AdEasy, Malaysia’s leading adtech startup and Southeast Asia’s first online marketplace for buying offline advertisement space, has announced the launch of the #AdEasyJagaSME program — an initiative to support SMEs amidst the COVID-19 crisis. Under this initiative, AdEasy is urging people to buy local and support small and medium enterprises (SMEs) so they can survive the pandemic and stay afloat.
With consumer spend decreasing significantly and supply chains being disrupted, the economy is taking a major hit because of the pandemic. While it is crucial for public safety and well-being, the Movement Control Order (MCO) has worsened things, especially for small and medium businesses. SMEs contribute around 38% to the GDP and account for at least 60% of the total employment in the country and are among the hardest hit.
To help SMEs sustain during this critical time, AdEasy has come up with the #AdEasyJagaSME initiative. The initiative seeks to provide visibility and help drive immediate revenue for SMEs via a one-stop webpage, which went live earlier this month.
“We thought about this initiative on the 6th of April and launched the webpage within three days. With this initiative, we want to do our bit to help SMEs — the backbone of the Malaysian economy — amidst this global crisis,” said Therine Goh, COO and Co-founder of AdEasy.
Coming together as a community to support local businesses
To make the process of being listed easier and faster, the #AdEasyJagaSME initiative webpage allows SMEs to register themselves for free, and they can go live within 24 hours of signing up. The “Support” button on the webpage redirects users to the SMEs’ website or social page where they can browse and purchase products and services while the “Share” button allows users to spread the word about an SME and give them a shoutout on social media.
AdEasy is running various ads and awareness campaigns to spread the word on their online channels as well as with the help of their partners sponsoring free airtime, digital screen ads, and shoutouts on social media platforms. Current media partners supporting AdEasy’s initiative include Astro Radio, Look Here, Visual Retale, Focus Malaysia, Rodeo, JagaApp as well as Sky Blue Media.
“COVID-19 brought the threat and reality of closing for good to SMEs. In response to this crisis, we launched Ecoclean Pure, a multipurpose all-surface safe and stable sanitiser made with natural plant extract. The #AdEasyJagaSME initiative enables businesses like ours to gain more visibility, which helps open doors to new customers across Malaysia, and all for the low low price of free! This initiative is from their hearts to the rest of Malaysia and we are thankful for it,” shared Fiona Chin, Director of IGL Coatings.
Bringing everything under one virtual roof for the people
As a one-stop destination listing SMEs across all consumer verticals from parenting to entertainment and consumer goods to education, this initiative also benefits the general public, who are able to easily browse and purchase whatever they need from the relevant SMEs.
Furthermore, to prevent scammers and frauds from taking advantage of the pandemic to prey on unsuspecting consumers, AdEasy verifies all listed SMEs on the initiative webpage, so customers can be assured of their safety when making purchases. In addition, all purchases are done directly via the SME; AdEasy does not charge any additional commissions or middleman fee.
AdEasy has also launched another online initiative called #SaluteMalaysianHeroes, which is a call to thank the COVID-19 frontliners. Under this initiative, they are also running digital screen ads at seven locations in Malaysia. This is sponsored by Sky Blue Media offering FOC LED street bunting and overhead bridge digital screen ad spaces till the MCO is lifted.
“We also wanted to show our gratitude towards the COVID-19 frontliners and #SaluteMalaysianHeroes is just a humble way of saying thanks. Under this program, to involve the community more, we will be selecting a few tagged social media posts from the public to be used in our creatives for the digital boards,” shared Melissa Sim, CEO and Co-founder of AdEasy.
To help SMEs that do not have an online presence, AdEasy has partnered with Otomate Me. Their OtoOrder form – an online order page helps these businesses receive orders directly from customers via WhatsApp. All customers need to do is select their item(s) of choice, fill in their contact information and click “Submit” and the business will immediately receive a message with all of the information in one go to help them quickly close the sale. OtoOrder was launched in April this year and is powering over a hundred SMEs to-date.
AdEasy plans to continue running the #AdEasyJagaSME initiative even after the MCO ends to help SMEs during the long recovery period.
SMEs can sign up here. Check out the video to learn more about how the OtoOrder for offline SMEs works.
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