YDM, a Thai tech marketing startup, is launching a revenue-sharing model for selected customers to disrupt the traditional digital advertising model.
YDM has nine subsidiaries and joint ventures in brand building, media buying, creative, mobile advertising and digital marketing. YDM also has a network of 20,000 micro-influencers and celebrities.
The revenue-sharing model allows micro-influencers to get a commission for promoting products on YDM's e-commerce platform Buyzabuy.com.
Small enterprises can also participate in the revenue-sharing scheme by offering a cut of sales revenue in exchange for digital advertising.
"Customers do not need to spend their marketing budget upfront, but instead work side by side with YDM as a partner, making digital marketing easier for products and services through shared sales revenue," said Tanapon Subsomboon, chief executive of YDM Co.
The company aims to list on the SET by 2021 with plans to reach over 1 billion baht in revenue by that time through mergers and acquisitions using a joint venture model. These measures are expected to increase revenue by 50% to 850 million baht.
Mr Tanapon said most businesses are still using traditional digital marketing by focusing on exposure and the use of transactions to get consumer views. This tradition model requires months for a campaign to be effective.
But the modern marketing transformation will need personalised and targeted marketing with a holistic view of customer data and analytics to get customer insight and engage with customers.
The business structure needs to change to be more customer-centric and embrace agile, project-based marketing.
"In the future, we may no longer have a chief marketing officer, but a chief customer officer," Mr Tanapon said.
Marketing transformation might take time, in particular for large firms with complex structures, while SMEs might lack the capability and skills to adapt.
YDM has received investment from Korean unicorn Yello Mobile, InVent (the venture capital arm of InTouch Holdings), the Stock Exchange of Thailand and Government Savings Bank.
