http://buymyface.com/blog/

(post de 18/05/2012)
Eu sabia que isso ia dar mil idéias no Brasil!!!
Preparem-se …. para o nascimento do Buy my Bunda .
E não, não sou eu que vou lançar o conceito…..apesar de ter um grande suporte publicitário…
Bjo

A grande maioria dos estudantes no Reino Unido têm um empréstimo estudante para pagar no final do curso. O valor deste empréstimo está por volta de 25.000 pounds (75.500 reais) que devem ser pagos de volta para o governo a partir do momento em que o ex-estudante, agora profissional  começa a ganhar mais de 21.000 pounds (64.800 reais) por ano. Se o empréstimo não for pago em 30 anos a dívida é anulada. E não, eles não enganam o governo… eles têm que provar anualmente que ainda não tem renda suficiente para pagar a dívida com base na declaração do imposto de renda.

Dois rapazes formados em Economia e em Neurociência em Cambridge decidiram que não queriam iniciar a sua vida profissional com a carga de um empréstimo a pagar e resolveram dedicar o seu primeiro ano de formados a resolver essa situação. Criaram Buy my Face – Face it – It’s brilliant! Eles “vendem” as suas caras para publicidade por um ou mais dias.  Pode ser publicidade de uma empresa, uma mensagem de aniversário, um pedido de casamento, estão abertos a muitas coisas, não todas ( como eles explicam no site, eles estão desesperados, mas não tanto). Algo que saiu de nada se transformou em sucesso rapidíssimo. Os rapazes têm a agenda das suas caras (!!!!) super ocupada , com grandes multinacionais como Ernst & Young como clientes . É genial!

O projeto se iniciou há 214 dias e até agora eles já juntaram mais de 37.000 pounds ( 114.000 reais), ou seja, faltam ainda 13.000 pounds para cobrir a dívida dos dois sócios. Visitem a  página web do Buy my Face. Nela vocês podem ver a agenda, filmes mostrando como funciona, perguntas mais frequentes, etc. Eu até acompanho o blog.

Esse trabalho é também dedicado à caridade, a renda dia 25 de dezembro por exemplo foi doada.

Não é genial? É um daqueles casos em que a idéia é tão louca que é boa! Adoro! E eles aceitam trabalhar fora do Reino Unido. Alguém se interessa pelo Buy my Face no Brasil? É sucesso imediato.

Beijos

PS: não conheço estes rapazes e não tenho nenhum interesse em promocionar o seu negócio. Só achei a idéia interessante e quiz compartir com vocês.

By Katy Lee

In their scruffy jeans and trainers, Ross Harper and Ed Moyselook just like any other British 22-year-olds — except for the words “Buy My Face” and “Sold” emblazoned brightly on their faces.

Standing in the middle of London’s shopping mecca Oxford Circus, the two Cambridge University graduates attract more than a few curious glances from the hordes of passers-by.

“How much?” a young man calls out from a gaggle of Spanish tourists, to which Harper, a former neuroscience student, replies that it’s £100 ($160, 120 euros) to hire the two faces as advertising space for the day.

“A hundred pounds?” The tourists throw up their hands in mock outrage before bursting into laughter.

There may be no customers here, but others are queuing to hire the two human billboards. Harper and Moyse have made over £30,000 since setting up Buy My Face in October in a bid to pay off their student debts.

The enterprising duo plan to launch the business, which works by directing online traffic to advertisers’ websites through their own entertaining site, on the international market in May.

“We’ve had interest from places like Hong Kong, Canada, Australia, the United States, and all over Europe,” Harper told AFP.

With record youth unemployment of 22 percent in Britain, and even graduates from prestigious universities such as Cambridge struggling to find work as the economy stalls, theirs is an unusual success story.

“We were coming up with ideas for what we wanted to do after we left university,” said economics graduate Moyse. “And we thought, ‘The job market’s really tough at the moment. Why don’t we try a creative project for a year?’”

The pair, who each borrowed £25,000 from the government to fund their studies, came up with Buy My Face over a pot of instant noodles last year while brainstorming business ideas that required only minimal investment.

“We’re £50,000 in debt — we didn’t want to invest thousands more into a business,” said Moyse, adding that they spent just £100 on face-paint.

Since October 1, he and Harper have managed to “sell” their faces every single day — to large companies such as Irish bookmaker Paddy Power and accountants Ernst & Young, as well as smaller firms.

“On the very first day we sold them for £1,” Moyse recalled, turning to Harper and adding: “Not a very good graduate wage, was it?”

But as word has spread about the scheme, with website traffic now peaking at around 7,000 visits a day, they have been able to command higher rates.

They currently rent their faces for up to £400 a day to advertisers, who can pay for them to complete eye-catching stunts, from skydiving to plunging into icy rivers. And they may raise prices again as their online following grows.

“The idea isn’t about seeing us in the real world,” Moyse explained. “It’s about getting good photos and funny videos on our website, and that’s seen by thousands of people every day.”

In a world where successful viral advertising campaigns spread rapidly online through social networking websites, humour and creativity are crucial, explains Patrick Barwise, professor of marketing at London Business School.

