Home PageFriday, May 17, 2013
Name: Wingsplay
Quick Pitch: Earn money to share ads with your social network
Genius Idea: Wingsplay gives average people
incentive to share ads with their social networks to drive product or
service engagement and increase buzz.
Advertisers are sneaking into your Twitter and Facebook feeds — with help from your social media connections.
Wingsplay, a startup that launched last month, pays its users to
share video ads on their social networks. The distribution model is key;
it relies heavily on connected social networks. The founder, Olivier
Lasry, says the best way for online advertisements to resonate with
people is if a link has been recommended by a friend or social media
connection.
Even though you may not Like or follow advertisers, ads could trickle
into your feeds via a friend who is trying to make a quick buck or just
likes to watch funny ads. Users can earn money by sharing up to four
video ads per week. Users are paid by cost per view. The service is not
meant to be used to spam social media, but more to drive conversations.
"The Web made it almost impossible to reach people with boring ads,"
Lasry said. "People don’t care about advertisers who interrupt them. But
the opportunity is huge for remarkable video ads, which people actually
want to watch and share.”
For example, Major League Soccer is promoting the April 14
Philadelphia v. Columbus soccer match on Wingsplay. After sharing the
video, Wingsplay users are paid 21 cents each time someone from their
social network clicks on the user's link and watches the MLS video
featuring David Beckham.
But the financial incentive isn't enough for a person to share an ad.
Lasry says users actually like the ads they choose to share.
"26% of our influencers shared the first videos we distributed on
Wingsplay, which shows that influencers only share videos they like, and
that the monetary incentive is only part of the experience," Lasry
said.
Oxygen and NBC were the first big names to promote ads through
Wingsplay in an effort to target a larger social media audience. The
week before the new shows aired on NBC and Oxygen, both networks promote
their new series through Wingsplay. Users shared a video trailer ad for
the new ABC show "Awake," which premiered March 1 and Oxygen's March 26
premiere of "Brooklyn 11223."
Lasry said the site, which is still in beta, has started with
trailers as a test. Moving forward, he wants the ads to be funny,
gripping, cause-related or clever.
"[Trailers] might not be the best fit for our distribution model, but
there are many of them and they give us a sense of the minimum
performance that can be expected from our network," he said. "Given the
results of our first campaigns, we expect funny ads to deliver an
Earned:Paid ratio around 6, which is unheard of in the industry."
Lasry, who is originally from France, was inspired to start Wingsplay
after seeing his friends share ads on their social networks. He figure
if people are already sharing ads on Facebook, why not introduce
advertisements through the consumer first? From there, real people can
start coversations about the ads they're interested in.
Unlike celebrity brand ambassadors, the average social media user
talks with friends on a personal level about the content he or she is
sharing. People or more likely to enjoy the same things their friends
like, Lasry said. So far, Wingsplay users are posting to Facebook most —
84% of all Wingsplay shares have been distributed on Facebook.
What do you think of advertising encroaching on your social networks?
Does advertising make social media better or worse? Will you sign up
for Wingsplay? Tell us in the comments.
