We are publishing an interview of Ms. Devleena Neogi, Co Founder and COO, GingerCup.
About the founders
- Deepak Bansal, Founder and CEO, with 8 years of technical background worked as a ‘Tech Lead’ in Samsung Research Institute, Bangalore
- Devleena Neogi, Co-Founder and COO, A Human Resource professional with 6 years of industry experience worked in different MNC and SMEs.
On one of the weekend, Me and Deepak was sitting and having casual conversations on random topics. All of a sudden, he jumped into a different topic (which he often does) and explained his thought on paper cup branding. I never had heard something like this before (at that time). Those mini paper cups can be used as such effective media. It really struck me, I loved the idea. But choosing it for full time career option was bit tough decision for me, as I was mentally settled in my existing job that time.
But then we both committedly decided to test this idea. To try out this we distributed few thousands of advertised paper cups with different health awareness messages printed on it. We were surprized to see that 90% of people who were using those cups were able to recall the message after a while. BINGO, that is when we knew that Cup Branding will go long way.
What is the problem you are trying to solve? Can you share with us any insights that led you to believe that this is a big enough problem?
In today’s time the average attention span of a person has reduced to 10 to 30 secs. It is getting tougher for the brands to attract their target audiences. Market is cluttered with over information. Billboards, Flyers, Radio, TV, Newspaper Ads are unable to fetch proper attention of customers.
Reaching your TG in a unique way where no other media is distracting your TG, is a real challenge for marketer. Paper Cup Advertisement engages the consumer and get undivided attention for minimum 3-5 mins which not only excites them but creates real impression that will be remembered for long. It is dynamic yet cost-effective solution.
We have worked with big names in the industry, who has huge marketing budgets. They have freedom (financially) to choose any medium for advertising. Still they are struggling to reach right set of people. They believed in us and they found paper cup advertising interesting and effective. Which clearly conveys that choosing right branding media is not as easy as cake walk.
Gingercup is sincerely working to make their journey smooth yet very effective.
What is the uniqueness about your Startup?
GingerCup is tied up with 750+ corporate companies that includes MNC, SME, Startups, Coworking spaces, Food Courts of tech parks, 1100+ colleges, 60+ Hospitals, shopping Malls, 7 Airlines (International and Domestic), Premium trains (Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Duronto) across India. We provide a wide range of inventory, to reach target group where no other media is reaching. PaperCup Advertising is more than just a traditional marketing. It provides a personal connection that allows consumers to remember and recall the product or service. It appeals to the emotional side of the consumer.
What is the revenue model?
Its Freeium: Cups comes free to the end users who uses these cups but is chargeable to advertiser company.
Who are the consumers that you are targeting? How is this going to affect them?
We are targeting all sort of companies who are doing any kind of OOH marketing and companies who are open to do innovative mode of marketing.
What is the big picture of your startup? Will it lead to something bigger? If so, how?
Cup advertising is going to make its clear way in OOH segment within 2 years of time. It is a new hyper local advertising market available to be tapped.
You will see soon all major brands will keep fair amount of budget from OOH campaign for Cup branding activity.
As India is primary a Tea Drinker nation that it self tells the market size for cup advertising. We can consume 3 Crores cups in a day through our network right now. In this model scalebility is much more in tier 2 and tier 3 cities.
What is the success story of your startup in your own words?
Please write about the challenges that you or your startup faced and how you overcome them to achieve success. Make sure it should inspire others.
The biggest challenge we faced is to educate marketer, understand cup as a media and start considering it a branding opportunity. We cracked it when bigger brands like HotStar, Uber , OLA, ISL start using cup branding. Later many brands started using is media source to reach out to their TG like Swiggy, ICICI bank.
Similar kind of challenge we faced in hiring senior people from advertising industry. They need large portfolio to present it to client and here we are doing only cup branding. This also used to get bit disappointment on their faces. Slowly both parties are understanding that cup branding is here to play longer innings and it is going to make difference.
These challenges cannot be solved by your network or investor’s money. Your Passion and patience works here!
Any other information about your startup that you would like to share with us.
We are looking for young and dynamic talents, those who are passionately want to contribute to the start up ecosystem, who would like to join us in our journey, to make cup branding as popular as other media. You can visit www.gingercup.com for more details.
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Thanks Devleena. Best of luck!
