The future of advertising is one that rewards users – Imevbore

Tintin Imevbore is the managing director, AdMoni, a revolutionary digital advertising platform designed to make advertising simple, targeted, and effective. Tintin Imevbore brings over 35 years of experience in the media and advertising industry. With his global expertise, Imevbore aims to transform AdMoni into one of Nigeria’s next tech unicorns.

In this interview with IFEOMA OKEKE-KORIEOCHA, Imevbore speaks on how the platform connects brands with engaged users by delivering relevant ads that resonate and drive results.

Take us through the journey of founding AdMoni and how it came about

Admoni has been operational for three to four years. It was very important that we got the technology right and doing this can take a number of years. There are problems and glitches that can come up. The reason why we are here today is because we have really made sure that technology is 100 percent perfect. We started about four years ago. The Proof of Concept was launched in Edo State. We tested it during the elections and it worked. It helped us target voters and audience. This was just to test the platform to see how it works and once we managed to gain a fair amount of users in Nigeria and we perfected the technology, the chairman brought me in to build the team, so that we can begin to operate as a sustainable advertising platform and make it easier for advertisers to advertise. One of the good things about this platform is that we have a method of engaging users. For instance, if you as a user registered to be using AdMoni, you will get rewarded for viewing the adverts. This is one of the key things that is very important for advertisers because that way, we retain the users because we give them a reward. We are in that phase whereby there are rewards for using data. Data is something very important when you are browsing; you see there are cookies that you are told to accept. This benefits the platforms.

For us, we reward you, the viewers. We are giving something back. We are sharing and this way, it helps the advertisers target the audience because we have a user base of almost close to 300 thousand people. We have a location-based system with which advertisements can target their customers. This can be done through age, gender etc. it is very important for clients and advertisers to know their target audience and what they are buying. This information is very important. This platform allows you to increase engagements as an advertiser and build a customer base. If you are investing some amount of money as an advertiser, you want to see return on investment. Here you can see it.

What differenciates you from your competing brands ?

Can big platforms such as Google and Facebook really retain their users or guarantee the advertisers that they have return on investment? But we can because of our system and how it works. Everybody wants something back. These rewards are in tokens and these tokens are used for buying data, airtime, electricity and other things. It is very important because the advertiser can really gain a lot of insights.

It is very functional and good for both small and medium businesses and big clients. They want more control in what they are spending.

Basically, what we have done with Admoni is that we have decided to take the billboard adverts to the phones. Most of the times, we just drive past the billboard adverts. The TV advert, we don’t interact with it. It is not something we plan to watch. So, what we have done is that we have taken those TV and Billboard adverts into the phones. We have created a reward system for the very first time that people can be happy to watch the advert. So, how do we make money? Advertisers pay for that service. We take a percentage of what they pay and give some to the audience. It is a win-win for everyone.

How does the reward system on your platform work?

We create a wallet system in the app. My token can be converted and I’ll use it to buy credit, electricity etc. This is the future of advertisement because Web3 which is coming up is all about monitisation of data. Everyone is now creating a system that rewards. Airlines have rewards for mileage etc. People feel their rights are being infringed on when adverts pop on their phones. So, we have gone ahead into the future to be part of that monitisation scheme. So, people can go into the app themselves. If you have a hair business or a supermarket in Surulere for example, you go into the app, you register, after which you choose the location you want your advert to show and it will show only to people within that location that have downloaded the app. So what we are trying to do is to build a community of people who are willing to be seeing adverts, interacting with it and gaining from it. In terms of interaction, it is very important for advertisers because the moment people are seeing those adverts; in advertisements, there is what they call ‘top of mind.’ There is a potential for you to patronise that product. This is basically what we have done from the fundamental stage of what we are trying to sell.

It is really relevant that in our world of advertising, we could introduce such a smart advertising tool which will help advertisers to advertise smarter and not harder.

What informed the decision to build this app?

