Cannes, 22nd June 2022 – Kantar, the world’s leading marketing data and analytics company, today announces iLab, its new open innovation ecosystem. iLab brings together consumer brands, academia and start-up partners to address tomorrow’s consumer needs today, by experimenting, creating and testing innovative solutions and products. Launch partners for iLab include Coca-Cola, Twitter, Saïd Business School, Oxford University and Audiense.
Kantar has a well-established reputation for open innovation and using its AI and machine learning expertise to generate ideas and proof of concepts. Successful global products launched using this approach include Link AI and Dx Analytics.
In parallel, iLab’s mission is to increase diversity and inclusion within the innovation community, boost collaboration and empower innovators from everywhere to reach scale and in an industry that has traditionally been slow and siloed. iLab will bring together innovators of all stripes from within Kantar, global brands, academia, and start-ups to inspire, innovate and disrupt how the future’s marketing solutions will be created.
“With the launch of iLab, Kantar will lead our client community in more purposeful experimentation, proof of concepts and product development with speed and scale.” said Ted Prince, Chief Product Officer, Kantar. “iLab will feed both Kantar’s and our partners’ innovation funnels by acting as a catalyst to help marketers understand people and inspire growth in new ways. The reception from our clients and partners illustrates the appetite for this initiative to make innovation a more collaborative and inclusive process and find new ways of generating business growth.”
iLab partners will get their first opportunity to try new innovations, feed the innovation process and network with the brightest across the industry at Kantar SPARK Bootcamps, industry sessions designed to generate and test ideas at speed.
Cynthia Vega, iLab Global Partnerships Director added “Our industry needs to think differently about how we develop innovative products today to answer our client’s and consumer’s future needs. Our open innovation approach has delivered results for clients, such as Link AI, the automated ad-testing platform which was co-developed with Coca-Cola. This AI-driven product is testament to the power of collaboration and the benefits that such technology brings to brands across the world.”
Kantar welcomes innovators from all walks of life to join its iLab ecosystem.