“All you need to do is create something which other people will want to pass on,” he told AFP.

“They’re obviously very enterprising,” he said of Harper and Moyse, “but I’d be surprised if it’s that sustainable. Marketing is enormously faddish.”

The graduates happily admit this.

“What we’re doing now is a gimmicky thing,” says Harper, adding that whatever its success abroad, their own face-painting days will end in September.

At that point the double act intend to set up another business, while also managing newly recruited face-painters in Britain and abroad.

“We sometimes refer to it as an entrepreneurial gap year,” Harper says.

“The reason we started with Buy My Face was that it didn’t require any investment. But now we’ve got some money to invest into another idea.”

Their success may be of some comfort to other British students battling huge debts, particularly those starting university later this year, who face a controversial tripling of tuition fees.

Students who begin degrees in England in 2012 will graduate with £59,100 debt on average, according to the Push university guide.

“Students going to university now — the fees have just risen, so they’ll be coming out with about three times as much debt as we had,” says Moyse. “Hopefully they can take inspiration from our story.”

But the pair’s parting words suggest they have a way to go before becoming dotcom millionaires.

“Could we get expenses on our train tickets?” Moyse asks hopefully.

UK students turn human billboards to pay off debts

gregorylnewton

Could approaching companies to advertise on their faces, really lead to a debt free post graduation life?? Maybe so. Either way, as funny as it initially may seem, this has the opportunity to bring the two guys, Ross and Ed, a little bit of internet and press notoriety and also is in essence, a very entrepreneurial and innovative idea, that could become more than just a bit of fun. We thought it was only fair to buy the two guys’ faces for the day to support the idea (look out for TheEmployable day on the 20th October) and also catch up with Ross and Ed to ask them a few questions about BuyMyFace!

Wow, great idea guys, but when did you think that BuyMyFace could actually work?

From the start – that’s why we decided to put so much time and effort into kicking it off.

Did you ever have moments of self doubt when you thought that this might be a little stupid?!

We always knew it was unusual, but this is why it might work too.  Before the website was up and running, it was sometimes hard to convince friends and family that this could be a winner, but within 2 days of our website being live, we sold 10 days, and have now nearly sold out our first month.

Have you heard of anything similar to this elsewhere in the UK or further afield?

We’ve been inspired by the stories of other ventures that have something unique about them, but as far as we know, our idea is original.

Have you a targeted marketing plan to try to target some big companies? i.e. McDonalds, Facebook etc. Any big interests so far?

Our plan is to snowball… and that means starting small.  Big companies might not be interested in buying some of the very first days, whereas smaller ones might jump at the opportunity to have some very affordable advertising.  In fact, some of the very first days were bought by friends and family because they thought it would be funny to have their names painted on our faces.  The balance has already started to shift, as our first FTSE 250 company has got in touch.

Anywhere else you would get sponsored?!

Not exactly sure what this question is asking… if it’s “would we sell other parts of our bodies”, then the answer is no, except for Ross, who already is – just ask round the streets of London on a Friday night for a girl who goes by the name Consuela… (only joking!)

What did you study at University?

Neuroscience (Ross), and Economics (Ed)

What if one of you gets a real good job, would you still keep the face painting up for the next year?

For us, Buy My Face is going to be an incredible gap year.  We’re not exactly sure what we’ll be doing when the year’s up – something entrepreneurial would be fantastic, although doors are beginning to open up to us, so we’ll have to play it by ear.

8. Do you plan to take this forward as a possible long term business?

No. We wouldn’t want our idea to lose its novelty or appeal.  We do have other ideas, but we’ll only be painting our faces for 366 days. At the end of the year, our website will become an exclusive online list (with hyperlinks) for everybody who’s bought our faces – that way you’ll get much more than just one day of advertising with your purchase.

Do you have other entrepreneurial ideas in the pipeline?

Since being next-door neighbours in our first year, we’ve been keeping track of any entrepreneurial ideas we have in a black book.  We’d love to try some out, so hopefully Buy My Face will give us the financial freedom to do so.

What if someone comes to you with a complex design? Who’s doing the
painting?

Well that’s what we’ve been practising all summer for – check out some of the pictures on http://buymyface.com/ to see for yourself.  If someone happens to upload something ridiculous (one of my friends wanted us to paint a picture of my face on his face on my face), then we’ll artistically adapt it so that it looks as good as possible.

How you will make sure that your face gets media coverage every day?

Our idea is well integrated with social media.  We’ll be doing something different every day to make our idea fun to follow online.

How did you take this idea, from initial idea to startup? Have you had much support or help? 

After working out exactly how everything was going to work, we took our idea to our friend and web designer, Thomas “the Tech Engine”.  Friends, family, and even some people we’d never met before, have been very helpful.

Do you see yourselves as Entrepreneurial?

Mmmmmmmhmmmmmmm….

Good luck to Ed and Ross from TheEmployable and as their website states; “Face it, Its Brilliant!” We urge everyone to take a look and lets all support this cheeky but innovative idea!

Buy My Face can be found at;

http://buymyface.com/

Check out all of TheEmployable interviews here!!