If you are in the Philadelphia area and drive where clients of Mac Nagaswami want to attract customers, you could make $100 a month.
Using algorithms, analytics and global positioning systems, Wilmington, Del.-based Carvertise has a unique take on vehicle-wrap advertising that is heavy on return-on-investment data for clients that want to know their advertising is reaching eyeballs.
Among the information Carvertise's software provides clients — including Golden Valley-based Buffalo Wild Wings — is how much mileage was driven and where, and how many people see their ads.
Yet it has lower overhead because it does not use staff drivers but ordinary people with good driving records, 2005 model-year vehicles or newer, and commuting minimums of 800 miles a month. Carvertise places a GPS in each driver's vehicle, overlaid with data on traffic counts, the rate of speed of that traffic and population density in the areas where the drivers are traveling.
Part of Carvertise's business model is to make delivery of that information feel less corporate and more personal, tapping into the rise of the sharing-economy trend popularized by such extra-earnings enablers as Airbnb and Uber.
"What we're bringing to the market is a very new advertising channel," said Nagaswami, 25, CEO of a company of 12 employees with clients in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland.
"It's taking outdoor advertising and making it more grass roots," said Nagaswami, who developed the company's business plan while still in college at University of Delaware.
Vehicle wraps aren't new, but the technology-enhanced service Carvertise offers is, said Marc Brownstein, president and CEO of Brownstein Group, a Philadelphia branding agency.
