Turning idle time into fun and cash
By: Neshan Dias
Tags: Digital Marketing, Fun, Pay It Forward, Something For Nothing, Innovation

Say hi to our new startup — Bhoozt

by Neshan Dias, founder and CEO of Bhoozt

After months of working away in stealth mode through issues that threatened to derail the dream, we’ve launched. Say hi to Bhoozt.

Here’s what we are doing. We love the ‘Pay It Forward’ philosophy. We put that into action through random acts of kindness. Simple things like giving way to people on the street, really listening to someone, spending time with someone, buying a stranger lunch or a train ticket, giving a person in the rain a ride home.

All those interactions are without fail a great experience for us and the receiver. We noticed how the act of giving with no strings attached resulted in intense attention, goodwill and trust. People are not used to getting something for nothing, so they take note when it happens. We had an epiphany when we realised how powerful this would be to businesses.

So we spent many years figuring out how to make this wonderful concept easily accessible to businesses. Here it is. Bhoozt.

Why would a business Pay It Forward?

Every business needs customers and they need to be loved and remembered by customers to stay in business. This is not easy in a noisy and busy world. Businesses need to overcome three challenges to be loved and remembered.

Challenge 1: People forget up to 80% daily. Yeah, we forget, sorry. Chances are that customers have forgotten a business in 2 days. It is academically proven and called the Forget Curve — in black below (University of Waterloo).

Figure 1 — the Forget Curve

Fortunately there is a way to help people remember.

People retain close to 100%, if their memory is refreshed within the first 24 hours and then a week and month later. Students who review notes for just 10 minutes in the first 24 hours retain close to all of what they learnt! (The gold curves on the graph above is how to arrest the forget curve)

Businesses need a way to do this with customers to be top of mind when the customer is ready to repurchase. Many businesses advertise repeatedly to reach and remind. But advertising is the second challenge.

Challenge 2: Most people hate ads cause they interrupt something fun. Yet businesses spend huge amounts of money with ad agencies and media companies to reach and remind us.

Then there are vouchers and loyalty programs.

Challenge 3: People are tired of having so many different cards and vouchers for every little offer. And they all come with restrictions and strings attached.

So what to do? There wasn’t an alternative to existing ad methods for businesses — until now. So what’s the alternative?

Alternative

The epiphany we had was realising that if we shared what businesses spent on advertising with the audience through fun and real $$$ (instant with no strings attached), it would be a win-win. It would not be disruptive because people choose to engage. And people would be more inclined to love those brands that sponsor something for nothing.

So we invented Bhoozt. Hooray! Now businesses can Pay It Forward to you to be loved and remembered.

Here’s how it works. A brand, a store or a website offers you a bit of fun where you get to complete a puzzle on your phone. Each piece you play earns you a coin and if you are among the first to complete the puzzle, you win a bunch of coin. Coin is cash. You can transfer it to PayPal and spend it however you like.

The completed puzzle contains a brand-message. The act of completing the puzzle refreshes the brand or message, arresting the forget curve that businesses grapple with.

In summary, users have fun and earn in their idle time. They really get something for nothing — fun and real value that they can transfer to PayPal and spend however they choose. It’s not useless points or discounts or vouchers. It’s real money, no strings attached. And it’s not disruptive because it’s fun that the audience chooses to enjoy.

Businesses Pay It Forward (or rather Play Forward) to be remembered and loved. No catch. No nonsense.

That’s it. That’s Bhoozt. Hope you like it.

Check it out. Download the app and have some fun on us. We’re currently only on Google Android (Australia/NZ) but will have a solution for desktop and iPhone users soon. Let us know what you think on Facebook here — please give us a Like if you love the concept.

More about us here bhoozt.com

If you’d like to be kept abreast of this amazing new movement please follow us here, on Facebook or LinkedIn.