Proprietary media platform catered to SMEs

Vast insights: Sivanathan (left) and Yee. The unique partnership between Nielsen and Reddoor will put smaller businesses back in the driver’s seat of their own destinies.

NIELSEN and the Trapper Group has announced a “first of its kind collaboration for the industry”, with the launch of adwork.io, a proprietary media platform that has been specifically developed to provide small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with access to buying media space, empowered with Nielsen’s proprietary data and analytic tools.

adwork.io will be made available by the end of the second quarter of this year. This solution will provide real-time data outputs and help SME advertisers make informed, data-driven decisions for their advertising campaigns from the confines of their offices or homes.

Sivanathan Krishnan, the chairman of Trapper Media Group and chief executive officer of Reddoor Asia Sdn Bhd tells StarBizWeek that the platform was built with SMEs in mind.

“This is a first of its kind in the industry, and proudly Malaysian. This unique partnership between Nielsen and Reddoor put smaller businesses back in the driver’s seat of their own destinies.

“It exposes them to the propriety data, analytics and consumer learnings of Nielsen, that is normally reserved for brands using the services of large media agencies, on a platform that was built around Trapper Media Group’s unique understanding of the needs of local brands and businesses.

“It will enable SMEs as business and brand owners to make entrepreneurial leaps on more than just faith but backed by data as well,” he notes.

Armed now with Nielsen proprietary data, analytics and consumer learnings, Reddoor’s adwork.io offers a first of its kind platform. Reddoor Asia is part of the Trapper Group of companies.

The platform is a culmination of the Trapper Media Group’s unique experience and expertise in providing for the needs of the small businesses and the globally recognised insights of Nielsen.

On the number of SMEs which Reddoor is aiming for the usage of this platform for this year, Sivanathan says it is targeting 10,000 SMEs in Malaysia, as the company wants to remain rooted in building on to adwork.io capabilities.

For the rest of Asia, adwork.io is expecting to have 300,000 users by the end of 2025.

He says the platform also harnesses the vast data and insights of Nielsen in a platform that’s SME-friendly, enabling SMEs for the first time to make more informed decisions, empowered by data, at rates that are more conducive to their budgetary capabilities.“Reddoor’s adwork.io will enable an SME to compare the efficiencies of any investment on digital marketing against one on traditional media before even spending a single sen. This is nothing new to MNCs and bigger brands of course, but for SMEs it was always seen as forbidden fruit.

“SME’s account for 97% of total businesses in Malaysia and we believe that the launch of adwork’s media buying platform powered by Nielsen’s tools and analytics will help accelerate the growth of homegrown Malaysian SMEs through digitalisation and media buying efficiencies.

“This will help SMEs to gain awareness and access to markets, both globally and most certainly, in the Asian region,” he explains.

Sivanathan says adwork.io is Reddoor’s initiative in building recognition for the critical role that SMEs play in Asia’s growth economies, and this would also be developed in other countries later including Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Myanmar and Australia.

Malaysia will set the benchmark for the rollout to the region, he adds. To a question, he says adwork.io enables SMEs to decide on a plethora of media options, be it The Star, Media Prima, Astro, Awesome TV, Utusan Malaysia, and an ever growing asset inventory that even includes Singapore Press Holdings, all on one platform.

“There is no media buying platform that offers both offline and online media, providing third-party verified data and insights and allows SMEs to buy media space across the multitude of media owners.

“Most available platforms are media owner specific, as such SMEs are often forced to make decisions on their data and or internal assessments,” he notes..

Commenting on the collaboration and the initiative, Yee Chong Moon, Nielsen managing director and head of agencies Asia says: “In the new data-driven transactional brand economy, we believe that consumer insights and intuitive research-enabled information will be key to empowering advertisers to make risk-averse decisions in the future.

“Our collaboration with Reddoor Asia is a strategic step forward in that direction.”