MAAD “Make Awesome Ads”
Dear Rodinhooders,
I am checking in after quite some time. The last six months has been accelerating, creative and one of the best moments of my life. In the previous post, I had shared details about my startup MAAD “Make Awesome Ads” a user-generated video creation platform. MAAD was born on Sep 28th, 2016, and it took us five months to launch our app. The idea was to allow creative consumers to upload user-generated videos for brands. By the end of 2017, we had onboard 5000+ users creating user-generated videos. Our first client was ITC followed by Coca-Cola. I am sure you can sense my excitement, ITC, and Coca-Cola. Cool right?
We fell into the trap “Thinking you have arrived when you haven’t even turned a block.” Very quickly reality hit us. We started meeting and interacting with clients throwing Coca-Cola and ITC’s name at the drop of a hat. We kept getting rejected, and no brand/client wanted to work with us. I was naive to think that these folks didn’t understand the power of what our platform could do and they were not in the same league as Coca-Cola and ITC.
I had a meeting set up with the General Manager Marketing of L&T Mr. Soumik. He sat us down, listened carefully to what I said and asked me three questions…
- What is so different about your platform?
- Anybody can do this right?
- What is your USP?
I was answering his questions, but I wasn’t convinced by what I was telling him. He listened and said “You’re onto something, but this is not that, and I am not buying into this model. Come back to me when you’re onto something.”
Soul -Searching:
I wrote to all the clients requesting feedback on why they had rejected us. The answer was “There is nothing different about what you are doing.” The next few weeks we dug deep to study the market and understand what the right product-market-fit is. Here is what we realized:
1. Why isn’t a brand/client getting a healthy return on investment?
2. Why don’t agencies and platforms not promise guaranteed sales?
3. Are likes, views, and viral videos the right metrics to track?
4. Why is content creation costly?
The research includes talking to agencies, consumers, experts, veterans within the advertising industry.
1. Why isn’t a brand/client getting a healthy return on investment?
6% or 7% return on investment is considered significant.
2. Why don’t agencies and platforms not promise guaranteed sales?
Nobody can. Not here but across the globe, nobody can promise client sales. The only thing that can be guaranteed is branding and awareness.
3. Are likes, views, and viral videos the right metrics to track?
Yes. Influencer marketing is another big thing, but again no promises made only awareness.
4. Why is content creation costly?
It costs money for any good quality video that includes a good script.
Jan 2018 Pivot:
MAAD “Make Awesome Ads” becomes a subscription-based consumer-driven advertising and marketing platform that promises three essential things for any client:
- Guaranteed sales (We mean it when we say guaranteed)
How?
Our community of consumers is empowered to add value and help clients by generating sales for their product and services using our very effective sales process (It took us six months to build, refine and make it easy for our consumers)
2. Conversations based engagement (We do more than just likes and views)
How?
We focus on making brand conversations personal. It has to be interactive and thought-provoking. Our community of consumers now plays a crucial role in shaping a brand’s discourse across social media platforms.
3. High-quality branded stories (We create meaningful stories rather than viral videos)
How?
Our community of scriptwriters and Filmmakers makes it easy for a client to tap into a rich pool of talent. That’s not all -video stories are closed in <10 to 15 days.
Fast Forward:
- MAAD now works with 25+ clients including L&T (They are one of our largest clients) with an 80% client retention rate.
- We guarantee sales upwards of 80% for any of our clients (Example for Celio Mens fashion wear we gave them a 120% return on investment for the money spent)
It is just the start, and the real MAADness is yet to begin!
Our vision is to empower consumers to add value to a client’s journey while earning handsomely and being independent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RN_fI4xOGd8
Storytel Audiobooks – One of the many works created by our community.
