Draft:Venture Marketing

Venture marketing (VM) is a revenue model for marketing agencies that is founded on the principles of venture capital, where agency time is invested in return for equity or revenue share. This model is usually a long-term commitment based on mutual trust between the brand and the agency. It requires a minimum commitment of resources, stakeholder engagement, and a technology stack that allows daily performance monitoring.

History
The term “venture marketing” was coined by marketing agency BH&P in 2021. In a blog post on the topic, the model is described as unique to other payment-on-performance models as it relies on agency time investment in return for revenue share. It is therefore aimed at young companies who have just completed investment rounds or are struggling to achieve business growth as there is low upfront investment and longer term growth is dependent on the growth of the business (see example: an interview with IDS).

Methodology
The model has a proprietary “100-day plan" that takes the business through several stages, from business audit through to execution.

The 100-day plan
The plan focuses on auditing and planning for several key areas of the business. This can include brand audits, a higher level proposition and business planning review, through to audits of the company's technology stack, the go-to-market plan and competitor landscape.

The analysis of the current business performance will indicate how much of the agency fees will be forfeited in exchange for a percentage of revenue. The model is initially agreed, but not implemented until the end of the planning phase.

Testing and learning
The principles of venture marketing are based on testing and pivoting to identify opportunity areas quickly and efficiently. Tests can include smaller scale tests on digital channels such as different audience variants, to larger scale tests including proposition variants and wholesale changes.