Question

Topic: Advertising/PR

How To Find/approach Advertisers For New Platform

Posted by Anonymous on 5/4/2015 at 8:07 AM ET 250 Points
Hello Everyone,

I am in the process of launching a new advertising platform. Our company distributes free bottled water on the streets and we sell our label as advertising space.

We have run product trials returning results of 18% ad recall and an average 8 hour dwell time.

My question is, how do we approach advertisers, or indeed gain contacts to advertisers large enough to scale the production of our project. We are currently advertising local businesses in small scale, and need to gain larger contracts to increase our distribution at launch this August.

I have the a product, I have the stats, but I am struggling to make contact with the right people.

Any words of advice would be greatly appreciated.

Best Regards
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 5/4/2015 at 8:45 AM Member
    If I'm an advertiser, ad recall percentages and dwell time durations (and any other statistics) are meaningless. They might be nice things to trot out in a sale pitch, but as a business owner, I need to know how these numbers help me make money.

    There MUST be an action that the consumer of the water has to take in order for me to see a return on my investment, otherwise, my advertising spend on the label is useless. What is the incentive?

    How many of those people looking at the label on the bottle of free water in their hot little hand are MY kind of customers? What does the label ask people (or tell people) to do?

    To answer this question, consider connecting the availability, visibility, use, and consumption of the product TO a place or an event. Create an incentive for the consumer to visit the advertiser. Then, logically connect the advertiser's goods, products, or services WITH that event and WITH the interests of the event attendees/product consumers.

  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 5/4/2015 at 8:48 AM Member
    Study what Free Is Better is doing (https://www.freeisbetter.com.au/)
  • Posted on 5/4/2015 at 8:57 AM Author
    HI Gary,

    Thanks alot for your repsonse. Great advice. I'll add further to my initial post.

    We currently distribute in tow local places -

    Mornings - Railway Station (Commuting Times) - Demographics 18-35 young proffesionals (70% Male, 30% Female)

    Afternoons - University Campus - Demopgraphic University Students)

    That is a ver high-level outline of our distribution channel.

    As for the ad content, we are simply selling the space, and the company provides their own ad / artwork. We can provide examples to the client, such as a recent set of labels witha QR code set to download a mobile app advertised.

    I would appreciate any further advice or opinions
  • Posted on 5/4/2015 at 9:03 AM Author
    Thank you for the link Jay, we have studied Free-Is-Better and greatly admire what they have achieved. Especially breaking the retail barrier.

    I believe our business is a more streamlined distribution with the same ad concept! What my real question in this topic is, how did freeisbetter and other company’s who have launched new platforms, acquire the necessary advertisers to launch. Should I be cold-calling potential businesses with a pitch or is there other methods in this industry?
  • Posted by Peter (henna gaijin) on 5/4/2015 at 12:47 PM Accepted
    Your challenge isn't all that different than what a new magazine goes through when they try to sell ads. I started a magazine a while back and wrote a blog post that talks about my learnings on pricing and selling ads for new publications. can be read at: https://expandabroad.blogspot.com/2011/06/ads-in-new-publication.html

    You ask about how to get the contacts, and there is not any silver bullet. Hard work of networking, cold calling, etc. to find people at larger companies. Lots of other media are also trying to talk to them, so they are not always easy to talk to.

    Now, slightly off topic - I wonder about the long term viability of water bottles. I live in California, and we have some cities pushing to make water bottles harder to get, if not illegal, due to the negative environmental impacts. Many schools and public places are providing water bottle refill stations, so people can bring ad use their water bottles. Unless I am in a foreign country were water safety is an issue, I just don't use water bottles. And I don't seem to be alone.
  • Posted on 5/5/2015 at 4:56 AM Author
    Hi Peter,

    Thank you for your response. Very interesting and helpful blog post!

    I suspected that was the case. I best just get to work!

    To address your question of the long term viability of our project. We are based in the UK where bottled water is the fastest growing beverage in the country recently becoming the nations most popular drink. We are very aware of the enviromental issues associated with bottled water however it is also important to ensure people are making the healthier choice over sodas and other "convinient alternatives".

    To address enviromental issues our bottles are made of reenforced plastic and are BPA free making them completely refillable! We are blessed in some parts of the country with great water from the tap and we realise we should be using it. As example - during trials, we distrubuted 100 bottles to test commuters in the morning. 82 out of 100 still had their bottle on their commute home. This was a positive response boasting a high dwell time for our advertisers and also stops people purhcasing multible plastic bottles per day. I'm not trying to preach we're enviromentally friendly, but we are very aware of the issues and will invest in finding better ways to address current issues if we grow to such a level.

    You may very well be right about the long term viability of the project, but there is defintiely value to be had NOW!

    I would love ot hear any further opinions, or messages from members of the board as im sure every piece of advice will help me and my team along the way.

    Best Regards
  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 5/5/2015 at 11:55 AM Accepted
    I suggest offering more than ad space I also suggest you avoid QR codes: in my experience in ivy league education here in the US, students (18 -26 age range) had little interest in QR codes.

    As platform provider, you will do much to elevate your offer by educating your clients on the best ways to use the space.
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 5/5/2015 at 2:12 PM Accepted
    Sponsor amateur athletic events with your bottles. It'll help the local event producer and get your name in front of your likely demographic. That will help present your message to potential sponsors with clear distribution and target audience.
  • Posted by Shelley Ryan on 5/21/2015 at 5:16 PM Moderator
    Hi Everyone,

    I am closing this question since there hasn't been much recent activity.

    Thanks for participating!

    Shelley
    MarketingProfs
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