Pitch6 turns mobile advertising into a social experience for Indonesians

Adtech. Tech in Asia loves it almost as much as puppy dogs or a fine scotch. The everyday consumer may not feel the same way, though, when their mobile game is interrupted by a pop-up for the new Beyonce album. According to a recent Gallup report shared with The Wall Street Journal, 62 percent of consumers say that social media has no impact on their purchasing decisions. “Consumers are highly adept at tuning out brand-related Facebook and Twitter content,” the survey says.

But that’s exactly the challenge that Carl Wong, founder of the mobile social networking video app Pitch6, hopes to solve. “Users should be watching ads not because they have to, but because they want to,” says Wong. “Crowdsourcing advertising wasn’t exactly new but no one had a crowdsourcing platform where anyone could create an ad. We developed Pitch6 to do this.”

Wong admits that his product is similar to the video social network Vine in the sense that users can create and share their own six-second clips. But according to him, what makes Pitch6 unique is that its users can make videos not just for their friends, but also for advertisers, and even get paid to do it.

Top dollar for Nikes, noodles, and nostalgia

In the app, advertisers can run competitions and dole out cash prizes for the six-second ads that generates the highest number of likes. Wong says users have fun creating short videos and get paid for it if they win. “Pitch6 is turning advertising on its head. It’s getting consumers to tell brands what they think ‘Just do It’ or ‘The Indomie Moment’ means to them,” explains Wong. “Because winners are chosen by the highest number of likes, consumers are encouraged to spread their ads through their social networks.”

According to Wong, anyone with a smartphone and a couple minutes can create a video ad on Pitch6. Friends will begin to watch each others’ ads not because they love the brands, explains Wong, but because they love the person who made it. However, after the video is shared, Wong hopes consumers will inevitably begin discussing the content, creating real engagement between the consumer and the brand.

Pitch6 is a Singapore-based startup with the Indonesian market in its crosshairs. The app launched in Jakarta last Friday in conjunction with an Indosat marketing campaign to promote the telco’s new gadget, lifestyle, travel, and snack ecommerce site Cipika. Wong says Indosat and Cipika are also running a competition on Pitch6 until the beginning of March, in which the first prize winner will receive Rp 50 million (US$4,000) for the best six-second ad.

Cards close to the chest

Wong did not share the details of Pitch6’s business model or monetization method. He also declined to share his company’s revenue projections for the next three to five years. “We’ll take a cue from Peter Thiel and say that if we did give them to you, it would be the one set of numbers that we know would be wrong,” says Wong. In terms of Indonesia’s market potential, digital ad spending this year will hit US$950 million, and by 2018 it’s expected to reach almost US$4 billion, according to Wong.

Pitch6 has three investors so far: Matthias Yao, Singapore’s former deputy speaker of parliament; Mohan Mulani, former owner of the now-publicly listed Harry’s Group (a chain of restaurants and bars in Singapore); and Tan Tee Meng, a private investor who deals mostly in real estate.