WorkArtFun - a new way to advertise products and services

When was the last time you picked up a product brochure and read all the details mentioned in it. We are pretty sure you wouldn’t have read half of it, actually nobody does! We surf through photographs and read captions to get information about the same. WorkArtFun (WAF) is a venture extending this idea to online space. Launched last month, WAF is an online showcase for brands to post pictures about their latest offerings, which users can in turn check and purchase. However for purchasing the product, the user will get redirected to the company website.

Started by Arvinder Singh Sahni, WAF is not his first venture. It is a subsidiary of Spacecom Technologies, a Mumbai based software products company that has been providing solutions to ISPs and the hospitality industry since 2002. Spacecom -- Arvinder’s first venture, has now ventured into social web content space with the launch of WorkArtFun. Though 49 years old, Arvinder calls himself young at heart. And the reason for that he says, is the spirit of entrepreneurship, that has helped him take up the various challenges. “Greying of hair has nothing to do with being young. I have taken up challenges through each passing day and that has pushed me to be a better entrepreneur,” says Arvinder who did his Electronics Engineering from Pune in and later his post-graduation from NMIMS.

This is Arvinder’s second outing into the social web content space, his earlier foray didn’t meet with much success, but that never deterred him. “Which guy wouldn’t dig deep after seeing the image of a beautiful suite or an exotic gym? One would be curious to know the name of the hotel offering that suite or seek information on the location of the exotic gym and that is where we offer a unique proposition,” says Arvinder. Pictures posted by companies can be linked to their online stores thereby redirecting customers and generating traffic to the company sites, which inturn increases sales for them. So WAF is like an online directory which brings together the information on services and products and then redirects customers to individual websites for purchase.

Joining WAF is free for both companies and the users. For instance, a hotel company posts the pictures of its suite and exotic locations. If the viewers like, they promote those pictures and it thereby reaches a larger audience. To prevent any kind of spamming or fraudulent activities, WAF would not work with any apocryphal content. For startups or for a business limited to a certain region, advertising on main stream media is expensive and unyielding and WAF hopes to make a difference there. “For instance, an art gallery from Bangalore came on board last week. They had their own website but reaching a pan India audience is expensive. WAF bridges that gap,” says Arvinder.

Since its launch, Arvinder claims WAF has spoken to more than 1000+ companies and now has 200+ users registered with the site. The proportion of companies registered with WAF is higher compared to end users as it concentrates on B2B marketing. Content is the key to attract end users and that is the priority for the site now. Indians have traditionally been shy to posting and sharing their personal content, but with an increasing number of social sites things are changing -- WAF is also riding the same wave.

As a subsidiary of Spacecom, WAF has so far not faced any funding issues. Also Arvinder says revenues are not something on his mind at this point and he is currently concentrating on increasing the reach of the site. Based in Mumbai, the company has 17 employees, and the venture makes money through advertising. Speaking about challenges, Arvinder says WAF is scouting ways to widen the site’s reach. However for WAF to become a strong alternative to traditional media will take time, but Arvinder is focused on making it happen.

The other challenge comes in form of conveying the concept to the companies. Though not difficult, the concept is new-fangled and will take some time to percolate. “When traditional ways of media are getting insipid for even bigger firms, we are looking to change the horizons of way businesses connect with each other,” says Arvinder.