In Conversation with Elmer Dsilva, Founder – Wrap2Earn & LytAds

With the increasing adoption of new avenues and ideas for conducting even traditional businesses, the time is ripe for budding entrepreneurs to take the proverbial plunge in starting their own venture. However, apart from the necessary skill set and a compelling product pitch, many founders usually flounder in their startup journey by not recognizing important elements that differentiate successful businesses from the obscure ones.

Here’s an entrepreneur who chose to make a difference in an industry that never had a measurable impact – Mr. Elmer Dsilva, Founder – Wrap2Earn & LytAds.

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This is for all the Entrepreneurs out there: How has your journey been so far since you came back from Australia in 2017? How did Wrap2Earn Technologies come to being? And how is it different from other OOH companies?

As cliche as it may sound, I was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug at a very young age.

This decision was not easy, but after working with Groupon in Australia for 7 years and helping the business scale, I felt I was equipped with the skills required to take a crack at my own business.

I came back to India with a list of 30+ some business ideas to explore. I spent the first 3 months narrowing this list down with focus on building a business that solves a real world problem or adds substantial value to something that is already being done.

During my daily commute; stuck in traffic, I noticed how rideshare vehicles became the most preferred way to commute & thought to myself what if these cabs could act as canvases for brands to advertise and tell their story. There was no looking back - I started digging deeper and realized that the space had huge potential.

During the ideation process, I realized that OOH in India lacked transparency & measurability. That’s when I reached out to Manuel, a friend and genius techie, now co-founder & CTO of Wrap2Earn and we worked together to build technology around an otherwise traditional form of advertising to provide advertisers with real-time campaign insights for their cab branding campaigns.

We pride ourselves as being a tech-first cab branding media platform that is completely transparent, data driven & allows our clients to track key campaign analytics through a real-time online dashboard. Until now, there has been no way to check the health of your campaign or to assess its effectiveness.

IN 2017, we started our business in a small conference room as a 2 member team and now have grown to a 15 member team that has worked with 100+ brands to successfully execute campaigns across 14 Cities in India. In fact, we recently raised funds to aggressively grow Wrap2Earn business & launch LytAds, our Taxi Top Digital screen advertising business too.

The journey isn’t easy and not always rewarding but if you keep at it with conviction, perseverance and grit, there's almost always light at the end of the tunnel.

How do you think as an industry OOH is evolving, especially with the pandemic slowly settling down and people stepping out?

When you start-up, you try building a business for the next 50+ years, so it is important to view events like the pandemic as a temporary hurdle & not a hard full stop.

We did have to apply the brakes on our business as a result of the Covid19 pandemic, but used the time as an opportunity to introspect, re-evaluate, & grow.

OOH as an industry has stood the test of time and we feel that this will not change. However, brands are definitely becoming a lot more conscious when it comes to spending & do want to ensure that they are getting their money’s worth.

People have been cooped up in their homes during the pandemic and it is important for brands to reconnect with their audiences as they begin to step out.

OOH as a medium has been constantly evolving - people have started to use street furniture & other OOH media assets to follow the customer journey out of home to increase brand visibility, drive store visits, drive engagement, etc...

I feel that DOOH is going to play a big role in shaping up the OOH advertising landscape in the years to come. We’re just starting to scratch the surface - Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence as added layers on top of programmatic DOOH will bring about a big shift in the way advertisers buy media & customers interact with and consume advertising content.

How will brands benefit from DOOH?

According to me the main reason for brands to opt for DOOH is the mere fact that it is backed by data and technology. Here’s how DOOH can help brands stand out and cut through the noise:

Better Planning: DOOH allows you to see the entire available inventory online in real time. Brands are able to buy inventory, self-serve & tailor their campaign messaging based on the ever evolving situations.

Speed of Execution: Unlike OOH where each banner has to be changed one by one at every location, DOOH banner changes can be done instantly. Just one click is all it takes to take a campaign live across all DOOH inventory.

DOOH is real and powerful: Unlinke online advertising, DOOH advertising cannot be stopped, skipped, blocked (by ad blockers), or viewed by bots. It’s always there for viewers surrounding them with powerful advertising wherever they live, work, shop, travel, and play.

Contextually relevant: DOOH delivers the right message to the right viewers, at the right place and time. DOOH advertising offers contextually relevant advertising going by location, consumer behavior, and demographics.

Real-time analytics: DOOH campaigns generate real-time campaign performance analysis that is similar to online ads. It offers data such as proof-of-play, which areas they received more impressions, time of the day when the views were high and number of hours the ad was played. This allows the advertiser to stay on top of their ad campaign.

What are the top technologies that can be integrated with DOOH by brands to enhance Consumer Experience?

In the post-lockdown scenario, it has become increasingly important to reach to a consumer at various touch-points to ensure utmost relevance. Some of the technologies that can help brands stay relevant are:

Integration with mobile phones: This integration focuses on geo-targeting and data led solutions that is of utmost importance as brands want more ROI-driven campaigns. It is a medium that helps brands retarget their customers whom they first reached through various screens and influence their behavior towards the brand

The adoption of AI: Brands are incorporating AI mechanism to enhance customer experience by connecting with specific customers with relevant messaging and thus creating more lasting impressions

Augmented Reality: Augmented reality makes your ads captivating and interactive and bridges the gap between the real and digital world. It is commonly used abroad by brand like McDonalds and Coca-cola

Being an entrepreneur yourself, what advice would you give to businesses (new/old) in terms of their Marketing Approach considering the changing consumer behaviour and technological advancements?

I would say focus more on the need than the want. I see a lot of startups trying to create a want with their product. Startups focusing on such wants can be seriously exposed to business risks that may even lead to insolvency. Hence, it is highly advisable to focus on products or services that can be worked upon to offer a better value proposition to the end-customer and leverage your marketing skills to amplify the reach of your innovative offering amongst the target audience.