KUCHING: A new advertising platform is poised to shake things up for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), setting its sights on levelling the playing field for these smaller businesses.
In today’s information-rich but time-starved marketplace, advertising has become an essential part of the business landscape.
However, when it came to advertising, SMEs could be rather hesitant, said a newly launched Kuala Lumpur-based advertising firm, Adwork, in a press statement.
Newly established Adwork, which is a self-serve end-to-end advertising platform, said SMEs made up 98.5 per cent of Malaysian businesses.
However, in terms of the overall advertising expenditure, these businesses account for less than 25 per cent of the industry total.
Adwork said a number of reasons, which include the typically high costs and complexities involved, led to smaller firms shying away from advertising as compared with larger businesses.
Adwork set to level the playing field for these smaller businesses by providing easy, highly affordable and effective advertising experiences not only in Malaysia but throughout the Southeast Asian region.
Adwork’s objectives are in line with the 2020 Budget’s Shared Prosperity goals, especially “Development for All” which aims to restructure the country’s economy to be more progressive, high-value and knowledge-based with full community participation; including locals SMEs.
The online advertising marketplace will feature a variety of advertising products and options through an online selection which will include a wide variety of advertising mediums including newspaper, magazines, radio, television, static and digital billboards, cinema, transportation, hospitals and clinics, in-store, talk-shows and digital platforms.
Moreover, users of the Adwork are assured of ease, simplicity and accessibility with the platform’s propriety three-step booking method — media selection, creative service and payment.
With more than 5,000 media for selection, Adwork is now the largest media advertising platform in the country.
This industry-disrupting gamechanger is the brainchild of industry veteran and entrepreneur, Kumaresh Visvanathan, who has over 20 years of work experience in various stages of corporate commercial activities including international sales and marketing, new business development, key account management and business strategy across various industries including telecommunication, computing, energy and technology.
Kumaresh, who is Adwork chief executive officer said, “Up until now, mainstream advertising has been a ‘privilege’ of large-scale organisations with huge marketing budgets which enable them to engage with media agencies.
“SMEs do not have this so-called luxury. This is a disconnect we want to change, by making advertising more accessible online and affordable for SMEs.”
As part of its launch initiatives, Adwork will be offering RM2 million worth of free advertising space to users through cash rebates, value-added deals and discounts of up to 70 pe cent. SME Corp Malaysia chief cluster development officer Zaky Moh officiated at Adwork’s launch recently.
These promotions will be published on the Adwork platform. All advertisers need to do is create an account to grab these limited-time promotions.
They may also follow the platform’s social media pages for detailed information on the promotions. From the RM2mln giveaway, Adwork will be offering up to RM1mln worth of free ad space to SMEs under SME Corp’s database.
Kumaresh explained that while Adwork is available for all businesses and organisations, the platform is specially designed for SMEs businesses with an annual revenue of RM50mln or below — across all industries in Malaysia and the region.
