Boston’s Promoboxx on Monday debuted a new digital advertising service that could help make the startup even more of a must-have for many major consumer brands.
Promoboxx, which hasn’t raised funding beyond a seed round (see chart below), also isn’t out looking for a Series A because the company is doing well enough on revenue, CEO Ben Carcio told me. The South End company is now up to 25 full-time employees. Promoboxx helps big brands to more easily get useful marketing content into the hands of local retail stores; it has brand customers including Chevrolet, Pepsi, Reebok, Nestle, GE and Volkswagen.
As of Monday, Promoboxx has added a new component to its subscription software service. The goal is to disrupt the outmoded system for how local retailers are compensated for digital promotion of brands’ advertisement, Carcio said.
The system—known as co-op advertising—currently provides financial incentives to retailers for digital the same way it does for physical ads, such as billboards. That means that retailers aren’t able to get compensated right away and must go through a paperwork process.
Promoboxx’s new system, Match, takes away all of the legwork, Carcio said. “This eliminates all overhead to the retailer and brand, and allows [the process] to happen instantaneously,” he said.
After a store takes a marketing action on Promoboxx on behalf of a brand—such as sharing on social, sending an email or adding a banner on their website—the stores can then immediately redeem the "Match rewards," Promoboxx said.
The service had been in beta testing with brands including Reebok, GE and Volkswagen, and is fully launched as an optional part of Promoboxx’s software service as of Monday. Promoboxx partnered with Boston's Crave Labs to build Match.
Screenshot via Promoboxx.
