attracted users organically through Twitter and Facebook, and is also bringing advertisers on board. Brands can opt to sponsor an entire sweepstakes, or buy specific numbers of views from a specific group of consumers (say, females in their thirties), and Loffles will do the matching.
For now, the service is free to advertisers, but Loffles has plans to charge them for the views they want, with a higher premium for brands that want to target a very specific audience. The company will also charge a monthly fee to brands who want more service from Loffles, for things like selecting the consumers to advertise to and choosing which raffles to sponsor, Yoshimura says.
The five-person startup raised about $500,000 in funding last October from angels and a few private equity groups, says Yoshimura. The Loffles founder still has a couple classes left to complete his degree at Brown, but for now he’s working on the company full-time. Now that the product is out, one of the big goals is to “make sure the platform works,” he says. He’s also focused on nabbing more consumers to try the site and inking deals with national advertisers.
Yoshimura says Loffles hopes to carve a niche for itself beyond daily deal sites that are pulling in scores of consumers looking for a deal. It will be interesting to see how consumers take to the raffle marketplace world, and if advertisers will get the eyes they want on their content.
