Just the other week, FieldTest had the opportunity to make an appearance at one of the most exciting industry events of the season - Foundermade’s Innovation Show! Partnering this year with Hawke Media and their annual HawkeFest, these industry tastemakers gathered hundreds of innovative brands across the DTC, CPG and B2B spaces together into one building for a day of networking and we were fortunate enough to join the fun. 

Every conference is an opportunity to meet exciting brands and build relationships with the people behind them, and this was no exception. We had an absolute blast, and made memories we won’t soon forget.

With that in mind, here are 3 of our favorite memories from this year’s Foundermade/Hawke Media Innovation Show:

1: Meeting all the great exhibitors

We couldn’t talk about the best memories of an event like this without mentioning all of the fantastic exhibitors and vendors we were lucky enough to meet. Exhibitions like Hawkefest are all about like-minded people coming together to forge new relationships and we feel fortunate to have met so many talented and driven folks throughout the event, building new relationships that will endure on into the future.

Beauty brand VREA Cosmetics showed us their beautiful line of organic cosmetic products and we were super impressed. Led by founder Alexandra Jacks, this brand has made it their mission to provide consumers with high quality, vegan, cruelty-free and fully transparently manufactured beauty products to combat industry wide issues with dishonesty, deceptive manufacturing processes and greenwashing. Talk about an entrepreneur on a mission!

The CBD industry is another space full of driven and innovative entrepreneurs, exemplified in brands like Sati SODA. These sumptuous soda sellers have not only crafted a delicious new way to take your CBD, but have created a beautiful lifestyle brand on its back that centers friendship, exercise and adventure - all of the things made better with a little CBD. David McLaughlin, the company’s founder, impressed us with his vision for a better CBD company, and his dedication to giving back to the community (1% of Sati’s profits go towards providing healthy meals to the underserved communities. Now there’s a CBD drink that you can feel good about drinking!)

On the other side of the spectrum we have brands like Audia, an ingenious new way to democratize cancer screenings, who gave us a glimpse at the future of the medical market - one that is more open, accessible and driven by effective outcomes for consumers. Lab leader Jess Jones showed us how this incredible new piece of healthcare technology works and we were absolutely blown away by its ingenuity. 

These are just a handful of the impressive folks we met at this expo, but they were only a fraction of the people who left an impression on us. If the vendors at Hawkefest are any indicator, the world of DTC and CPG are in excellent hands.

2: Introducing exciting brands to FieldTest Omnichannel

Of course meeting new and exciting brands is only part of the fun of participating in an event like this. Along with the opportunity to forge new connections came the opportunity to help these brands meet their marketing goals with FieldTest’s powerful omnichannel capabilities. We loved the chance to discuss how our capabilities met the needs of these diverse and dynamic brands. From Display to CTV to DOOH, we were so happy to be able to provide these hungry entrepreneurs with ways to promote their products, connect with their core consumers, and scale their businesses effectively with digital advertising.

One brand, a beauty brand with a focus on health and wellness, was particularly impressed with our proprietary health and beauty audience - among the largest and most optimized audience segments for that industry available to digital advertisers. When we told them that this audience was able to be utilized not only on digital display but across every channel we offer their jaw almost hit the floor.

Another brand, a digital design agency who has great online traffic but has struggled to convert, was blown away by our advanced awareness capabilities in CTV and DOOH. The ability to take their beautiful, custom-designed assets and put them on digital displays in public spaces as well as retargeting website visitors on their favorite television shows practically left them drooling at the possibilities. 

It’s moments like these that we live for, providing the best and most effective digital marketing solutions to brands with drive, ambition and the will to use them. And in these cases it was all made possible by extraordinary events like hawkefest. 

3: The good times had by all

Every connection we made and every brand idea we discovered wouldn’t mean nearly as much if we weren't all sharing in the fun, fellowship and shared excitement of this excellent event. Let’s be honest, when you walk into a building and see a mechanical bull you know you’re in for a good time! Foundermade and Hawke pulled out all the stops and made the whole event one to remember.

Did we enjoy ourselves? Well, we think the pictures speak for themselves.

We can’t wait to see everyone again next year!