Twinpine cofounder Oduntan Odubanjo
Oduntan Odubanjo, a 28 year-old Nigerian Computer engineer is the co-founder of Twinpine, a startup Pan-African mobile advertising network which is currently generating a lot of buzz in Nigeria’s advertising and technology circles. In less than a year of setting up operations, Twinpine has already cornered lucrative accounts like MTN, Nokia, Google, Pepsi and Autodesk, among several other local companies. Twinpine doesn't create the ads for mobile phones; it provides a way for those ads to be viewed on websites via mobile phones.
Odubanjo runs his company from its headquarters in Lagos, Nigeria. A few months ago, he opened another office in Nairobi, Kenya and he is planning to venture into Johannesburg and other major African cities. Twinpine is profitable, but Odubanjo declined to divulge just how profitable it is.
He recently explained his business model to me, walked me through his start-up story and gave me a glimpse into Twinpine’s big picture.
What Is Twinpine?
Twinpine is a mobile advertising network focused on Africa. It is different from other mobile advertising networks because we focus on the tangible value for advertisers and publishers on our network. We dont just serve impressions we work to deliver conversions and revenues to them respectively.
Recount your startup story
The journey for Twinpine so far has been very fast paced and exciting. Beyond trying to turn a profit, we are on a mission to propagate the message of mobile advertising. We have invested in events and initiatives that will expose and educate people on the potential of mobile marketing. One of these saw the sponsorship of the IEEE student professional awareness program last year at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria. Its been an amazing journey filled with a great deal of learning, operational innovation and sense of achievement.
Explain your business model to my grandma. How does Twinpine work, and how do you make money?
Twinpine was founded to enable brands and businesses effectively reach their target audience with their message using the mobile advertising channel. We achieve that by aggregating the leading (in terms of brand and traffic) mobile sites and applications and advertise on them for our clients. That way, we also help our publishers make money by doing a revenue share with them on the advertising we place.
How many users do you have so far? Name some of the more prominent ones.
I’m glad to share that we have run campaigns for leading brands from the likes of MTN, Nokia, Google, Pepsi, Autodesk to fast growing companies like Jobberman, Wakanow.com, Vconnect and Jana. We also work with over 20 local and international digital advertising agencies to develop mobile advertising campaigns across Africa.
On the publisher side of the space we have leading local publishers in Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana including Guardian, Vanguard, Jobberman, Businessday, Complete Sports, Standard Media, Daily Nation and Ghanaweb. We also work with international publishers like Opera, Eskimi, Ubersocial, Ebuddy,
Twinpine has delivered marketing goals from brand awareness to application downloads, event registration, product launch and site traffic boost.
Are you profitable yet?
Twinpine is profitable and we are confident that our growth levels will see us increase this margin significantly in the months ahead.
What’s your background?
I got hired to co-found Twinpine in early 2011. I had previously acquired software and product development experience at leading technology companies including Websoft, Mtech Nigeria and Google and graduated with top honours in Computer Engineering at Nigeria’s leading Univeristy, OAU.
Twinpine launched as an arm of Terragon Group – a new media firm based in Lagos, Nigeria. At the time the company’s leadership recognized the mobile device as a channel through which people primarily access entertainment, news plus other internet based content and services. The idea that the mobile device is fast becoming the most important tool for Africans led to the creation of a platform to provide brands an effective means of reaching their customers using mobile.
Who are your closest competitors?
We don’t have a direct competitors because of the layer we have added to the mobile advertising experience. But on an industry level, companies who run similar services include Admob and Buzzcity.
What’s your comparative advantage other them?
We measure the success of our campaigns using conversions instead of just ad impressions enabling our advertisers to target effectively on recognized premium mobile properties who are aggregated on our network across Africa. These reputable and highly trafficked premium sites (many of which are exclusive), gives us reach and targeting options like no other network on the continent. On the other hand Twinpines publishers are able to earn more revenues due to our supply, pricing and overall performance making us the preferred choice choice for advertising by publishers. Our knowledge of the market, excellent overall customer services and result-oriented focus also brings satisfcation to our clients..
What’s the big picture? Where do you see Twinpine in the next 5 years?
Our vision remains to enable brands, agencies and businesses effectively reach their target audience with their message via mobile advertising channels with desired conversions in return. The company currently comprises of a team of 15 and is a wholly owned independent company with no venture capital till date.
We recently launched local operations in Kenya and also Ghana and it intends to remain at the forefront of technological and operational innovation in the area of mobile advertising. We will focus on developing localized solutions and initiatives that will exceed the demands of advertisers in the African region.
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