Mindshare and NESCAFÉ Launch 'Fast Forward' at CES 2014

LONDON, December 3, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

Mindshare Worldwide, the global media agency network, is connecting NESCAFÉ to the future of innovation at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January 2014 in the first annual Mindshare Fast Forward event.

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Mindshare has partnered with NESCAFÉ through the NESCAFÉ START-UP program, the Nestlé Silicon Valley Innovation Outpost, 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. 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 edition of this yearly event sees NESCAFÉ 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. NESCAFÉ will review the ideas and will determine whether it wants to proceed with the ideas for further exploration and/or investment.

Sean Murphy, Head of Global Strategic Marketing, NESCAFÉ, said: "NESCAFÉ is a pioneering brand that has innovation as part of its core DNA. In more than 180 countries NESCAFÉ has sought to improve peoples' lives, generation after generation, for the past 75 years. NESCAFÉ was the first coffee brand on the moon, the first to climb Everest, and now the world's favourite coffee brand is looking to connect with the community of digital pioneers who themselves have totally changed the world in the past 20 years. The NESCAFÉ START-UP program will be launched, with the support of our strategic partner Mindshare, at CES this year. We look to create shared value for all NESCAFÉ consumers and stakeholders through the unique entrepreneurial force united at CES."

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 NESCAFÉ as part of Fast Forward.'

ENDS

Note to editors: Fast Forward is an annual Mindshare initiative to help clients identify new technologies and applications to give their business an advantage and point-of-differentiation. In 2014 Mindshare clients NESCAFÉ and Kimberly-Clark are taking part.

ABOUT MINDSHARE

Mindshare is a global media agency network with billings in excess of US$29.2 billion (source: RECMA). The network consists of 113 offices in 82 countries throughout North America, Latin America, Europe, Middle East, and Asia Pacific, each dedicated to forging competitive marketing advantage for businesses and their brands. Mindshare is part of GroupM, which oversees the media investment management sector for WPP, the world's leading communications services group. 

SOURCE Mindshare Worldwide