Ann Arbor based start-up sets to revolutionize influencer-advertising monetization
In the spring of 2020, a virus erupted across the world known as the COVID-19 pandemic. During that time 3, high school seniors decided to meet together on a zoom call to discuss a friend's proposition of a potential app that connected TikTok influencers with musical artists to promote their music. One year later and we have what is now called "PromoTone", set to launch to serve as a platform that connects social media influencers of any kind with online brands that want to have access to influencer marketing. The concept of PromoTone dives deep into influencer monetization and accessibility of organic influencer advertising. With the influencer-marketing market set to spike to $15B by 2022, PromoTone heads to dominate that market. A company whose founders were the first generation to grow up with social media, young and determined, is planning on shipping the beta of the new application this summer.
The focus of the application is to normalize the exclusive divide between brands and influencers which has shown to be a tedious process going back and forth. Even if an influencer has a talent manager to manage their promotions, they have to give a cut of around 15-20% on every deal. Insert PromoTone, acting as a talent manager in your pocket that connects you with brands needing promotions and vice versa. The platform allows influencers to keep 100% of all earnings on the platform while charging a small service fee per transaction to the brand. Where are Gen Z influencers located? College campuses. The audience of micro/nano-influencers are located on high school and college campuses. 86% of college students work a part-time job in the summer or during school. PromoTone can utilize the motivation of growing an online following to establish a part-time job with a PromoTone account. College students spend an average of 2.3 hours studying in class, 2.8 hours studying at home, 4 hours socializing, and 4.2 hours doing paid work. TikTok established campus reps with Fuse Marketing which doubled the awareness of TikTok to college students in the U.S. The potential of establishing PromoTone would be to establish campus reps for PromoTone on as many main college campuses as possible to participate in helping organize college extracurricular activities and Greek life involvement.
Targeting heavy “party schools” who have a heavy Greek life influence and in turn have a role in the TikTok party culture, word of mouth, in theory, moves faster in this environment. Not only does this allow the Ann Arbor-based tech start-up to find a lot of influencers on these campuses but also allows them to bring brand awareness to NCAA-D1 athletes who are now able to monetize themselves. A college football D-1 football athlete is estimated to be worth $150,000 to their respected university. You’re not buying from a regular ad, it’s your sorority sister, your lab partner, or your class president. The rise of TikTok use amongst Generation Z is at an all-time high and there is no denying it. Fraternities and sororities have started to hop on the platform to encourage students to rush and give a glimpse of what Greek life with their organization is like.
More and more students are acquiring tens and hundreds of thousands of followers just by posting organic content. This shows a huge potential for people in this age category to want to start monetizing their followings. PromoTone intends on utilizing this potential and making the platform's hands-off, all you need is an email address, a couple of thousand followers, and bingo, time to start monetizing.
As for brands looking to find influencers either locally or wide-spread, it will be as simple as selecting a few categories of interest for your business, and wallah, time to start looking for affordable influencer promoting. The platform will serve as an incubator for both parties allowing for organic advertisements while allowing influencers to launch their branding careers with a few simple clicks. There is a lot of potentials here for PromoTone, the potential to become an advertising giant, potential to change how ads reach and affect their respective audiences.
Don't forget to check out Promotonept.com for early sign ups and updates on the progression of the application.