Copyright Baton Rouge Advocate
The advertising industry has evolved considerably since its 1960s golden age immortalized on the TV show "Mad Men." Transported through time, a real-life version of fictional ad man Don Draper would have trouble making sense of voice search optimization, paid social media influencers or any of the digital advertising techniques that send micro-targeted content to potential customers on their smartphones and computers. Today, nearly 73% of global ad spending goes to digital versus traditional media. And, last year, that spending exceeded $1 trillion, driven by increases in digital marketing budgets. For ad agencies and the brands they serve, this digital revolution means there are nearly limitless options to get the word out — and more competition than ever. That's where Waldo hopes to help. The New Orleans-based startup, founded four years ago by tech veteran Justin Wohlstadter, closed a $10 million venture capital-backed fundraising round earlier this fall on the strength of its primary offering: an artificial intelligence-powered virtual research assistant designed to collect gobs of data online and use it to make good business decisions. An upgraded version of the tool launched this month and is slowly being rolled out. The company, which has a team of five employees in New Orleans in its Warehouse District offices and another 15 worldwide, plans to use its new cash infusion to scale up its service, which already counts some of the world's biggest advertising agencies and Fortune 500 brands among its users. "At the core of every marketing agency is a strategist, researching and turning what people care about into ideas," said Wohlstadter, who grew up in Dallas but has family connections to New Orleans. "With Waldo, what used to take an agency weeks or months to do now can be done in seconds." Finding needles in a haystack … and putting them to use Wohlstadter, a graduate of Harvard and Oxford universities, spent eight years leading his first tech startup, Wonder, which he describes now as "basically a human precursor to ChatGPT" that crowdsourced thousands of researchers to do work for big companies and consulting firms. Like many startups with "AI" at the end of their name, his new venture is an example of what is now being called an "AI platform integrator," which means its software uses the power of existing tools like ChatGPT or Claude to serve customers. The software monitors "signals" online and on social media that are relevant to ad agencies and brands. This could be customer complaints or praise on Reddit message boards, news about a competitor's product launch on a website or industry trends evident in Instagram videos. "There's too much information out there: too many articles, too many people posting on social media and too many influencers," Wohlstadter said. "So we use AI to read all of that for you and turn it into opportunities." The latest version of Waldo might tell a food company how to take advantage of the current craze for protein-enhanced foods or offer specific ways an airline can market a new route to Gen Z customers. Waldo originally aimed its services at marketing agencies, but now brands can sign up directly. Clients include Airbnb, the short-term rental platform; Kettle & Fire, a food brand; and Conair, maker of small appliances and personal care products. "We will have read the last 1,000 Instagram posts about hair care, and if they are all talking about nostalgia for the looks of the Roaring '20s, we'll suggest that clients in that space should come up with campaigns inspired by that," Wohlstadter said. For the service, brands or their agencies pay about $1,000 per month. In New Orleans, a less 'insular' community Wohlstadter is not the first in his family to move from New York to New Orleans to start or run a business. His maternal grandparents, Henry and Eva Galler, made the move around 1960 after seeing an ad for a job at Rubensteins men's clothing store in the pages of The Times-Picayune. Later, Henry Galler founded Mr. Henry’s Custom Tailor, which is still in operation today near the intersection of Jackson and St. Charles avenues. The Gallers, both survivors of the Holocaust, spent years teaching students about their experiences during World War II. Wohlstadter's father, David Wohlstadter, made a similar move in the late 1970s to run an ink factory in the Warehouse District, near the site of the current Peche restaurant, before he and Justin's mother moved to Dallas in the 1980s. These New Orleans connections meant Justin Wohlstadter visited New Orleans frequently over the years growing up. After attending college and grad school and then working on the East Coast for a decade, he moved to the city full-time in 2020. He now lives with his wife and two children near Audubon Park and his parents own a home nearby. Wohlstadter said in New Orleans he’s found an escape from the intensity of New York City and a supportive group of post-pandemic expats working at high levels of marketing, media and tech. "In New York, I tried to stay out of the tech world because it's a little insular," he said. "But here, there's a handful of people literally within a five-block radius from me who have been executives at big media companies, and they are working on crazy tech stuff. It's cool to find the little pockets that exist." Wohlstadter hopes to help bring more tech activity to his adopted home, where tech entrepreneurs punch above the city's weight class far from the country's hubs, he said. ProKeep, based in the Warehouse District, closed a $25 million fundraising round a year ago, bringing its total haul to around $34 million. The company, which makes software solutions to help distributors in the construction, automotive and trucking industries, has 100 employees in total, a quarter based in New Orleans. Founder Jack Carrere said his software has helped handle more than 10 billion transactions since the company was formed in 2016. Nest Health, led by former secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health Rebekah Gee, has raised more than $20 million and employs 60 people to provide preventive health care through house calls and virtual visits. And Rep Data, a research technology company founded by Patrick Stokes, received a major investment of an undisclosed amount from Colorado-based private equity firm Mountaingate Capital earlier this year. The company has about 20 local employees out of 100 overall. New Orleans-based ad agency among Waldo's early adopters The global advertising industry that Waldo serves has undergone an intense period of consolidation over the last quarter-century. Today, it is dominated by the “big six” holding companies — WPP, Omnicom Group, Publicis Groupe, the Interpublic Group of Companies, Dentsu and Havas — that own half of the world’s hundreds of thousands of smaller agencies. Waldo counts them all among its clients, as well as the remaining independent agencies, including Gulf South stalwart Peter Mayer Advertising, headquartered in New Orleans' Lower Garden District. Michelle Edelman, who bought Peter Mayer in 2022, said her team uses the tool like a “junior strategic planner,” reducing research time, staying on top of trends and generating insights. Because it can monitor existing marketing efforts from rivals, the firm uses it to avoid duplicating their efforts.
