SME Launchpad to offer free outdoor advertising to small businesses

A new initiative from the media owner that aims to support the country’s economic recovery, the SME Launchpad is a platform that will allow small businesses to benefit from widespread marketing exposure across Tractor’s roadside digitals and Digilite networks in Johannesburg, Cape Town or Durban.

The SME Launchpad allows SMEs to create awareness around their products and services in the cities in which they operate free of charge, through a high-reach, high-frequency digital out of home (DOOH) campaign that will be live for two weeks.

Remi du Preez, commercial director at Tractor Media Holdings

Remi du Preez, commercial director at Tractor Media Holdings, explains that the initiative was inspired by Tractor’s #SMEHeroes campaign, which ran in 2020 and 2021.

“Our #SMEHeroes campaign intended to support those businesses that were hardest hit by the pandemic, through tapping into the greatest resource at our disposal – our network of outdoor inventory. Qualifying businesses were given an extensive media package that would help increase top-of-mind awareness, with a total media value of around R8m.

He says that the campaign received such a fantastic response that they decided to launch an ongoing initiative that would allow any small business to apply and benefit.

“To increase access, we needed to develop a self-service platform, which would become a permanent fixture hosted on our website.”

Du Preez says that the SME Launchpad was specifically designed with SMEs in mind, allowing them to quickly and easily build a DOOH campaign thanks to its user-friendly interface. “We realise that small businesses generally don’t have the resources to employ agencies to design their creative or manage their campaigns, and so we have kept things very simple.

“To apply, a business owner or representative needs to visit our website and create a profile, where they will be asked to provide details about their business. They are then directed to a dashboard where they can upload their creative (which needs to be supplied according to predefined specifications) and select the region where they would like the campaign to flight.”

Once the application has been validated and the creative approved, the campaign is slotted into Tractor’s DOOH flighting schedule, based on the live date selected by the user and subject to availability. “The dashboard will even allow applicants to monitor their campaigns once live, he adds.

“The initial vetting of the artwork is automated to streamline the process. We’ve also enabled an end-of-campaign reporting functionality, which sees users receiving an overview of the inventory their creative flighted on, how many ad serves they had at each location, and the approximate number of consumers who viewed their campaign.”

Du Preez says that if the recent pandemic taught us anything, it is that South Africans need to stand together and support one another as best they can.

“The growth and success of the small business sector is regarded as critical to the country’s economic revival. The SME Launchpad is yet another way that Tractor aims to support those around us, in line with our vision to effect ripples of change that will positively impact the socio-economic success of our country,” he concludes.

Visit https://smelaunchpad.tractoroutdoor.com to find out more about how your business can participate in the SME Launchpad initiative.