Technology has opened up a plethora of possibilities in the realm of events. Brazilian startup mobb is one of many players in the arena, and it’s going at it with an interactive approach.
What is mobb? In short, mobb is connective tool that helps organizers and promoters engage and mobilize audiences before, during and after events. “Using mob, an event’s entire digital experience is created in minutes with customizable templates and features, increasing ROI for organizers and sponsors and providing a much more interactive experience for the audience,” explained Ricardo Rezende Souza, Co-founder of mobb.
mobb was created by Rezende Souza alongside Thiago Malpetti and Felipe Cardoso. While working together at a digital agency, the three recognized a growing demand for event agencies looking for apps to up audience interaction. Blocked by budgets and deadlines out of sync with software development costs and timeframes, organizers are often left wanting when it comes to a solution.
“mobb comes to fill a gap left by this market, which overlooked the digital world as part of the event and failed to create a really integrated experience for their audience,” he elaborated. “From promotion agencies to brands that host events as part of their communication strategies, mobb can offer a huge leap towards engaging with audiences. Our platform was built to accommodate most kinds of events, from concerts to sales conventions, as long as interacting is a major component.”
Starting out, however, mobb’s founders conceived their project as a tool better fit for small social gatherings, with features like messages and location sharing to help users meet and interact. But when the team entered the Aceleratech acceleration program – which it completed last month – it shifted back towards its larger-scale focus.
“During the acceleration process with Aceleratech, we had the opportunity to refine the project and test it with all kinds of players in the market, from small promotion agencies to big brands that promote thousands of events each year,” Rezende Souza said. “This process helped us to tune the business model and close our first deals.”
Set to launch in June and with its iPhone app ready to go, mobb sets out to solve a real problem for event organizers and significantly bring down costs. Rezende Souza outlined, “Up to now, it would take organizers a few months and around US$25,000 (R$50,000) to create an interactive platform for consumers. With mobb, it takes less than 10% of that amount and just a few minutes to start engaging.”
mobb offers its clients one-time payment options as well as subscriptions for those that promote events regularly and want to keep interaction going.
Of course, mobb isn’t the only startup looking to tap into the events market right now. However, the team is confident that their solution stands out. “There are some companies working in this market, but all of them are focused on what happens before the event, offering RSVP tools and selling tickets. mobb is more about great experiences and interaction between promoters and audiences. We help build up engagement weeks before the event and keep on going after, offering features ranging from ticket sales and polls to social feeds and coupons,” he highlighted.
At the moment, the mobb team’s main focus is on launching and consolidating the startup as a prime engagement tool for events. It will first attack the Brazilian market, and, if all goes well, expand into the rest of Latin America in 2014 and go after Europe in 2015.
