Until 1998, university education in Britain was free, but now students have to pay. Usually they borrow the money and pay it back when they find a job. When two friends, Ed Moyse and Ross Harper, graduated from Cambridge last year, they had combined debts of £50,000 (Ä60,000). Ed had studied Economics and Ross had studied Neuroscience but, thanks to the financial crisis, they couldn’t find jobs. They had a problem and there was only one solution: they decided to sell their faces!
low cost
Their initial aim was to raise enough money to pay off their university loans. To do so, they decided to rent out their faces on the internet for a different advertising campaign every day.
The marketing concept behind Buy My Face has two basic aims: to encourage people to look at the company logos painted on their faces, and to redirect traffic to the advertisers’ websites by uploading photos of the faces on www.buymyface.com. Their initial investment was just £100 (this was spent on non-toxic face paint). They charged clients £1 a day when they opened for business in October, 2011. Now the daily fee is £190 (which is a lot cheaper than hiring human billboards.)
a gap year
So far Ed and Ross have been able to sell their faces every day, and they are often involved in fun promotional activities organised by their clients. They have gone skiing with Ernst & Young and have tried sky diving with Altitude Solutions. The two young men also receive plenty of free products from their clients.
business development
Not surprisingly, Buy My Face has attracted a lot of media attention. Ed and Ross are currently thinking of selling their idea (as a franchise) to other countries. In this way other young people around the world will have the chance to make some money... and have lots of fun at the same time!
Un'intervista con Ed e Ross: Buy My Face: Career Plans