This Delhi-based Startup Aims to Bring Advertisers and Viewers Together for a Mutually Rewarding Relationship

OneOneDay blocks out intrusive ads and replaces them with Oodies – curated stories that you can choose when and where to watch. Every Oodie you watch earns you real cash. Cash that you can use to purchase all kinds of goodies, power-ups and rewards. OneOneDay has been launched in 1st January 2017 in Hong Kong and in July 2019 in India. This the date they register the company and start gathering the team. They launched the first pilot campaign in Delhi on 8th Oct 2018, and form the company in Delhi in July 2019. We are publishing an interview with Mr. Rick Tsing – Founder & CEO of OneOneDay.

Q.: What is the problem you are trying to solve?
Ans: The rise of digital marketing has allowed brands to reach potential consumers more accurately, but new technologies have brought concerns about privacy and data security. Internet users are bombarded by intrusive pop-up ads and non-skippable video ads everyday. The net result of all this is that a staggering 47% of the global internet population is taking measures to actively block ads.

While it is not a one-sided problem – from ad-block to ad-fraud, advertisers are facing a long list of challenges. Trust issues around ad fraud have already led to a steady decline in organic traffic. A rough estimate shows that Indian consumers lost $350 million to these frauds in 2017.

We are trying to build a platform. that brings advertisers and viewers together for a mutually rewarding relationship.

Q.: Can you share with us any insights that led you to believe that this is a big enough problem?
Ans: Figures of 2017 showed 615 million devices are blocking ads, and by end of 2016, 62% of which are mobile devices. That reflected the situation that lots of action had been made to avoid the appearance of ad that were unwanted by the online services users.

And further research reflected India ranks among countries with the highest usage of ad block software in which nearly 30% are for mobile platform.

These figures indicated that substantial amount of advertising budget had been wasted in which a better allocation of budget can be considered.

Q.: Tell us about the Product / Solution. Explain how you went about the Product-Market Fit Process.
Ans: On Oodies, every time a user chooses to engage with an ad, he/she will be earning cash or goodies to reward his/her attention, and supporting a specific social cause. In a way, we work with the users, and act as a personal companion throughout the day, ultimately getting to know our users like a friend.

In this fair-trade system, consumers’ attention is no longer exploited and bombarded with ads indifferently. They are invited to choose what they want to see and share their preferences. Brand could make use of this channel, to deliver messages to the target group without wastage or annoyance.

Q.: What is your USP?
Ans: We do feel that we are different from the competitors by the service we provide is indeed more than an “ad space”. We want to truly unlock the value of everyone’s attention that the attention income will be sizable enough to truly reward our daily life.

Powered by Attention Ledger and MILA, two of the core technology that help us to learn the users viewing habits and preferences, we could help brands to deliver personalised message to the right target at the right time. Besides, social impact sits within the very foundation of our company. For every engagement happens on Oodies, 30% of the ad revenue will be directed to social impact programs addressing important issues such as women’s safety and environmental degradation.

Q.: What were your assumptions when you entered the market, learning that you have? Who in your mind is your ideal customer? Do you have at least one of them signed up?
Ans: The biggest assumption is that Indian internet users are receptive to new ideas, and turn out it is so true. We talked to quite a lot of Indian leading brands including Himalaya, Dabur, Bisleri, etc., as they are trusted FMCG brands that we believe that value the communication channel with their consumers much. We successfully have Bisleri joined us with their latest campaign in July. Their ad received over 90% positive engagements on Oodies.

Q.: What has been your biggest failure as an entrepreneur and what did you learn from it??
Ans: I started starting up companies/ projects since university. Now looking back, there’s this incredibly mixed feeling. I am obsessed with my projects, I spent days and nights, probably most of my waking moments thinking and working on each of the projects, yet when they “died” or when they had to “die”, there’s this part of you that kind of died along with it.

The Lunch Republic was one of those projects that influenced me a great deal. I think I did think of a great business model, by creating a rotational multiple school-lunch supplier platform, not only could I save lots of money on investment, I could also compete fiercely with some of the largest school lunch players in the market at that time i.e./ Jardine Group, Cafe De Coral Group, Maxim’s Group, Fairwood Group etc. I once become the third biggest lunchbox provider in the market.

From the Lunch Republic experience, I learned that business models and leverages are extremely important when you are a David trying to fight against a bunch of Goliaths. Yet the heavy failure made me understand that I must create even smarter business models that generate large enough margins and also the market must be scalable enough. Besides, having strong capital partners is also a must.

Q.. How are you pricing the Product? Explain your thought process.
Ans: Currently we have different packages for advertisers or brands that aim at different goals. Advertisers could focus on the brand message delivery or go for premium package for leads generation or conversions. But one thing is guaranteed, we only charge clients for true engagement, along with the newly introduced 10/90 question, we made sure the ad message can be well delivery to the viewers.

