In The Good-Loop

Amy Williams is an advertising professional who worked for a large London agency before deciding to explore the possibilities of ethical advertising with her new company Good-Loop.

If there is one thing you can’t get away from on the internet these days, it is advertising. Thanks to the viewing footprint you leave whenever you visit a site it doesn’t take long for those ubiquitous offers to start pushing their way into your casual web browsing.

Amy Williams decided that she wanted to do something different in marketing and spotted an opportunity to do so with business partner Daniel Winterstein, an experienced entrepreneur with a background in data science and technology.

“My first job was in advertising,” she tells me. “I worked for a big London agency. During that time, I met with some incredible people and learned a lot about what is a very creative and innovative industry. This experience helped me identify what was a definite disconnect between brands and the general consumers they were attempting to engage with.”

There is a strong argument to suggest that whilst advertising can occasionally be inventive and engaging, the reality is that there is often a gulf between what the brand is trying to communicate and what the viewer experiences.

It’s also true that whilst there remains a lot of money in the industry, it has shifted mediums. Just as once print media lost ground to TV, now TV is itself being significantly pushed aside in favour of Internet advertising. The demands of the changing audience cannot be ignored.

“More and more of us are downloading adblockers to deal with the intrusive nature of online advertising and it was this in part that inspired me to consider, design and eventually build a more positive, alternative solution.”

Enter Daniel Winterstein, an experienced businessman with a PhD in data science and a track record of building ad technology.

“I posted a job on a site called WorkInStartups.com and fortunately for me, Daniel saw it and following several meetings, we made the decision to start Good-Loop.”

So, what exactly is Good-Loop seeking to achieve?

“Simply put we “plug” into existing online advert distribution networks, allowing publishers and bloggers to install Good-Loop onto their sites, meaning when their readers visit their site, they see the Good-Loop ad player and have the option to watch “AD FOR GOOD”.

“By consenting, you agree to watch at least 15 seconds of an advert and then you can then give 50% of the money from that advert to a charitable cause of your choice. Good-Loop takes a 10% fee and the rest of the advertising money is passed onto the publisher to help them pay for their journalists and content creators. An additional benefit is that by sharing the advert on social media, your donation doubles.”

Most of us will have experienced adverts that we cannot skip through or videos that suddenly pop up and distract us from what we are viewing and in these kinds of scenarios there is no real winner. The intended audience doesn’t feel compelled to engage and the advertisers are not getting their message across in the right fashion.

What makes Good-Loop so unique is that it empowers this disengaged and often forgotten audience and gives them the control they seek, meaning the “opt-in to watch” philosophy is a completely personal decision.

“Almost £5bn was spent on online advertising in the UK. Imagine how much better the world would be if we could channel just a small portion of that sum into charitable donations.”

There is no question that the world is changing but this initiative shows how technology can make a positive contribution to that change and companies like Good-Loop are driving innovation through disruption.

The company has already come a long way since it was founded in October 2016.

“It’s amazing to think we are not even a year old yet and we have already seen such a positive interest in what we are doing and the concept we want to pursue.”

For more information on Good-Loop and Amy Williams visit the website here.