Leading independent media owner Tractor Outdoor has launched a new initiative to support South Africa’s communities; a local events platform that will allow schools, charities, churches and other community organisations to promote events in their neighbourhood – free of charge.
By accessing Tractor’s Events Page, users are faced with a simple form that allows them to upload the details of their function, whether it be a local market, musical concert, school play or church event. Once moderated by the Tractor team, these details are packaged within a template as a simple and informative text update, which will flight across Tractor’s network of digital screens in the broader area where the event is being held until the date has passed.
Explains Remi du Preez, Commercial Director at Tractor Outdoor: “Our purpose is to help people, places and businesses grow stronger through our network of traditional out-of-home (OOH) digital inventory and ambient platforms.
“Our local neighbourhoods are a haven for smaller-scale events and are dependent on members of the community to show their support through attending. Advertising would make a significant difference, but given its cost, it can be out of reach for many smaller outfits. Through our new events platform, we want to showcase relevant, newsworthy events and thus support our local communities, at no cost to them.”
He goes on to say that this exercise will also allow outdoor media to be seen as a go-to source for all local happenings. “While OOH typically acts as a powerful, high-reach and national medium, it also has the power to drive communication that is relevant to smaller, targeted groups.
“Through serving content that is non-advertising related, relevant and hyper-local, we anticipate that audiences will start viewing this medium as one where they will receive valuable communication about their local community.”
These free community notices will be scheduled as ‘filler’ content across the media owner’s network and broadcast in between its normal advertising schedule. Du Preez maintains that paying advertisers will remain the priority, saying that “within our networks, there is a hierarchy of preference as to when content is displayed. If advertisers book a spot that was previously allocated to a community notice, the advertiser will take priority and the community notice will be served on another available screen within the same area.
“The objective is to complement the professional creative of our advertisers with newsworthy happenings that add value to members of the community, which in term positively impacts advertising resonance.”
He concludes: “Tractor believes in profit for purpose. Not only have we been very intentional about giving our audiences new reasons to engage with outdoor as a medium, but also around how we can use the resources at our disposal as a force for good.”
