Today I’m excited to announce the launch of The Brandery, a new seed stage consumer marketing venture accelerator.   The Brandery will be a three-month-long program held in Cincinnati, Ohio that is focused on turning your great idea into a successful, brand-driven start-up.  For our inaugural class this Fall, we are selecting 5 companies, with each receiving $20,000 in seed funding, three months of mentorship, and the opportunity to pitch to angel investors and venture capitalists at the end of the program.

The full press release is listed below.  For more information, please “like” us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and check out our site at http://brandery.org Applications close on August 11th so if you know of any companies who would be interested, please encourage them to apply today.

Consumer marketing execs launch nonprofit startup accelerator

CINCINNATI (July 19, 2010) – Cincinnati digital marketing executive David Knox and serial entrepreneur J.B. Kropp have teamed up to launch the region’s first startup company accelerator, a nonprofit organization called The Brandery that will package funding, mentoring and partnerships around local entrepreneurs to help grow consumer marketing businesses here.
Knox, brand manager of global branded entertainment at Procter & Gamble, and Kropp, vice president of channel development at Vitrue who also has been integral in launching six startup companies, joined with Taft Stettinius & Hollister attorney Rob McDonald to create The Brandery. The name, coined by Brandery mentor and P&G brand manager Bryan Radtke, was designed to convey both the consumer marketing/branding focus as well as the idea of generating new companies.

“The power of The Brandery is the collaboration between people and companies in our community,” says Knox. “Entrepreneurs will benefit from a wide range of talented people in consumer marketing here as well as globally.”
The Brandery is looking for consumer-facing businesses such as consumer Internet, media and entertainment companies, based on technology platforms.

The 12-week program will include a structured curriculum that includes seed investment, industry leader mentors and access to top talent in the industry.

About 30 mentors will participate, ranging from local experts such as Bob Gilbreath, Bridge Worldwide’s chief marketing strategist and Pete Blackshaw, executive vice-president of Nielsen Online Digital Strategic Services to high-profile entrepreneurs such as Wendy Lea, CEO of Silicon Valley startup Get Satisfaction. (Click here for a full list: http://brandery.org/mentors/)

Each company that is selected through a review process will receive a $20,000 grant in exchange for equity in the company. As part of their participation, each company also will receive brand identity guidance from leading agencies including LPK, Resource Interactive, Barefoot Proximity, Empower MediaMarketing and Ample.

Companies can begin applying immediately at Brandery.org. Deadline for submissions for this first session is Aug. 11, 2010. Five companies will be selected for the first session, which will begin in late August.

The $20,000 company grants will come from CincyTech, a public-private venture development group that invests in high-tech startup companies. CincyTech is using its Imagining Grant funds, which are aimed at growing companies to the point where they are investable. “Our hope is to create a whole new pipeline of startup companies that focus on consumer marketing, to complement our portfolio of companies in information technology, bioscience and advanced manufacturing,” said CincyTech President Bob Coy. “Our mission is to grow jobs in thriving industries.”
In addition to CincyTech and the five creative agencies, support is coming from the Haile/U.S. Bank Foundation, the Greater Cincinnati Foundation, and Xavier University’s Williams College of Business, which donated money for operating capital for The Brandery, a 501c3. The Brandery also is endorsed and supported by the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber, Queen City Angels, Hamilton County Development Corp., and other local entrepreneurial organizations.

The Brandery was modeled after TechStars in Boulder, CO.; Y: Combinator in Silicon Valley; and Capital Factory in Austin, Texas; among others. However, while most of the others focus on scalable technology and Web-service startups, The Brandery is the first to focus exclusively on consumer marketing, Kropp said.

The strategy fits well with Cincinnati’s positioning as a national Consumer Marketing Hub through the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber’s Agenda 360 regional action plan.

The Brandery will serve as the region’s incubator for consumer marketing companies as promised in the Agenda 360 Consumer Marketing Center and Ohio Hub of Innovation plans, said Rich Kiley, who is serving as head of the Consumer Marketing Center for the Chamber. “The Brandery is an innovative way to leverage the competencies uniquely available in this region,” said Jerry Kathman, CEO of LPK. “This will burnish our region’s reputation for brand-building excellence.”

A few months ago, the folks at the Over-The-Rhine Chamber of Commerce in Cincinnati asked me to speak at their Creative Marketing Series.  In particular, they asked that I lead a Marketing Roundtable to talk about Brand Building and Marketing for local businesses.  The session was held this morning and it was a great time.  People often forget that no matter how small (or big) your company, the brand still matters and your consumers matter even more.  The discussion was great and I hope that the attendees found it to be a worthwhile use of their time.

If you are interested, the presentation below is what I shared with the group. And if you happen to be a business in Cincinnati, don’t miss the final session in the Creative Marketing Series on May 26 where Bob Gilbreath from Bridge Worldwide and Marketing with Meaning will be speaking

BlogWell is going to be making a stop in Cincinnati on April 7, 2010 and Cincinnati Social Media will be partnering for the festivities.  If you aren’t familiar with BlogWell, it is a great event put on across the country by GasPedal and the Social Media Business Council.    As they describe it:

The rainy weather may not have cooperated, but nonetheless, last week’s Cincinnati Digital Hub Non-Conference turned out to be a smashing success.  From John Battelle’s opening keynote to Peter Kim’s talk on Social Business, the conference was filled with great discussions about the digital landscape.  And even better, the conference really highlighted some of our  best local success stories including the growth of Cincinnati-based Share This, the launch of Bob Gilbreath’s new book, and other tales such as ThinkVine, MomsLikeMe.com and Ample.

But perhaps my favorite part came at the very end when I had the chance to sit on a small panel to talk about Cincinnati’s role as a Digital Hub.  One of the points that I brought up was that Cincinnati has already made tremendous strides…we just need to talk about some of our accomplishments.  For instance, consider the following:

• In Entrepreneur Magazine’s latest ranking of Top Undergraduate Entrepreneurial Colleges, three schools in the Cincinnati area were ranked in the Top 20 (University of Dayton at #7, Miami University at #15 and Xavier University at #19).   And Northern Kentucky University will likely join that list soon will their new $50 million dollar School of Informatics.
• Cincinnati is a Consumer Marketing Hub as the headquarters town of Procter & Gamble, Kroger, Nielsen Online, Macy’s and a host of marketing, branding, design and advertising services companies such as Bridge Worldwide, LPK and Northlich.
• The Cincinnati Social Media group is one of the largest in the country with over 700 active members.
• Cincinnati is one of the most innovative cities in the world with one of the highest rates of patent applications per capita in the country.

And that is just the beginning.  The buzz around the Digital Hub Non-Conference is because of what is already taking place in Cincinnati…not just the potential of what is to come.  The simple fact is that while Cincinnati has been the branding capital of 20th Century, we have every reason to be the Digital Brand Building capital of the 21st Century.

I for one cannot wait to be part of it all.

Thanks to HBO, the Cincinnati Bengals are going to learn about a Hard “Knocks” Life.  Premiering on August 12th at 10 PM EST, the Bengals are going to be featured on this season’s Hard Knocks, a show that looks into life at a NFL Training Camp.

As a Bengals season ticket holder, I can’t wait to see the show.  Will Carson Palmer be able to come back two years of injuries?  Will Chad “Johnson” Ocho Cinco get into trouble for sending tweets from the locker room?  Or will any of our players end up arrested again before the season begins?  Those are story lines just made for a reality TV show.

And of course, I’m looking forward to talk to HBO and the Bengals about partnership opportunities with the real Hard Knox Life.