Mali Motsumi-Garrido, sales director at Tractor Outdoor, says, "As one of South Africa's largest independent outdoor media owners, we're looking for promising companies and passionate people who we can help take their business to the next level."
Tractor says that there is no catch.
In the media owner's ongoing quest to support small businesses and bolster the South African economy, 2024 intakes are now open for its SME Launchpad. This is a platform that allows advertisers to benefit from widespread marketing exposure across Tractor's roadside digital billboard and Digilite networks in the country's main metros:
- Johannesburg
- Cape Town, and
- Durban.
Motsumi-Garrido adds that Tractor's drive to support small businesses first started in 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic took hold across the world and small businesses — in particular — were hit hard.
"We knew that if we wanted our business to survive and thrive, we needed our community to do the same. There was an incredible sense of standing with our fellow South Africans, and using our resources to help others where we could," says Motsumi-Garrido.
Motsumi-Garrido adds that outdoor advertising can be particularly powerful for SMEs, as it provides them with extremely high visibility. This allows them to broaden their audiences and increase brand recognition and top-of-mind awareness far more impactfully than social media or traditional digital media alone might do.
"DOOH complements digital marketing; research shows that consumers who are exposed to outdoor advertising are more likely to go and find the product / business online," Motsumi-Garrido says.
The Sightline Global Digital Out-of-Home survey conducted by research specialist Kantar, which surveyed 11 000 respondents in 11 major global markets, found that two-thirds of respondents said that DOOH ads had encouraged them to search for more information online.
Moreover, the 2023 Kantar Media Reactions Report revealed that OOH ads were one of the top three highest-ranking channels for capturing the attention of global consumers.
"For digital businesses such as tech and e-commerce start-ups, OOH is a great way to get people to go online and find your business. It can even reduce your digital marketing spend. When someone types your company website URL into their browser after being exposed to your business via a billboard, you don't pay for that click conversion as you would if they had found you via a search engine," says Motsumi-Garrido.
"If you're a small business owner, visit our website and create a profile. You'll be directed to a dashboard where you can upload your creative according to the provided specs and select where you would like the campaign to flight," Motsumi-Garrido adds.
Once approved, the advertisement is slotted into Tractor's flighting schedule, subject to availability.
"At the end of the campaign, business owners receive a report that gives them an overview of where their creative flighted, the number of ad serves and the campaign's estimated impressions (or reach)," says Motsumi-Garrido.
"We encourage those looking to grow their businesses this year to take advantage of our free platform, and realise the power of outdoor media in exposing you to new, broader audiences," Motsumi-Garrido concludes.