At least a handful of local startups will have one cost area covered for them in the coming year: marketing and advertising.
Hopkins-based direct-response advertising company
Marketing Architects and sister company MACatalyst have set aside $2 million for a new business incubator, called Project Lab.
Marketing Architects sells direct-to-consumer products through radio and
television ads. The company began 15 years ago in radio, "very much at a
time when everyone else thought that radio could not work for direct
response," says Brand Manager Katelin Johnson. It is now the largest
direct-response marketing company in the nation, she says.
The incubator is in response to the Minneapolis and St. Paul mayors'
Entrepreneurship Accelerator," initiative, according to a press release
from the company.
The Project Lab is a 5,000-square-foot space, designed to be movable and
fluid enough to handle as many as 20 businesses, she says. Startups and
existing customers may use the "creative" space for strategizing,
research and development, testing, and as a "dedicated space � for their
product lineups," according to the release.
The $2 million will actually fund businesses above and beyond the
development of five products currently in various stages, says Johnson.
Marketing Architects expects a couple of them--one a
home-goods/lawn-and-garden product, the other a medical device--to
launch in July.
"And by launch, I mean spots on the air," says Johnson. Direct-response
marketability is a prerequisite for the startups and products, which
otherwise may vary widely in type and stage of development, she says,
starting with as little as "just an idea."
How much each company will get and how they use it will also vary,
"depending on where they are in that startup process," she says.
Marketing Architects and MACatalyst are open to dedicating more than the
$2 million set aside for this year, and they plan further investment in
the coming years, she says.
Marketing Architects has 115 employees, including those added when the
company moved into television about four years ago, says Johnson. They
stayed steady during the economic downturn and have about ten active job
openings right now.
The incubator is in response to the Minneapolis and St. Paul
mayors' Entrepreneurship Accelerator," initiative, according to a press release
from the company.
The Project Lab is a 5,000-square-foot space, designed to be
movable and fluid enough to handle as many as 20 businesses, she says. Startups
and existing customers may use the "creative" space for strategizing, research
and development, testing, and as a "dedicated space � for their product line
ups," according to the release.
(Watch a time-lapse video, with high-powered rock-'n'-roll music, of the Project Lab being built):
Source: Katelin Johnson, Brand Manager, Marketing Architects
Writer: Jeremy Stratton