Ad Value
For as long as the advertising industry has existed, the business model has remained more or less unchanged. Companies that needed ad campaigns would seek out agencies and production houses, hand them a brief, wait for the pitch, approve the pitch and then wait for the commercial to go into production. This was – and continues to be – an onerous, costly and time-consuming approach.
More so in an age of digital video marketing. Consumers in the Asia-Pacific, for example, watch three billion videos daily.
Italian technopreneur Ugo Parodi Giusino believes the ad industry needs to adapt to this new world order. In 2010, he set up Mosaicoon with the intention of offering a platform that would connect companies with content producers, thereby doing away with the process of the brief.
Having had over 130 big players signed up as subscribers, he is now aggressively expanding into the Asia-Pacific, with offices set up in New Delhi, Seoul and Singapore.
“Creators worldwide can propose ready-made videos with keywords,” says Giusino via Skype from Sicily, where the start-up is headquartered. “Because (the companies) only set the keywords that are relevant for them, we can find the content and customise the video for their needs. (The companies) can then (overlay) a logo, a cover, a picture of the product and the price. This allows (videos to be produced) in just one day.”
A subscription allows companies, brands and marketeers to browse through thousands of clips and videos that they can purchase, customise and distribute almost immediately. For content creators, Mosaicoon allows them to monetise their work should a brand decide to pick up their videos. For users, it means interacting with different content all the time, so there is less chance of ad fatigue. By all counts, it is a win-win situation.
But how do companies track the effectiveness of the ad or campaign? “With our proprietary algorithm Sonar, you can monitor in real time how the videos are performing. You can find out how many social interactions there are, how many clicks-to-website, so you can compare specific content. You can try different videos every day to see what works,” says Giusino. This, he points out, means a low risk for companies. Where they would have invested heavily in ads that took two or three months to produce – with no guarantee of results – they can now react in real time. If a particular video is not performing as well as expected, they can simply switch to another video.
And where companies would have paid a fixed cost for the content, Mosaicoon offers two alternatives. The first is a cost-per-view model where the company only pays for a guaranteed number of views. If the content does not perform, the company can switch content. Or if there are too few views, they do not have to pay. The second option is a time-based model, where a fixed amount per day entitles the company to unlimited content that they can use and change throughout their campaign. The more a company uses the platform, the more the price dips.
As for SMEs without the substantial marketing budgets of MNCs, there is hope yet: Giusino plans to roll out a similar platform targeting SMEs in due course.
