It looks like a dazzling idea, but it worked out. Brazilian student Felipe Matos (24) from Belo Horizonte – the third biggest city in Brazil, was tired of getting five buses a day to go college and to work and bet on the unusual by creating a blog on the Internet searching for sponsors to buy his new car.
He divided the image of a virtual car in 500 frames and sold each one to one advertiser for the price of R$100.00 (approximately US$50.00). An American young man who became a millionaire selling ad frames – pixels – on his website, inspired the idea. “My aim was to get R$50,000 (U$25,000) to buy a good new car,” the student says. “Besides the Internet, the car would be all labeled with the ads for 6 months,” Matos explains.
The project was named www.PatrocineMeuCarro.com (SponsorMyCar, in free translation) and produced already more than R$5,000 (US$2,500), which were used as a down payment in a lease to buy the car. “With the car already on the streets I hope to sell the remaining frames. My aim is to pay the whole car with all the advertising through the Internet,” he expects.
The project is understandable for the high prices of both new and used cars in Brazil, making it barely impossible for a student to buy his own car – even through a lease.
The prospect advertisers shall access www.patrocinemeucarro.com, choose a frame and pay the bank order automatically generated by the site. The ads are as diverse as possible and are made by both companies and individuals from all over Brazil. “There was a husband sending a declaration of love to his wife and ads that range from virtual shops to food supplement,” Matos says.
The project caught the media’s attention and the student’s website was broadcasted all over Brazil and internationally, through blogs, newspapers, magazines, TV news, shows, and Internet sites. “Through the media, I got more visitors to the website and, that way, more advertisers. Everybody is getting excellent results from the advertising of their brands,” he celebrates.
