Brands spend $600 billion a year on advertising. But without engaging, effective ads, much of that money is wasted.
Cortex helps brands invest this money with confidence.
Its software-as-a-service uses machine learning to predict the performance of visual advertisements. In doing so, it helps brands like Toyota, Oreo, Marriott, Sony, and Accenture save up to 50% of their advertising dollars. And it predicts the performance of marketing visuals before a single dollar is spent.
Cortex was founded by a pair of successful entrepreneurs in the marketing industry. Their previous company was a content marketing agency for Fortune 500 brands that reached $10 million in annual revenue.
Now their focus is on Cortex, whose technology helps brands know what images and videos to create, and what content to promote.
Said Jason Kuruzovich, a data and analytics professor, “I’ve seen the data-driven decision making capabilities Cortex can provide its customers. I’m expecting big things from this team.”
As mentioned, advertising is big business. But with little to no insight into how ads performs, it quickly becomes a risky one.
The main issue is that advertisers only know what works after they’ve spent weeks or months — and millions of dollars — creating content.
If the content works, brands often don’t know why and can’t replicate the success. If it fails, they’ve wasted time and money, and still don’t know what to change.
Solving these issues is Cortex’s main benefit. No other technology can predict how people will react to something they see. (It’s been estimated that humans make 95% of their decisions quickly and on “first sight.”) That means Cortex is in a unique position to solve advertising problems for major brands — before they spend time and money trying to solve them.
Here’s how the company’s software works:
First, software ingests examples of visuals and advertising campaigns. (Cortex analyzes more visual content every 12 hours than a single ad executive can during their entire career.) Content can be from magazine and television ads, social media campaigns, and visuals on websites and mobile apps.
Next, data is enriched using a number of novel approaches that enable Cortex to understand the visuals.
Finally, the company's proprietary algorithm predicts how people will react in the future to various combinations of visual elements. Because the data collection and analysis is done by Artificial Intelligence, there’s no bias. The software can provide clear, unbiased guidance on how companies can improve their visual communications.
Cortex generates revenue through software subscriptions. Annual plans can range from $2,000 to $30,000 a year and come with premiums such as custom data and video analysis.
As of Q3 2021, Cortex had a $300,000 annual run rate. By Q4 2022, the company expects to achieve a $3 million run rate.
Cortex received a $100,000 investment in 2020 from Techstars Boston, a startup accelerator. It’s seeking additional capital to expand its team and secure patents for its technology.