Most of the Israeli start-ups currently do not appear in global television campaigns, and a minority of them advertise only in Israel (riseup, for example). Against this background stands out the move of the fintech company HoneyBook, which developed technology for financial and business management for self-employed people and small businesses, and is launching this week for the first time an extensive brand campaign with an investment of several million dollars.
● Make the VP laugh: the start-ups’ advertising campaigns go up a notch
The move is led by the American advertising agency Performance Art, with which the relationship was established with the help of the Israeli Macan Tech, which also participated in the formulation of the strategy. In the first phase, two commercials were created that will be broadcast on linear television and streaming in the USA and Canada (60% of the budget), targeting the target audiences in the tracks and broadcast times. At the same time, a digital campaign is launched.
“Hanibook has existed for almost a decade, and so far has focused on developing a product and experience that caters to small and independent businesses, and has grown in organic ways. Now we are taking a leap forward and are advertising in a broad and massive way,” explains Mati Yahav, Commercial Vice President, who served as Sodastream’s Vice President of Marketing at the time that she posted in the Super Bowl.
At the center of the first advertisement is a freelancer who holds work meetings that seem to be going well, but as soon as the demand for payment arrives, the clients disappear. In the second, the freelancer gets confused between dates and discovers that what worked well at age 18 works less well now.
“We wanted an advertisement that brings a smile, but brings a sharp insight: every self-employed person has the moment when he realizes that things could have been done better,” explains Yahav. “We chose an American office, because it was important to us to work with people who live the local culture and feel the pulse of the territory. On the other hand, Israelis were also involved in the campaign.”
Is this the beginning of a trend? According to Yahav, “There are other companies that advertise in the US, but it is mainly on the Internet and mainly performance-biased. In the end, companies that want to build something big over time can’t just be performance poles, so I believe that brand advertising will return.”
Honeybook was founded in 2013 by Oz, Naama Alon and Dror Shimoni. To date, the company has raised about half a billion dollars, and it employs 200 people.