If you go to Boston College, then you have definitely heard about Jebbit. The 2011 winner of the Boston College Venture Competition, this startup is aiming to change the perceptions people have about online advertisements. By helping college students “make some cash while discovering interesting products, services and websites,” Jebbit’s goal is to make online advertising both fun and rewarding.
Have you ever noticed that we ignore all of the online advertising that comes our way, whether it is an ad before a show on Hulu, a commercial on Pandora Radio, or the pop-ups that appear as we close our Internet browsers? Jebbit was born from the simple observation that there are very few people who actually pay attention to this online advertising, and that there has to be a better way to do it.
What the Jebbit creators came up with is brilliant. Utilizing a concept called “cost per correct answer,” Jebbit facilitates a new relationship between a company and its advertising audience in which students can earn cash for answering questions about the company correctly. Companies create and build their campaigns in several different ways, but they all have the same goal: product knowledge.
These campaigns do not consist of your average survey questions. Rather, companies ask questions or create special challenges that highlight attributes of certain services or products, requiring the person answering the question to visit their websites, read, and actually learn something. Additionally, companies can request that a tweet or Facebook status be sent out in order to complete the challenge, and while this is not required, an amazing 75% of people do this, which means that the company’s audience for advertising expands enormously with each social media share. This is a hugely attractive statistic, and it explains why Jebbit is becoming so popular.
Jebbit is open to anyone up to the age of 26, and as of the latest reports, over 565 different colleges and high schools are using Jebbit. They have been able to expand to such an impressive size in a short amount of time because of the enthusiastic efforts of their sales and marketing teams who spread the word with t-shirts and other apparel, launch parties, visiting other campuses, and other street team initiatives. Jebbit is also extremely active in the wonderful world of social media, and you can follow them on Twitter (@Jebbit), “like” them on Facebook, and follow their blog to learn more about the company and to try it out!
I don’t know about you, but starting my own business while still in school sounds like an extremely daunting task. How exactly do they take on this huge responsibility? With an extremely dedicated and talented team of eleven Boston College students, Jebbit is working hard toward accomplishing their goals.
Jebbit has created a decisive win-win situation for companies and their target advertising audience, but what about the Jebbit team? When asked why they enjoyed working for Jebbit so much, this is what they had to say:
“I find it a lot of fun… It’s an internship experience with my best friends while I’m at school at BC.” – Johnny
“The energy and enthusiasm that they put into something that they created themselves is what drew us in… we get to do this with a fun, exciting team. It’s something that not many people get to experience. It’s such a fun atmosphere and it has a lot of potential, so it’ll be great to see where it goes in the future!” – Erin
Congratulations and good luck to the Jebbit team: co-founders Tom Coburn, Chase McAleese and Jeb Thomas, and the sales and marketing team Ron Ren, Nuria Boj, Angela Song, Sharon Lee, Johnny Lacoste, Erin Cullen, Michael Marcus and Paul Hillen!