Charitable Spin to Watching Online Ads has Conshohocken Roots

AdWap, which provides viewers of online video advertisements the opportunity to share the revenue generated with a charity, has a co-founder, Michael Cassidy, who lives in Conshohocken. Cassidy shared with us that AdWap has patent-pending technology that ensures its users watch the video ads in their entirety. Within a five second fading window after each video, the user needs to press the only active button, highlighted by the word “Give” to confirm it has been watched. Moreover, the patent covers the minimizing of any video. The technology pauses the video immediately if the user minimizes the screen, or even activates any other window that hinders any viewability. That would mostly apply to desktop. On the app (available on the App Store and Google Play Store), if the users exits the app, the video pauses as well.

The value add for advertisers is that if the user doesn’t confirm engagement, the advertiser is not charged, and subsequently, no donation will be made on the user’s behalf. The value add for users: they can financially support a cause they care about each day, for free.

Here is the sales pitch from AdWap:

Do you have five minutes?

What is AdWap?
Advertising….with a purpose. It’s an app, a website, and an idea that’s about to change the way you see advertising.

Give me the elevator pitch.
Do you hit “skip” when you watch online ads? Do you pick up your phone as soon as a TV commercial comes on? So do we. What if you had an incentive to actually watch an ad from start to finish? Now you do. Meet AdWap. We take advertising dollars and give them a purpose, by donating money to charity and giving money back to you, the user. It’s a win for advertisers and a win for users. We promise this is possible.

Ok. How does it work?
You watch. We give. You get. You watch up to five minutes of short video ads on our app or website every day. We give a minimum of 33% of the advertising revenue to a charity that means something to you. You get entered into a daily cash drawing.

I still don’t get it.
It takes advertising money and splits it three ways: to charities, to users, to the company.

Why five minutes?
Because no matter how busy you are, everyone has a few minutes to spare throughout the day. Whether it’s on the commute, the couch, or the porcelain throne, we all spend five minutes mindlessly scrolling through our phones.

Who are the founders?
Three friends with an idea. Matt, Michael, and Jack are three 20-something guys who want to change the purpose of advertisements. Two of them are cousins. Two of them are college roommates. All of them are big sports fans.

What’s the catch?
There isn’t one. Ads aren’t going away…so we figured out a way to make them worth your time.

So…do you have five minutes?