The chairman just got the vision three to four years ago and started to develop the concept. It was very difficult but over the years he tried to develop it and some Indian technology developers duped him and some said it was not possible. But eventually, he was able to crack it using Nigerian developers. We did our proof of concept in Edo State. The governor, Obaseki used it during COVID to inform people on vaccination. We used it to encourage people to pay their tax. We used it for so many things in Edo State. We got over 60 thousand people that downloaded the app. And potentially, that was a strong population for you to send messages to anytime they make a phone call. When you download the app, and make a whatsapp call, an advert pops up. It has notified you that you can earn from it. When you finish your call, it will come back as a push notification for the user to earn the token. If the user clicks on it, after the advert, it will notify you that you have finished watching the advert and you have earned your token. It will hit your wallet.

We understand that you are watching the advert with your data. So, we are going to give you money for the data that you have burnt and something extra. So, you earn more money than what you spent on data. In a day you can be allocated so many adverts to watch, depending on how busy the platform is. Now, Google and the rest throw ads at you and you don’t get any reward. This is the first platform that says to you ‘watch this advert, interact with it and then you earn from it’.

Are you into partnership with any network?

We are not into partnership with anyone. This is something that we built and it is coming out of Nigeria. We already have the Nigerian patent for this and I have filed for the international patent which will be used subsequently in every other country.

Busy people do not want something that disrupts their thoughts. So do you really think this may be a welcome idea for busy people?

Me as a businessman may not need the money but to a student at Yaba tech who N200 and N300 make a lot of difference to in terms of data; this means a lot. For you to be part of this community, basically you are consenting for your phone to become that digital billboard on that tollgate because of those same adverts you are watching on that tollgate. You are taking it into your phone. We are saying to you that as you drive past that billboard on the tollgate, you don’t get anything. We are telling you that we have taken those same adverts to your phone and we will reward you for it. So, if the reward is good for you, you take it and you know you have gained something because you have burnt your data.

In terms of converting the tokens into airtime; for each advert I watch, what comes to me?

For now, on our platform, it is N1 to one token which is even high. Eventually in the future a token can go as high as five naira per value. We can charge a brand N10 per view for example and we give back five naira to our users, which is a 50/50 thing. It may even get to N10 per view. Right now, Google and others charge as much as N300 to N400 but we are starting small and we are gradually going to grow. We are a major disruptor and competitor because nobody is doing what we are trying to do in the world.

What brands is your platform targeted at?

It is targeted at everybody, even the small business owners. The way this app is built; you want to do your birthday and you want to inform people about it within Yaba, you can upload your birthday information, the app will ask you to geo-tag a certain location. Only people you are targeting within that area that have downloaded the app will see all the information. A mama Put in Ebute Metta can advertise to people just within that location. It’s an app anyone can use. It is for everyone.

How affordable is your platform for advertisers looking to advertise

It is very affordable. We have a rate card that is very straightforward and simple.

What has been the feedback since you started?

Not bad at all. The biggest problem we have right now is because as we are coming in as a disruptor, there is a lot of kick. People are afraid, especially the advertising companies. We are telling them that we are not coming to take food away from your mouth. We have also told them that we can work together. A lot of the advertising companies have their accounts. We are saying ‘let us partner.’ We have 250 thousand to 300 thousand users on the platform already. Presently, the advertisement of the billboards and Tv; they don’t even know the number of people that have seen the adverts. But we are giving you a platform as an advertiser that the moment you upload, you see the number of people that have seen your adverts, the number of people that have interacted with it, those that have gone to your website to see it and other products that you are offering. We give you these metrics on a dashboard.

What is your assessment of the Nigeria advertising industry?

The industry is growing. In Nigeria, we have the power of numbers. Looking at the population of over 200 million people; MTN alone has several users, probably 80 million or more. There are other brands as well. The industry is massive. I always tell people that Nigeria is a cash economy, that if you have a product that you can sell to only two million people, it is huge. That is why advertising would always thrive. People need to be reached because products sell even without having a massive campaign. For us, it is a big opportunity to have created this platform that is going to rival all the others. By the grace of God, It will grow to become another force in the digital marketing space. I’m very positive about the advertising space in Nigeria. The industry is fantastic. Foreign companies are looking to partner in Nigeria or start advertising their own products in Nigeria. They are also looking at us as important partners.

How do you see this business in the next five to 10 years?

In the next five to 10 years, this will be global because the app can work in almost 65 different languages in the world. You can change the app from English to Hindi for example. It is going to be global. We are starting from here and we will grow from here to the rest of the world.