Advertising has come a long way since the days of Don Draper — not least thanks to the industry’s technological infusion being combined with the world’s best creative minds. Recent years have given rise to a proliferation of new tools for targeting audiences, safeguarding brands’ reputations, purchasing digital advertising, and monetizing new formats like online video and podcasts.

With an estimated 600 active AdTech and marketing tech startups, Israel is a driving force behind many of the biggest innovations in the sector. A few of these companies were showcased in June at Cannes Lions 2018, the premier global gathering for professionals in the advertising and communications industries. Eight Israeli companies participated in the country’s hub, which was organized in cooperation with the Israel Export Institute. Participating companies included the following:

  • KonnecTo provides brands with customer-driven insights to enable a better understanding of consumer preferences, their assessment of competitors, and their sentiment toward the brand. Clients invite their customers to participate in the KonnecTo Consumer Group, and customer data is compiled onto an AI-driven platform that generates actionable insights for helping brands nurture customer relationships and reach target audiences.
  • Wochit provides businesses a video creation platform for producing and distributing across social and digital platforms. With pre-negotiated and rights-cleared assets from the AP, Reuters, Getty, and other sources, Wochit provides brands with a suite of tools for quickly creating quality content. The company has notched several top awards, including Digiday’s Best Video Technology Innovation and the Gutenberg Prize for disruptive technology in journalism.
  • Nanoscent provides brands with a unique new way of engaging consumers: through the power of smell. Utilizing scent recognition technology, the company is developing a solution enabling customers to use their phones to detect the scent profile of products. The company has formed partnerships with Samsung and other Fortune 500 companies.

Amid continued Israeli innovation in AdTech and marketing tech, recent years have witnessed growing M&A activity, and the needs of the marketplace are slated to power further advances in the sector. From high-profile controversies that have prompted companies to reevaluate their brand safety strategies to the emergence of formats like AR and VR, advertisers and marketers find themselves in search of sophisticated technological solutions to address their core needs — and the Startup Nation’s thriving tech ecosystem is at the ready.