Advertising : well, everybody does it.
Right from the local pet store handing out flyers with the newspaper to the big cola brands making their presence felt in giant cricket fields. And this somehow has led to the notion that effective advertising is expensive and something that is not within the reach of everybody.
The Media Ant aims to democratize the information related to the media options. Co-founded by Mayank Bidawatka who in his previous role was a member of the founding team at redBus and helped them with marketing & product strategy using cost effective strategy.
The Media Ant which launched at UnPluggd ’12 is looking to create a single platform to help users with all of their media challenges. By making the information related to the media accessible, they are helping solve a pain point for both the advertisers and the media owners.
The way the it typically works is that bigger brands with deep pockets hire third party agencies to help them with the media queries. Whereas smaller brands need to do away with the traditional advertising mediums available to them. Though that mode of advertising might not be the most cost effective or the customer efficient, it is just more accessible to the advertiser.
By creating an ebay of sorts for the advertising world, TheMedia Ant is creating a platform to get the two crucial elements the “advertisers” and the “media owners” in a single place. The advertiser is willing to shell out money to make his brand presence towards his target audience. The media owner on the other hand has the space (which could vary drastically from space on a building for a billboard ad to owning a fleet of cars) all available for the use of by the advertisers.
By getting both of them onboard, The Media Ant helps them to find the perfect match. The advertiser can filter his search based on a number of parameters ranging the audience type (male, female, students, adults) to the media type (OOH, mobile, magazines) along with campaign reach, objective and the income level of the target group. By selecting the appropriate choices, the best suited campaigns are filtered down for handy reference.
The Media Ant typically gets a small share typically around 15% from the media owners’ side as a fee. The campaigns can go from a radio jingle spot to as wild as a hot air balloon advertising and everything in between.
The Bangalore based company is currently focused on the non-traditional advertising space which includes the radio and the print magazines. Somewhere down the line the team would add a suit of options to their offering which would include the option for advertisers to have their media plans vetted by professionals and get the maximum roi on their investment. Till then the dabbawala media campaign looks quite enticing to us.
Watch their launch video @UnPluggd
