Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief
Amscreen today launched Amscreen LinkLocal, a new service that allows local businesses to target potential customers by advertising on one of 3,000 digital signage screens up and down the UK.
Using a live mapping service via their website, Amscreen LinkLocal provides a tailored search that enables small businesses to pinpoint exactly where screens are located and to place messages on them. Situated in high footfall environments such as petrol stations, neighbourhood convenience stores, waiting areas of surgeries, the screens enable advertisers to showcase their messages as and when they like and at a time that is convenient to them.
Amscreen LinkLocal provides a series of easy-to-use templates where messages are overlaid and then submitted for completion. With the process only taking a matter of minutes until the advert is screened, local advertisers will have the assurance of local exclusivity, with each screen only showing one LinkLocal ad in its advertising loop, we are told.
Simon Sugar, CEO at Amscreen told us “Small and local businesses have had a tough time recently and we think we’ve designed a product in Amscreen LinkLocal that assists them in a quick, affordable and user-friendly way. Our screens have already been very successful in providing a platform for blue-chip advertisers to reach audiences up and down the country and now for the first time, smaller businesses can utilise a national digital signage network to promote their services.”
Chris Heap from the Imperative Group told us that “the idea of developing direct revenues from local advertisers booking direct, using self-completed templates and so forth is not new however rarely has it been done well”.
He added “It should be a smart way of making good revenues with very little cost (there is no agency commission or large numbers of local sales-reps to hire) as long as the advertising rates are competitive and advertisers see direct response” – local business aren’t usually in the ‘brand building’ game are they?, Ed
As with all local initiatives, we’d expect that Amscreen will probably have to spend a fair bit on local and affiliate marketing to keep the revenues coming in after the initial phase BUT Hopefully Amscreen will capture some performance data to validate the ROI for it’s local advertisers.
Chris also pointed out “Amscreen are charging just over £18 (around €22) CPT per month for local firms to reach patients in my nearby doctors surgery” and he asked “I wonder how that compares with similar networks across Europe?”.
Both Chris and I agree however that this is “Definitely one to watch!”
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