A real deal marketing problem solved – WiFi.bg
[Including Interview with Co-founder]
It is said that there are 4 urges for a person to become an entrepreneur:
You have the resources
You come across a market niche
You are eager to address a problem
You are deep expert in some area
I admire the passionate ones that strive to address market or social challange!
As that challenge usually has not been [adequately] addressed before it is lucky to have its blind spot in the market.
So the house is small but has its secure niche to jumpstart safely!
Have you ever tried to manage mobile advertising?
Planning, budgeting, overviewing, analyzing, reporting, evaluating results... If you have, you would know it is so impossible a mission:
No relevant data is possible to be collected
No precise planning and advertising possible
No chance of targeting in detail
Hardly addressing the audiance you search for badly
No relation of the adds to the ever-changing environment of mobile users
Low conversion rate etc.
So I know someone that got so pissed that decided to make a move!
Dilyana started a project to provide innovative start-up solution on mobile advertising to:
boost sales, reach the right audience and manage valuable data [good for business]
to provide free & broad access to wifi [good for people].
And that it is so simple a solution! I met her to tell me her story of passion.
Q&A
Simply, how would you summarize what W1Fi.com is all about?
I am turning my elevator pitching mode on :) W1Fi.com / WiFi.bg is linking venues that provide free wifi with relevant advertisers. For example, if you have a restaurant and you want to attract tourists in the city, you could use W1Fi.com to display your advert in all the hotels that are registered on W1Fi.com.
When did you launch and how it works? Why is innovative and profitable (I know it is :)?
We had the idea last autumn. Initially, we needed time to shape the product, so it would fit a real market need.
In our case, innovation comes from the fact that we are the only advertising platform that knows at what type of venue users are located in right now. Currently, it is impossible to segment mobile users in such a manner on the platforms such as Facebook or Google. These platforms still support targeting by demographics or search data, which results in low CTRs. Unlike them, W1Fi.com allows marketers to display their messages to the right audience at the very point of sale.
I also think that our business model is innovative. Our direct competitors are Wi-Fi branding companies that are charging the venue owner to display its own adverts on its own router for a fixed monthly fee. However, the business owner often does not have the time, a fully-fledged analytical approach and expert marketing skills to manage this channel. Therefore the complete idea of Wi-Fi branding is flawed.
By contrast, we reverse the model and focus the sales on the brands (beverage industry, marketing agencies etc.) that are actually searching for innovative communication channels already. Building on this feature, W1Fi.com is creating an ad network with unique user data that is not available on existing ad platforms such as Facebook, Google etc.
Stemming from this feature, W1Fi.com provides additional advert space for marketing agencies and brands, at the very moment when consumers make purchasing decisions. We explore a whole new level of data about consumers’ real-time preferences.
You operate in Bulgaria. How responsive the market is to innovative marketing solutions? Who your clients are?
>> Dilyana pitching in Berlin, WiFi.bg, W1Fi.com
The local entrepreneur community is extremely responsive and helpful. During the local start-up events, such as Silicon Drinkabout Sofia, you could meet a variety of experts that are open to contribute to your idea with their experience or with intros.
As it comes to the market itself, I think Bulgaria is the perfect sandbox to validate the business model of your start-up. Business owners are not tech savvy, they do not like to spend extra amount of money and sometimes they understand innovation as something invasive to their regular way of work. If you manage to launch your product in Bulgaria and start making money, you will be able to do it anywhere.
Our core target group are HORECAs (hotel, restaurants, cafes).
There is an obvious trend on mobile commerce, mobile advertising, mobile presence, mobile payment, mobile everything that boosts, but do you have any data on that to share? Or insights?
Only in Bulgaria 48% of the population owns a smartphone. In comparison, the number for Sweden is 83%. Only is Germany mobile ad spending is expected to pass $2 Billion in 2015. As you said, the trend is obvious, now the challenge is to keep the distracted mobile users as engaged as they were on desktop.
Advert blindness and ad blocking software are major problem for the advertising industry, both of which we are tackling with W1Fi.com platform.
And what about you? How did you get so excited about the idea? How did you came up with it? Were you alone?
I had to advertise a mobile app, which target group was exactly tourist in Sofia. The app promoted popular restaurants and bars in the city, therefore I started with the struggle to talk personally with hotel manager and make them agree on one specific leaflet campaign. Printing, distribution, contracts… It was extremely hard to execute, therefore I decided to cancel the project and think of something else.
Then I realized that all of this could be executed via the wifi connection – no printing or distribution needed. Plus, all these people have a huge demand for wifi, so I decided to maximize the opportunity that this channel offers.
What is the next step for WiFi.bg?
We are planning to build real-time-bidding system inside our platform and link it with other programmatic marketing tools. I believe adverts should resonate with users’ real-time location, attitude and consumer behavior. We have embedded this type of thinking in our team, which makes it easy to forecast the future of our product.
Thank you!