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Summary
Varolo,
Inc.
is
a
Utah-based
technology
company
that
has
developed
the
worlds
first
permission-based
advertising
platform
that
brings
advertisers
and
consumers
together
in
a
way
that
strongly
benefits
both
parties.
The
Problem.
Online
advertising
is
expensive,
inefficient
(with
low
click-through
rates)
and
wasteful
for
advertisers.
All
advertisers,
especially
small
and
medium
sized
businesses,
desire
strong,
quantifiable
ROI
on
their
advertising
spend,
yet
this
remains
an
elusive
goal.
Search-based
(PPC)
ads
are
often
shown
to
people
in
error
or
out
of
context
resulting
in
a
high
cost
for
the
advertiser.
For
consumers,
the
web
is
replete
with
irrelevant,
untargeted
ads
that
impinge
on
the
overall
user
experience.
Historical,
geographic,
demographic
and
psychographic
data
is
generally
not
available
to
advertisers
and,
as
a
result,
they
are
unable
to
create
relevant,
targeted
ads
that
have
impact
and
deliver
results.
Additionally,
it
is
difficult
for
an
average
organization
to
leverage
social
media
as
part
of
their
marketing
and
advertising.
According
to
a
study
by
Adweek
media,
63
percent
of
American
Internet
users
ignore
advertising
on
the
Web.
Advertiser
fraud
remains
a
huge
problem.
ClickForensics
reported
a
22.3
percent
click
fraud
rate
in
2010.
With
online
advertising
accounting
for
about
25
billion
dollars
in
the
U.S.
alone,
that
is
5.5
billion
dollars
lost
to
fraud.
The
Solution.
Varolo
is
a
revolutionary
permission- based,
online
advertising
platform.
Unique
in
the
industry,
Varolo
brings
strong
value
for
both
the
advertiser
AND
the
consumer.
It
does
this
by
providing
a
highly
targeted
way
to
reach
consumers
and,
for
consumers,
by
compensating
them
to
engage
targeted
and
relevant
advertising.
Varolo
allows
advertisers
to
upload
their
ad
content
for
free
and
only
charges
them
when
that
ad
is
viewed
by
their
target
audience.
Ads
can
be
based
on
demographic,
geographic,
and
psychographic
profiling.
Varolo
matches
consumer
profiles
to
these
ads
using
proprietary
matching
algorithms.
By
watching
ads,
consumers
are
taking
part
in
our
patent-pending
social
network
revenue
share
program.
The
advertiser
only
pays
when
the
consumer
watches
the
entire
advertisement
and
completes
a
rating
or
survey
question
at
the
end.
Advertisers
are
able
to
offer
coupons,
discounts,
and
even
buy
now
eCommerce
at
the
end
of
the
ad.
Varolo
provides
advertisers
with
the
tools
they
need
to
analyze
efficacy
and
adjust
campaigns
in
real-time.
Varolo
can
also
act
as
the
epicenter
of
social
media
campaigns
that
allow
advertisers
to
present
offers
to
consumers
that
they
can
share
through
social
media
platforms
on
the
Internet.
The Secret Sauce. The consumers active authorization and participation in the process is a key differentiator and component to Varolos initial success and market traction. To obtain permission and to encourage participation, the consumer must be incented. Varolos system rewards users in a variety of ways to keep them actively engaged in the short, medium, and long term. Short-term this is facilitated through a weekly jackpot where each ad viewed increases the consumers chance of winning. In the mid- term, users are motivated through a series of achievements and prizes. And, in the long-term, Varolo leverages the power of social networking with a unique revenue share model where the consumer can earn revenue on each ad viewed by anyone in their social network which we call a village. By referring a friend to Varolo, the consumer can earn revenue on each ad they watch. Users can also earn money when an ad is viewed by a friend of a friend, up to 5 degrees of separation. The larger a consumers village is, the more money they make. Additionally, through demographic, geographic, and psychographic targeting, the consumer is viewing ads they are likely to be interested in while becoming eligible for product/service discounts and coupons which consumers find of high value. Varolo makes it very easy to refer friends and grow a village through a highly viral, affiliate link that consumers can share on their social networking sites, websites, blogs, forums, email, or anywhere else. The Opportunity. Varolo is a first-mover, creating a brand new platform category that brings advertisers and consumers together in a unique and powerful way. Varolo can be used by Fortune 100 companies or small and mid-sized business alike. In fact, SMBs have had few cost-effective, risk-free options for advertising until Varolo. Most companies spend 3 to 21 percent of their gross revenues on advertising and marketing. Our live public beta has shown that advertisers on Varolo experience 3 to 12 times higher click- through rates (CTR) than other advertising methods. Varolo combines elements of many of the most exciting opportunities today. These include: video delivery, mobile platform use, social networking, and advertising. Favorable Market Trends. Varolo benefits from many current and emerging trends that make the venture extremely well-timed: Video advertising on the Internet is exploding. According to the Keysey Group, the market is growing from $10.9M in 2007 to an estimated $1.5B in 2011. This equates to a CAGR of 167%. Numerous studies show that video brings strong benefits to advertisers. More than 60% of Americans have broadband Internet access. Advertisers are increasingly expecting ROI tools from advertising platforms.
The Competition & Varolos Differentiated Approach. The Varolos addressable market is the U.S. online video advertising market. There are 3 primary categories: 1) search engines that primarily target based on keywords; 2) ad roll networks which are online advertising middlemen that target by website and geography And; 3) publishers which are essentially websites that attempt to monetize their content using ads from search engines or ad roll networks. Although Varolo technically competes with all of these, we allow advertisers to target geographically, demographically, and psychographically in a unique platform that encourages consumer participation and engagement. Additionally, Varolo currently uses ad roll networks as one of the suppliers to fill our ad queues. So, in reality, ad roll networks are important partners of Varolo. Varolo appeals to a wide consumer audience. While the largest demographic group is women between 25 and 34 years of age (16 percent), Varolo has strong consumer participation across all age groups, genders, and geographies. Varolos Model. Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS). Varolo monetizes each ad viewed by a consumer. New consumers are added automatically through a highly viral, social networking invitation system where they are incented to view ads and invite others, resulting in additional revenue. Social networking, as opposed to direct marketing has been the primary method for end-user acquisition. Additionally, commerce options, rating feedback, survey feedback and a variety of other enhanced features will be leveraged to create additional streams. The Team. The Company is lead by an experienced and talented management team. The Companys Founder and CEO, Kevin Prince, was previously founder and CEO of Red Cliff Solutions, an information security company focused on the data protection for financial institutions. Red Cliff Solutions was acquired in 2006 by Perimeter E-Security, a large venture-backed firm. William Borghetti, COO (Sendside, Campus Pipeline), Kim Soth, VP of Marketing (The Soth Group, Axis41); Aury Friedman, Director of Operations (McLeod USA, MCI, UUNet, Gridnet); Sreeni Jakka, VP Software Development (TechO2, EZPass). Current Status. The company has more than 250,000 registered users and is currently generating revenue. More than 200 top brands have used Varolo in addition to many small and medium sized companies. Varolo continues to see strong new user growth and as many as 250 to 1,000 new users register each day. Contact: Kevin Prince, CEO. 801-718-2700 Email: kevin@varolo.com Web: www.varolo.com