“Pay-ad: Watch advertisements and get paid” - An enterprising idea from young entreprenuers in Mumbai
Getting paid for watching advertisements may seem crazy but its for real! This oeuvre is a brainchild of three Mumbaikars who are also chartered accountants in the making. These commerce graduates - Akash Desai, Pratik Thakkar and Chirag Mehta - joined hands to start Pay-ad. Launched in May 2013, Pay-ad is an online video marketing startup that pays people for watching short, entertaining video advertisements.
The Trio
It was Akash who originally conceived the idea of Pay-ad, and to execute this idea, he asked his buddies, Pratik and Chirag, to co-found Pay-ad with him. Akash has previously worked as a film and TV serial editor and has also headed operations for a startup. Pratik, who is awaiting his graduation results, heads the marketing function at Pay-ad while Chirag takes care of finance. They have roped in another friend of theirs - Dhruvin - who handles the creative aspect of the company.
The crux of the business
“Viewers generally do not like advertisements until and unless they are enrapturing or humorous. So we thought of incentivizing this process by paying people with virtual currency for each video viewed. This virtual currency (called PACs) can then be redeemed for discounts on physical purchases,” explains Akash. Pay-ad has partnered with more than 60 local stores in and around Mumbai where viewers can redeem their coupons. The partner stores fall under food & beverages, apparels and electronics etc categories.
Advertisement videos are not longer than 2-3 minutes. After the video ad, there is a brief questionnaire that appears for viewers to answer questions on the product in the ad. Post completing the questionnaire, the virtual currency gets credited to the viewer. This ensures that the user has actually watched the advertisement and understood the product. This also offers a great proposition for the local stores partnering with Pay-ad, giving them an online presence with Pay-ad at a nominal cost. Pay-ad has its banners and stickers at all the local stores, it has partnered with.
Pay-ad seeks to generate revenues through fees based on advertisement views. It shows advertisements similar to those on YouTube. Most of these videos shown are not available as TV commercials in India. The redemption is in the range of 40 – 60 paisa per view. While Pay-ad hasn’t started generating any revenue, within a fortnight of the launch there have been 1300+ views of video ads and the number is set to increase in coming days. Pay-ad plans to market itself through releasing its own video commercials on popular online platforms. Akash claims this is a one-of-its-kind model of business, not just in India but across the globe.
What’s next
Started with a modest investment of a couple of lakh of rupees, Pay-ad is a bootstrapped venture and the startup is looking for angel funding to drive growth. The Pay-ad team comprises of eight people and are all based in Mumbai. The firm is targeting viewership in the range of five digits within a year or two. They also plan to release a mobile app on Android and iOS platforms soon. They envision showing their video ads on popular online platforms like YouTube, Metacafe etc as well.
Want to watch their ads? Try it out here.