumers in the UK monthly, who in turn view 2.2bn pages each month. MailOnline also reaches 113m non-UK consumers each month and is one of the world’s largest contributors to various social platforms, making it one of the most-read publications globally.
Due to the breadth of dmg media’s publications, it has the ability to reach consumers across every life stage and demographic. dmg ventures leverages this vessel to bring consumer start-ups into mainstream consciousness.
🧬 Why above the line marketing is essential
We believe that start-ups and VCs often live in a bit of a self-satisfying bubble, far away from the needs and wants of the average consumer. Though it’s usually the right approach to start with a very specific customer segment, there’s a point where you have to resonate with a mainstream audience in order to build a giant consumer brand.
For the past 20 years or so, below the line advertising channels (Facebook, Google, Instagram, TikTok, etc.) have been a bit of a cheat code to get consumer start-ups off the ground. They attract customers in a cost-effective way and provide precise ROI data, which the modern marketer, who loves data and predictability, thrives off.
However, below the line channels only take you so far. They become more costly the more money you plough into them, placing an effective cap on the volume of customers you can acquire from these channels. In the last few years, they’ve also become much more expensive. Though they still very much have a place within the marketing mix, and continue to be a great way to get brands off the ground, they’re no longer the cheat code they used to be.
Enter, above the line marketing, which covers advertising across TV, radio, print, billboards, etc. I’d argue that brick & mortar stores in themselves are also part of above the line marketing. It’s vital that consumer start-ups incorporate above the line channels into their mix at some point in their evolution.
Our thesis is that B2C start-ups should be starting to test above the line channels early, at around the Late Seed to Series A stage. Starting early allows you to iterate your approach, much as you would do with below the line marketing. We recognise that launching above the line marketing can be a bit of a leap of faith. It’s not as formulaic and predictable as below the line. You don’t receive clean data on the revenue you’ve made from each marketing £ spent. You push out a campaign and then it’s pretty much gone in the ether. This can leave marketing teams, and management teams, in a spin. We appreciate the challenges this throws up, and lean on a number of tools to help give signals as to whether campaigns are on the right track.
dmg ventures’ model is to enable Late Seed to Series A start-ups to test above the line channels in a cost-effective way, with expert support and consumer insights thrown in for good measure. We invest a mixture of cash and media budget (which is majorly discounted) into companies at this stage, augmented by support and advice from our dedicated, in-house experts, Louise and Susanna. We also make media-only investments, with the same additional benefits, into later stage start-ups which already have material marketing budgets. Our aim is to take the stress away from that first foray into above the line.
🚀 Why we’re launching Media Maestro
We’re launching Media Maestro to open our innovative approach up to consumer start-ups which sit outside our portfolio.
Above the line marketing is something every B2C start-up should be doing, and we’re offering a risk free way to dip your toe in.
Thanks to our partnership with dmg media, we’ve secured a pretty remarkable prize package of a £250k media budget, as well as expert support, consumer insights and account management.
We know that founders are busy people. That’s why we’ve made the process brutally simple. All you need to do is apply via a 5 minute form (here) and, if you make it to the top 10, have a 30 min call with dmg ventures’ judging panel. We’ll use this call to dive into the companies in a bit more detail but also tell you more about what dmg ventures, dmg media and above the line marketing, more generally, can offer. We’ll then pick a winner!
If you’re the founder of, or work for, any UK, B2C company, founded in 2018 or later (which is not an existing dmg ventures portfolio company and / or in active negotiation with dmg ventures at the time of application), we welcome you to apply! The application window opens at 9am GMT on 23rd January and closes at 23:59 GMT on 5th February. Good luck!
Apply here.
- Open to UK registered companies founded in the past five years (2018 or later for the purposes of the 2024 Promotion), excluding existing dmg ventures portfolio companies or companies which are in active investment discussions with dmg ventures.Promotion opens at 09:00 GMT on 23/01/2024 and closes at 23:59 on 05/02/2024.
- Entrant must apply via the application form.
- 1 prize of £250,000 worth of advertising spend plus associated benefits available subject to the exclusions in the full T&Cs.
- 1 entry per email.
- Full T&Cs apply, see here.
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