Adwork partners with SPH Media Limited to launch first Cross-Border Media Marketplace

Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia can now grow their business by investing in cross-border advertising, made possible through a first-of-its-kind partnership between homegrown Adwork and Singapore’s leading media organisation, SPH Media Limited.

This unique collaboration has resulted in the birth of an unprecedented cross-border media advertising service, where Malaysian SMEs can advertise their business in Singapore.

Adwork is a global platform, where any advertiser around the world can buy Malaysian advertising media. As part of the regional expansion, Adwork is introducing Singaporean advertising media for advertisers in January 2022.

With just three clicks of a button, advertisers will be able to see their advertisement on a huge billboard in Singapore or through shoutouts over the radio.

Businesses, especially SMEs in Malaysia, has always faced challenges when it comes to advertising as they have lesser reach that other larger companies have. With budget limitations in place, agencies and foreign media companies might not entertain SMEs seeking an advertisement buy.

However, with this new regional service launched by Adwork, it gives Malaysian entrepreneurs a chance to grow their business regionally, more so during this pandemic where everything is going virtual.

In Malaysia, a business is considered an SME if its annual revenue is RM50 million and below across all industries. SMEs make up about 98.5% of Malaysian businesses.

“No one in the region has attempted this cross-border media buy platform before and we are the first to introduce it. Going regional and introducing cross-border media buy has always been part of Adwork’s regional expansion plan and now it is finally happening,” said Kumaresh Visvanathan, the CEO of Adwork.

He added that Adwork will be expanding regionally to various countries in the next five years. After Singapore, Adwork will expand its reach to Indonesia and Thailand next year, while 2023 will see Australia, Vietnam and Philippines coming on board. 

Adwork was launched in 2019 and has fast become a disrupter in the advertising industry, especially for SMEs, as it levelled the playing field for these smaller businesses. It is Malaysia’s largest media advertising marketplace which offers advertising across 12 channels like billboards, newspaper, radio, television, talk shows and more.

Similar to other e-commerce platforms, users will just have to select their desired media advertisement channel, upload their creative art work and pay. It is that simple!

“Just like that, users will be able to see their advertisement in another country or city. Take a clothes seller in Kelantan for example, there is a huge market in Indonesia for them but they wouldn’t even know of this opportunity or what is available. So, with our platform, even small-time traders selling clothes will be well informed of the vast advertising opportunities out there and can see their advertisement up on a billboard in Jakarta for instance,” Kumaresh added.

Currently, Adwork is developing its proprietary Recommendation Engine which is AI (artificial intelligence) based and is set to be launched sometime next year. This feature will be able to read and analyse existing SME profiles in its system and recommend potential products which are relevant to users.

It will also be able to tell users what other similar SMEs have bought and the exposure rate. This system is capable of educate users on the various advertising platforms available out there both locally and internationally, as well as make recommendations for overseas advertisement in a bid to help local businesses go global.

“Everyone wants to expand their business but most of the time, they just don’t have access to the right platform to market their products outside Malaysian borders or unsure where to begin. This is one of the ways to do it, where users will not only get to go regional but also be well-educated on the options and possibilities available out there,” said Kumaresh, adding that they may also expand internationally to Middle East or Europe after achieving their five-year regional expansion plan.

Meanwhile, SPH Media Limited’s Channel Excellence Lead, Alicia Luke believes that this partnership is a timely one and hopes that this first-of-its-kind platform will be able to help more SMEs in Singapore and Malaysia grow and expand their business.

“We are delighted to be on board this partnership and it certainly is an exciting time ahead. In our current technological era, we have to start thinking out of the box, in terms of advertising, and not rely solely on traditional methods which may not work for all, especially in this digital day and age. I believe that the SME advertisement market is huge and with the help of this platform, all business big and small will now be on a level playing field,” Alicia said.

More information about Adwork can be found at www.Adwork.io or on their Facebook page.

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