Company designs location-based advertising for SMEs

In the form of an electronic billboard, SME users can book their advertising online where they will also decide which location they’d prefer from a supplied list, with costs starting at approximately $2 per day.

“Over 80 percent of the customers served by many SMEs are located within a 5km radius around the business, and yet no effective targeted system exists for creating a sustained brand for a business within their own community,” said Local Vision managing director, Shubber Ali, in a press statement.

According to Ali, 80 percent of the economy is made up of SMEs, yet there is little or no advertising representation for this sector.

“The market research came from a study I'd originally done when I was a manager with KPMG's technology group in the US,” Ali told iTnews. “The smaller businesses simply do not have the budgets or scale to be of interest to most traditional media (TV, internet, print) outside of the local papers and the like.”

The privately-owned company was set-up in 2006 and has already installed digital display screens in the Sydney CBD, the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney and the Northern Sydney suburb of Chatswood.

“One-off advertising, in local papers or magazines, is ineffective because they are rarely seen and not repeated,” said Ali.

Local Vision’s screens are placed in ‘hot spots’ such as cafes where people spend time. The screens operate on a cycle basis with the paid advertising flashing up approximately every 10 minutes throughout the working day, interspersed with news, public transport schedules and horoscopes.

The public transport information is supplied by the government, news and sports comes from News Digital Media (part of News Corp), and weather is supplied by The Weather Channel.

“Businesses are constantly being extorted into paying simply to get a basic listing in a phone directory or on a website. We say the time is for that to end. Any small business that advertises with us, even for a single day, gets listed in our directory, with no ongoing cost,” said Ali.

The Local Vision directory will be available from next week at www.localvision.com.au

The company has established an Advisory Board with some high-profile Australian executives including John McGrath and Clifford Rosenberg.

Local Vision’s aim is to install 150 digital display screens in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne by the end of the year.