Prophet's AI platform intends to revamp global ad spend efficiency
The digital marketing landscape is buzzing with anticipation as Prophet, a novel predictive intelligence platform, emerges after three years in development. This ambitious venture, buoyed by an AUD $5 million seed investment, seeks to plug the $AUD 1 trillion deficit caused by data blind spots and Google's discontinuation of cookies. Supported by an array of industry heavyweights, including media mogul Antony Catalano and tech entrepreneur Matt Rockman, the startup utilises Nobel Prize-winning mathematics to enhance business decision-making.
Prophet targets the monumental problem of squandered ad spend, estimated to pervade 86% of the global advertising market by 2024. In the Australian market alone, potential misallocated spend could reach AUD $23.8 billion. Even with retailers spending AUD $2.56 billion on ads in 2023, a mere 1% increase in efficiency could bolster bottom lines by millions, a critical opportunity Prophet intends to seize.
Unveiled as Australia's response to the colossal marketing quandary, the AI-driven platform is designed to give businesses real-time big data analyses, enabling more accurate and intelligent decisions. The service helps companies quantify the historical ROI from all elements of their marketing mix, simultaneously predicting future outcomes using a plethora of macroeconomic data points. The result is cost savings of anywhere from 10% to 50% in total marketing expenditure.
Prophet's launch tranquilly disrupts the accepted norm of waiting 60 to 90 days for actionable analytical data. Jordan Taylor-Bartels, CEO, emphasises, "If your marketing team is handling large amounts of budget, you can no longer afford for them to make significant spending decisions based on data that is, best case, 3 months old when they receive it."
Through Prophet's technology, sophisticated mathematics is effortlessly packaged into a user-friendly platform, enabling accurate and expeditious optimisation of brand budgets.
In addition to touting significant cost savings, Taylor-Bartels reports that preliminary testing demonstrates Prophet's ability to augment efficiency by indicating what is functionally effective and advising where resources should be focused for maximum impact. Analysts and entrepreneurs alike have recognised the potential of this innovation, with the platform raising an impressive AUD $5 million in seed funding before generating any revenue.
With third-party cookies set to be phased out by year-end, Prophet offers a robust alternative to marketers feeling left in the lurch. The impending shift has been labelled a 'cataclysmic event' in organisational measurement. Business leaders managing sizable marketing or advertising budgets are being advised to adapt quickly, given the combinative impact of diminished consumer spending power, increased inflation, and Google's cookie phase-out.
The Melbourne-based company is led by a skilled cadre of innovators, including former Hyperloop marketing head Jordan Taylor-Bartels, ex-Ogilvy CEO Sean Taylor and mathematician Patrick Robotham.
Sean Taylor, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Prophet, says, "Having been in the advertising and media world for more than 30 years, I've never seen a tool that allows clients to make better decisions on media spending with such clarity and simplicity. The three years of development, with incredibly intelligent people, have been an extraordinary journey. We can't wait to bring this to market."
Antony Catalano, one of the lead investors and current Executive Chairman of View Media Group, is excited by such an innovation: "I've seen a number of tech innovations over the past two decades, and our operations through our own national media group demonstrate more than ever the importance of media, marketing, and organisational accountability and measurement. Prophet is on a whole new level. It isn't just a game changer; it is a whole new game."
