Adwork, a media advertising marketplace (eCommerce) that makes buying over 10,000 media across digital, TV, radio, newspaper, static and digital billboards, cinema, transportation, in-store, talk-shows, and even newspaper classified absolutely easy, fast, guaranteed and secure. All this from the comfort of your laptop or mobile phone, making the entire process much more accessible and time saving.
The advertising marketplace is gaining positive reception among Malaysian SMEs. Since launched in December 2019, adwork.io has recorded online bookings valued more than RM1,000,000, which validates the level of acceptance to the value chain of booking media via an automated solution using intelligent design and a three-step-easy booking method to become what is essentially an ‘Amazon for Advertising’.
In the world of media advertising, advertisers typically engage an agency for advertising media procurement. This process involves a lot of time and additional cost, which smaller companies shy away. But with Adwork, the ‘middleman’ is eliminated, and advertisers buy directly from the media owner with zero hassle booking process. The platform also enables media owners to offer cost-saving promotions to be enjoyed by SMEs. At the moment, Adwork is offering more than RM5 million worth of promotions online.
SMEs play an important role in fostering growth, employment and national incomes not only in Malaysia but around the world as well. But, when it comes to advertising and promotions, SMEs are understandably rather hesitant. But the actual hesitance was never about advertising the product, but complexity in the media booking process and high cost involved. This is a rather large problem, as advertising is simultaneously one of the most important activities for the growth and survival of SMEs, especially in today’s bustling marketplace.
With a simple and intuitive eCommerce website, Adwork allows each customer to customize their advertising options as they see fit. First, the customer keys in their budget range and their target demographic, before they are taken to a page with a list of potential advertising mediums and their accompanying prices. Once you’ve selected your media of choice, all that’s left is to upload the creative and make the payment online. Adwork also offers creative service for a small fee.
According to Adwork CEO Kumaresh Visvanathan, “Until now, mainstream advertising has been a ‘privilege’ to large-scale organizations 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.”
Kumaresh explained that while Adwork is available for all businesses and organizations, the platform is specially designed for SMEs, across all industries in the South East Asian region.
“Adwork is the status quo challenger. We firmly believe that the time has come for a fully automated advertising media buying via an e-commerce platform to match the speed of SME thinkers. We intend to empower local SMEs through these easily accessible and highly affordable promotions and products online. This is part of our competitive strategy which is made possible by collaborating closely and directly with our media partners to craft special promotion deals for SMEs,” Kumaresh said, adding that Adwork expects to see a strong take-up and increased overall advertising expenditure by SMEs, with an initial estimated target of RM6.5 million in revenue by the end of 2021.
“This model has been operating very successfully in foreign markets and we believe the market conditions are rife for the industry here – but we’re taking it a step further. While the focus for such platforms in other markets typically focus on billboard and print media, Adwork’s initial offering of twelve advertising mediums will provide more value and wider options for SMEs to advertise. In fact, Adwork is currently the biggest online advertising marketplace in South East Asia. In time, we expect to add more channels to the repertoire of products on the platform,” he claimed.
Adwork is raising Pre-Series A funding of RM2M, which will be key for product development, growth programs, and regional expansion exercise targeting Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Cambodia by end of 2022. Adwork is currently LIVE on PitchIN.
