WeAre8 launches self-serve ad-buying engine

Social media app WeAre8 has launched a self-serve ad-buying engine, SAM-i, with brands such as Heineken, Nike and Santander already using the platform.

In the past week, brands have bought $1m (£820,000) of advertising through SAM-i, which WeAre8's founder and CEO Sue Fennessy described as its own version of Facebook’s Ads Manager.

WeAre8 prompts and pays its users to view up to two minutes of ads per day. The ads are combined with social issues content provided by figures such as Rio Ferdinand.

Users earn between 6p and 20p for each ad watched. Out of each pound a brand spends on ads, 50% is distributed to users, 5% goes to a charity of the brand’s choice and 1% goes to Ecologi – a carbon reduction company.

Charity partners include FareShare, The Trussell Trust and the International Anti-Poaching Foundation.

The platform allows advertisers to track the charity donations and carbon offsetting generated by their ads.

In February, Dentsu UK and Ireland struck up a trading partnership with the app. Both companies claimed that advertisers could make their digital spend carbon neutral if they moved just 6.5% of their digital spend budget through the platform.

The app also has relationships with Group M, Havas Media, Omnicom Media Group and Publicis Media.

WeAre8 chief commercial officer Laura Chase said: “Our sustainable ad manager, SAM-i, ensures attention, fully completed video views, real relationships, and insights directly from people with every campaign. Through SAM-i, advertisers can also see how much impact they are making with every view.”

Fennessy, an Australian entrepreneur who founded and was previously CEO of the Standard Media Index, added: “This is advertising done in a way that puts people at the centre in every way. 

"People are changing the world every time they're watching ads and they're making a positive impact. They're getting paid and the attention is transformational as a result, when people feel valued.”