Q.: How did you get your first customer?
Ans: Like many great platforms before us that have reached critical mass, our advertising platform also faces the classic chicken or the egg dilemma. We launched a closed group pilot in Delhi last year, with support of over 10 big brands.

Earning the trust of a much-loved brand isn’t easy, which is why we’re proud to say that India’s No. 1 trusted brand Bisleri came onboard our ad-venture.

Q.: Please tell us about the investors (if any)
Ans: We have different investors all around the world who trust in our business model and walk along with us throughout the whole process. To briefly name a few, we have gained support from real Estate tycoon, venture capitalist from Hong Kong and experienced Marketer, start-up investor in India.

Q.: Is there any interesting success story? If yes, please write about it. ?
Ans: The Pilot we had done in Delhi last year is quite a surprise to us. We received over 2,000 signups online, yet we could only serve users from two specific locations so we selected and invited 325 users to join the pilot. Over 10 brands joined the pilot, BMW provided car sponsorships, more than 250 safe rides served, and users found to be spending over 7 minutes in our app on average. We also got list of encouraging feedback in the after pilot survey and this little success story led us to the amazing Indian market.

Q.: What is the big picture of your startup? Is this Product/service leading to something bigger? If so, how?
Ans: We believe that people’s attention is precious, the use of advertising budget to motivate people’s actions toward great social causes should become a new movement that eventually change the world to a better place.

Q.: Since inception, give us a sense of the value of business done by your venture?
Ans: Up to September, we have over 150,000 registered users, by whom over millions of interactions had been created. And amongst these interactions, over 800,000 video content engagement recorded.

Q.: What is the insight that you have about this market, which no one else has? Uniqueness about your Startup.
Ans: The present market only have advertisements broadcasted to an anonymous group of people without knowing if the message been delivered. In this model, more direct benefits to both the advertisers and users will be the linkage between them. At the communication level, advertisers can pick the group of consumers they would like to target in just a few clicks, while the users can choose to view the ads from their favourite list so what product ads they see are what they want to purchase. At the transaction level, we can directly link them up with a shopping platform so after they view the ad, transaction can be made right the way.

Q.: List all the names of the core Team Members, along with their Designated Roles.
Ans: Sure. They are:

• Rick Tsing – Founder, CEO & Chief Dreamer: Rick started his first business as a teenager. He founded of Lunch Republic, which invented the multiple supplier model to provide lunch boxes to schools. The venture brought him valuable experience and a handful of business awards. Now he has bigger ideas–an idea that could change the way we think about advertising. Rick is the big-thinking, strategising, deal-making, leader of our team.
• Keith Hung – Chief Rocket Scientist (CTO): Keith is an achievement-oriented software professional with over 20 years of experience in software and enterprise architecture. Prior to joining OneOneDay, Keith served as a technical expert for leading cloud technology solution providers including Salesforce and Oracle. Keith designed the OneOneDay technical architecture, aligning technology with the business vision of the company. Keith is the architect, the tech evangelist of the team.
• Fiona Chan – Chief Data Scientist: Fiona has a PhD in Psychology from University of Cambridge. She is also a Psychometrician in the Psychometrics Centre of Cambridge, specialised in the application of Differential Item Functioning analysis to trans-cultural ability-test data. Fiona is helping OneOneDay with data collection and analysis, in an ethical way.
• Lisa Withey – Partnership Architect: Lisa has a first class Bachelors in Psychology from Keele University in the UK. Upon completion of her studies Lisa joined Starlight Children’s Foundation, a charity supporting children diagnosed with life-threatening conditions. Lisa designed and delivered programmes that reached tens of thousands of children and secured partnerships with several multinational companies. She brings with her a fierce passion for socially impactful projects, and a love of a more mindful method of ad-watching.

Q.: Who do You Perceive as Your Competition? How do you differentiate yourself with them?
Ans: We might have come across apps back then to earn a few dollars or vouchers. Platforms such as swagbucks, earnably, Paisa Ad, do have a sizable user base but none have reached critical mass. Most people are not willing to spend their valuable time in exchange for small amounts of benefits, but we want to do things differently: we want to truly unlock the value of attention, making attention income enough to help us lead a happier, slightly more prosperous life.

Q.: What would be your goal to accomplish in the next six months?
Ans: Have both Airtel and Sheroes’ pilots successfully conducted and prove to the market and population that everyone’s attention is valuable, and it should never be exploited.

Q.: What message do you want to convey to fellow entrepreneurs?
Ans: Dream big and let us all use our entrepreneurial skills to make the world a bit better than it was before.

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Thanks Rick. Best wishes!