As the recession hits marketing budgets, Elad Schneor, founder and CEO of Revolutionare, believes that interest in glooq will continue to grow.Marketing and advertising budgets have tanked in the United States, but an Israeli company is throwing out a lifeline. The advertising agency cum high-tech company Revolutionare has developed a small application that can turn every email an employee sends out, into an effective online marketing campaign.

Large multinational companies like Audi, The Holiday Inn, Motorola, and Nissan are already on board, using glooq to reach new clients and maintain existing ones. And advertising agencies such as McCann-Ericsson see glooq’s potential as well.

Essentially what glooq does is use the personal and established contacts inside a company. Through a server within the company — or via a small application downloaded into an individual’s computer — glooq makes sure that every email sent by a company employee carries a timely and targeted message.

Sending a trusted message

Whether a travel agency is selling vacation packages to the Caribbean; an NGO is promoting a donations campaign for Africans, or a motorbike company wants to advertise the latest model on the market, glooq makes sure the right marketing message gets across.

Companies big and small, and even the individual can tailor-make a marketing campaign to sell products or promote the businesses of others.

“We had a client who didn’t have a budget,” Elad Schneor, the CEO of Revolutionare tells ISRAEL21c. “They were looking for a creative solution. We noticed that this huge charity has 5,000 employees and came up with a solution that would use them — the employees — as brand ambassadors. After building a simple system via email, the money was raised within three months,” he tells ISRAEL21c.

Revolutionare went on to refine the application, and called it glooq. Israel was their initial testing ground, but today the company sells the product in 20 countries, to some of the most recognizable names in the world.

How to add a little glooq

Glooq, which is now expanding to add Twitter and RSS feeds to email as well, can be installed on an email program like Outlook, and is compatible with other programs, including web-based email. And while IncrediMail, the NASDAQ-traded Israeli company is known the world over for adding life and animation to emails, glooq aims to be the new corporate partner.

The numbers of emails sent through a glooq campaign stack up: think about every email you send to all your friends, co-workers and clients every day. Rather than a stationary link, glooq is turning your send button and signature space, into an effective marketing tool that can expand your business relationships and your company’s bottom line.

You can also see what links provoke the most interest. The solution includes a feature that allows brand managers to see who’s clicking, and can assess what campaign works the best.

Headquartered in Tel Aviv, Revolutionare has 10 employees and about 100 distribution partners around the world. Founded in 2005, the company recently received a $1 million angel investment to expand its outreach.

When managed by a marketing representative, or the individual, glooq is a cost-effective, easy to use, and easy to update tool, and requires nothing in terms of set up. The company currently offers a package of software solutions for monitoring the efficacy of your email message, and is now offering a free trial.

“I recently came across Revolutionare’s glooq and was very impressed by the marketing potential,” says Eyal, a marketing representative for the company: “This Israeli start up has a unique product that I believe can be an effective marketing tool for many companies, small business owners and even freelancers.

Willing and ready to click

“On average we send 1,000 emails a month… ” he tells ISRAEL21c. “These are mostly emails to people we know, people we do business with or intend to do business with. The bottom line is that in terms of delivery the emails make it into a ‘willing’ inbox,” he adds.

Companies are ready to try it out. The last four months especially have been very positive for the company, says 34-year-old Schneor. “Mainly because of the recession,” he says. “We offer a low cost advertising solution… glooq doesn’t cost an arm or a leg.”

Revolutionare was founded by Schneor, who comes from the advertising world, and Oded Bali, a technical expert from the high-tech community. A believer in the advertising industry in general, Schneor says that new business models in this arena are badly needed. Unlike email blasts, which most people don’t even open, emails containing the glooq message come from a “trusted source.”

“You always open [this kind of email] and thus are always exposed to the message,” he says, citing “green” ramifications as well. Glooq can make one’s business more efficient in terms of advertising dollars spent, and time employees spend sifting through junk mail, he adds.

But above everything, glooq seems to have found a way to reach a very targeted audience, with click rates never before seen in the online advertising space. Normally companies can expect a 1.2 percent yield on banner campaigns, says Schneor. With glooq, “you get 15 to 25 percent [success rates] because you know the person sending the email, and are likely to click and trust it more.”