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Dynamite in a small package

Advertising abounds with unexpected niche opportunities – and it often takes an outsider to spot them. Take Billads, an incredibly simple idea that Craig Segal, a qualified chartered accountant, has turned into a thriving business. Dining one day at an upmarket restaurant, Segal realised an unexploited marketing opportunity lay behind the plastic folder in which the bill was delivered. Brand the folder with the restaurant’s name on the outside and sell advertising inside it, he thought. Give away samples. Run activations and promotions.

And so Nine Mile Media was born. Segal now has 600 restaurants, hotels, bars and coffee shops on his books and his mini-billboards are seen by 5,5m affluent city-dwellers (LSM 7-10) every month.

Segal says: “Customers are exposed to the ads in a much targeted, aspirational environment. The calibre of the restaurant gives a good idea of the calibre of the client. Two-thirds of our consumers are in the upper-end LSM 7-10 range.

“We offer site exclusivity (one brand per site), and brands are delivered directly into the hands of your target market. You can use it for promotions and sampling of FMCG products, such as chocolates, gum, breath mints, perfume and toothpaste, as well as services.”

Vodacom, for example, publicised the extra value of its Internet package by offering “Pay for a regular coffee, get an upsize free”.

A research option is offered with every package. As in political exit polls, customers are interviewed as they leave the restaurant, with follow-up calls two weeks later. On average, 57% recall the ad in the folder and two weeks later 43% had bought or applied for the product. In an Elizabeth Arden promotion, 18% had bought the sampled perfume product; 71% bought a new Colgate toothpaste after sampling it.

Segal’s route into marketing was unorthodox. Though he started a BCom in marketing, he went on to qualify as a CA and took his accounting articles, which directed him into the corporate world for five years with Hollard Insurance. But he’d always wanted to run his own business and when the Billads idea came to him he knew it was the opportunity he needed. “I had two files full of possible business ideas and I chose the low-hanging fruit. 
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