SnapMyAd - the interview

by Startacus Admin

Are you one of those snap-happy folks for whom taking photos of their daily life and the things in it is a necessary bodily function? Have you ever taken a photo that was so beautiful or that so perfectly demonstrated a product that you despaired at the thought of it being relegated forever to just Instagram or Facebook?

Then SnapMyAd may be just the app for you ! We caught up with Josh Lee, the brains behind this innovative new startup which aims to give your fabulous photographic feats the maximum exposure. He has got a lot to say about the business and loads of great advice - enjoy!

Hi there, SnapMyAd! So first off some people may not have heard of your app yet, can you tell us what it’s about and how it works?

SnapMyAd is an iPhone App that lets you interact, compete and get rewarded by your favourite brands.Our iPhone app allows you to show off your creativity by creating ads for your favorite brands. The interaction entices consumers to make photo ads for the brands they have experienced, enjoyed, and that of which they are a loyal customer.

Consumers share their ads on specific promotions with the opportunity to receive perk from companies for their awesome ads of those brands. The app allows consumers to view brand initiated promotions, make their own applicable ads, and remain confident they are choosing who can use their photos.With our terms once the consumer wins perk from that brand, that brand can now use that photo in any media.

Are there any other ways that brands can benefit from being involved?

Consumers are creating mass amounts of data, especially through their smartphone photography. We developed SnapMyAd to help brands and consumers interact like never before by allowing businesses to “focus” their customers on what type of “ads” to create.

Here at Startacus, we are all about inspiring startup success stories, can you tell us a little bit about your background and how the business came about?

I have a background in a pretty broad range of things, but got into the business world about 10 years ago. Worked mostly in sales around technology, so not anything like I am doing now. I like to say this job takes all of my experiences in the many different other jobs I have had.

The idea for SnapMyAd came on a plane last year. I wasn’t thinking about building an app, I had a job and building a company wasn't even on my radar, at all. My wife and I were coming back from Florida and left during a tropical storm. I took a photo of the wing that said “AirTran.com” and uploaded it to Instagram, Facebook and Twitter and told my friends of my experience. Right then my “big idea” came to me. I turned to my wife and said “look at this photo, doesn't it look like a cool ad for this airline”? She said “yes, it does”. So at that moment I thought “Ok, I am creating this “ad” for this company, telling my friends to fly this airline and I get nothing? That is wrong, and even more wrong that they could actually buy it from one of these social media companies to use in advertisements”. So that next day, I started working on solving this problem. I really knew it could work and we had the saying from the first day “you never know until you try”.

We can’t believe we are here and people are actually using our app and wanting to talk to us. Seriously, it was just a husband and a wife with an idea and now we have a great team and gaining new users and brand partners every day. Crazy!

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Published on: 2nd October 2013