DEERFIELD, IL
Mondelez International began a technological venture that sparked the interest and investment of renowned entrepreneur and author Gary Vaynerchuk.
The modern-day pioneer’s company VaynerMedia, LLC has purchased Mondelez’s Betabox, LLC, an initiative that was launched as an exercise to provide employees with the opportunity to launch their own start-up.
"As part of the Mobile Futures program, we empowered our employees to be more entrepreneurial and provided them with a unique opportunity to launch their own start-up," Bonin Bough, Vice President of Global Media and E-Commerce at Mondelez International, said in a press release. "The fact that our start-up piqued the interest of a leading marketing agency such as VaynerMedia is a testament to the entrepreneurial spirit we were able to spark within our organization."
The initiative challenged employees to create and incubate new mobile venture ideas and products in a 90-day frame. In partnership with Prehype, a venture development firm, Betabox was born as a result of that venture.
Through the distribution of reputable e-commerce partners and the ability to customize and promote content through a mobile platform, Betabox makes it easier and more accessible for brands to target specific consumers and samples. It provides these brands with an accurate measure of the effectiveness of a product sampling campaign, saving money, time, and resources.
"As a retailer at heart, sampling has always been an area of interest to me, and Betabox is a great platform for us to leverage so we can expand our sampling capabilities," Vaynerchuk, CEO of VaynerMedia, said in the release. "With our winning digital and social media work, our agency has demonstrated it has the intelligence, agility and speed to find the fastest and most effective ways of getting products in front of consumers who'll become the next wave of brand loyalists, all in ways that are native and natural to them."
Providing opportunity and incentive, Mondelez was able to key into the creativity and entrepreneurship of its employees and come out with a resourceful, sought after product.
