"We're the coolest when we cruise, when we zip through the city." — This might be the soundtrack of a driver registered with Wrapclub, earning a few extra bucks on a joyride through Munich. Founders Alexander and Marat told us exactly how it works.
1. Who are you and what do you do? Please briefly introduce yourself and your startup!
We are the Wrap ClubTeam, the Munich-based startup specializing in car advertising. The fact is, we live in a commuter nation and, by international standards, drive our cars a lot. On average, every German drives a full 44 km a day. Of course, that costs a lot of money for gas, insurance, service, etc. With Wrapclub, every driver can easily recoup these expenses by earning money with car advertising. Wrapclub drivers select their favorite ad on our platform to advertise on their favorite car. The selected ad is then printed on film and attached to the car. Our Wrapclub drivers only have to press the accelerator to earn between €150 and €200.
We take care of the acquisition of advertisers. They are excited to work with us because we are the only ones on the market that can offer a mobile out-of-home advertising campaign that is trackable and measurable in real time.
We, the founders, are Alexander Simonov (29, Master in Banking and Finance, University of St. Gallen) and Marat Yakupov (30, Master in Management, WHU). We both came to Germany from Russia to study and met years ago at a student conference. Since then, we've always toyed with the idea of becoming self-employed. In 2016, we came up with the idea of "Wrapclub" and entered the Startup League of the Strascheg Center for Entrepreneurship (SCE) at the Munich University of Applied Sciences.
2. But that's been around for a long time!
Not in this form! Wrapclub is the only platform that offers a reliable intermediary between advertisers and drivers. We do not charge any registration fees from our drivers. Our Wrapclub drivers can only earn money with us. For advertisers, Wrapclub clearly stands out from its direct competitors (advertising on taxis and public transport) because we can precisely verify the success of the advertising campaign. We are the only platform that offers real-time data analysis. Using GPS trackers installed in the wrapped cars, Wrapclub collects the GPS coordinates of the routes driven. In the next step, we combine the GPS coordinates with a geomarketing database. This allows us to provide our customers with a valid estimate of the gross reach and the CPM (cost per kilometre).Editor's note: =Cost per Thousand Contacts). Only with these metrics will a medium be taken seriously by major advertising agencies today.
3. What has been your biggest challenge so far?
To maximize advertising exposure in the target region for our clients. We don't want our drivers to drive hundreds of kilometers on the highway. Instead, we want the cars to be driven or parked in the inner city where they can be seen by as many people as possible. To solve this problem, we had the following idea: We notify the Wrapclub drivers of a campaign. This allows them to easily earn additional money by traveling in the target region for a specific period of time. Alternatively, the car can also be parked in high-traffic areas, such as in front of the advertiser's store. This gives advertisers the unique opportunity to place outdoor advertising in locations that would otherwise be too expensive or where advertising was previously not possible. For a campaign with Cryosizer, the Munich-based cold chamber chain, Wrapclub negotiated additional compensation with the drivers. For this, the drivers had to be on the road during busy times in Schwabing, Neuhausen, or Maxvorstadt, or be parked outside. This allows us to generate extreme advertising exposure in the client's target area.
Already over 20,000 drivers registered
4. Let’s get down to business: How is business going?
The articles about us in Bild newspaper and Autobild magazine, in particular, have given Wrapclub a huge boost recently. The number of drivers has skyrocketed to over 20,000. We've also signed a partnership with Avery Dennison, a premium film manufacturer, which has given us tremendous expertise in the components of car wrapping.
5. What does Munich mean to you?
We love Munich! Not only personally, but also professionally, we don't want to leave. It's been proven that the startup scene in Munich is very strong. We have been able to exchange experiences and benefit from mutual knowledge time and time again. The SCE, in particular, has been very supportive of our endeavors so far.
6. How will your startup become the next unicorn? Or will we see you soon at Epic Fail Night?
There are some long-established market leaders in outdoor advertising. We want to put pressure on them. The outdoor advertising market has more than tripled in the last 10 years. And our product can clearly differentiate itself from the competition. So, it's definitely UNICORN!
7. In Munich: Car or bike?
Car with the car advertisement of course ;).
