Platform Feature - PROBITEC

PointNine Lintas announced its foray into Mar-Tech and launched the beta version of its first product, PROBITEC

Whom do we cater to?

There are 3 primary target segments that we can clearly see benefitting from this platform.

1. Brand Marketers - As an Activation Management Technology Platform, Brand owners for whom activation and experiential marketing is a critical part of their marketing mix.

2. Sales and Distribution teams - This also works very well to improve sales productivity, so very relevant for organisations who have large distributed field force to manage their sales, distribution & end user engagement.

3. Activation Agencies – They can access this platform to better manage on-ground activations

What do we offer to our consumers?

Served as a mobile app (currently for Android), PROBITEC is a unified platform where field staff, activation agencies and clients can access relevant modules to collaborate, train, manage and monitor assignments simultaneously across multiple geographies around the country.

Salient features include
– Talent assessment and hiring for field staff including promoters
– Training through interactive sessions and multimedia materials for execution
– Geo-location tracking including live audio-video streaming
– Real-time monitoring and a live dashboard reporting for clients
– Data capture and database integration for the entire activity

What motivated us to start up?

While experiential & activation initiatives form a large part of most brands’ marketing mixes, there’s been very little progress in using technology to improve its impact on business. One of our clients mentioned once in a meeting – from the time we sign off on an activation plan to the time we see the final completion report, we are pretty much flying blind on what really happens on ground.

We realized the frustrating experience it is, for clients to oversee an activation program. They need to mobilise their sales and distribution teams (sometimes en masse) across the country, just to keep an eye on implementation. Despite the best efforts of marketers and their agencies, the entire process is just too inefficient and opaque to be scaled with confidence.

The team at PointNine Lintas, led by LinEngage, went about addressing this challenge through a technology platform that could help bring more credibility to activations and activation agencies.

What's in a name?

PROBITEC derives its name from ‘probity’ (Latin origin ‘probus’), which means adherence to the highest principles and ideals. It aims to set a new standard in transparency for the activation business, while making the entire process more collaborative and efficient.

How do we see Social Media?

It’s an integral part of PROBITEC’s offering itself. A large part of the user interface, especially for field forces, is designed like a closed social network. In the larger context, we’d love to see social media play a role in creating an industry dialogue about the need for transparency in the business of consumer activation.

Currently we are....

A team of consumer engagement and activation specialists, tech-developers, UI experts, data analysts and project managers. The initiative been driven so far like a crack team @PointNine Lintas, led by Sriharsh Grandhe with great support from our technology partners, Talent Bridge.

Our biggest challenge was..

To build a tech platform that’s intuitive-enough for field promoters, yet robust-enough to be the eyes and ears of some of the country’s top marketers. Another practical challenge was to ensure functionality in remote geographies (including deep-rural) where cellular data connectivity could be poor.

We want to dominate the world by..

We wish to contribute to the world by bringing transparency and accountability to the profession of consumer engagement. In the process, we hope to help marketers commit a bigger share of their dollars towards creating meaningful brand experiences, with greater confidence.

We’re making moolah by...

It’s a simple subscription-based pricing model where after an initial setup, a small fee is charged basis active man-days of utilization while an activation is live.

Also Read: Agency Feature – Polaroid Co.

For clients who have large scale investments into activations including ongoing programs, there is an option of a custom-build that can be implemented at an enterprise level.

For the initial period, we are offering free trials to select clients and activation agencies.

Industry as we foresee

We see Mar-tech’s influence on marketing and brand building to continue growing. While the early stage innovations are likely to focus on improving marketing efficiencies; in the medium to long term the real value will come from improving marketing impact and RoI. The space is already becoming a happy confluence of technology-meets-creativity, and this trend is likely to gain more traction as we move forward.

Lastly, Are you hiring?

Yes