Morocco will need to be innovative like startup Hooplacar to shock Portugal

Morocco take on Portugal this afternoon at 2pm (Central African Time). After Portugal’s spectacular match with Spain, which saw Cristiano Ronaldo pull off a hat-trick, the Atlas Lions will have to be a little innovative to shock the Portuguese.

Good thing that the Moroccans are an innovative bunch, take Moroccan startup Hooplacar and its approach to advertising for example.

The startup was founded last year by CEO Salmane Berraoui (pictured above, right), managing partner Jounaid Anasse and Mehdi Benayad (pictured above, left).

Hooplacar is only a year-old and already has 6500 drivers on its platform

The trio manage a fleet of 6500 cars carrying on-vehicle ads — which are monitored in real-time using geo-location and marketing key performance indicators (KPIs) — around 20 cities in Morocco.

Through Hooplacar’s Sougourbeh platform, individuals can register to carry ads for the startup on their car, in return the drivers are paid a monthly fee ranging from between $100 to $157 (Moroccan Dirham 1000 to 1500).

The trio claims their advertising solution offers the lowest prices in the market, while its platform allows corporates to measure the return on investment on their ad spend.

After winning the 2017 edition of Seedstars Casablanca, Hooplacar went on to represent Morocco at this year’s Seedstars Summit in Lausanne, Switzerland.

With some bit of innovation and a little luck, could the Atlas Lions follow Senegal’s lead and bring some cheer to Africa’s football fans?

This piece is part of a series of 12 articles is meant to be a light-hearted way that Ventureburn aims to draw attention to and celebrate African innovation and African startups.

African results so far:

Egypt 0-1 Uruguay (Group A, 15 June)
Morocco 0-1 Iran (Group B, 15 June)
Nigeria 0-2 Croatia (Group C, 16 June)
Tunisia 1-2 England (Group G, 18 June)
Senegal 2-1 Poland (Group H, 19 June)
Egypt 1-3 Russia (Group A, 19 June)

Read more: Can Egypt help Africa save face? This savings platform could show them how
Read more: Will the Teranga Lions roar and dominate like Senegalese startup CoinAfrique?
Read more: Can Tunisia haul a win? Meet the logistics marketplace that could inspire them
Read more: As the Atlas Lions march into battle, learn how MedTrucks is disrupting healthcare
Read more: Ahead of the Pharoahs’ Group A match, meet Egyptian healthtech Vezeeta
Read more: This is how Ventureburn will celebrate African tech startups this World Cup

Featured image (from left to right): Hoopla managing partner Mehdi Benayad and CEO Salmane Berraoui (via Seedstars via Twitter)