WIS 10 in Columbia, South Carolina, reported on the activities of the Barter Company recently, along with some 50′s-esque video reminiscent of Leave It To Beaver that describes barter as a simple quid pro quo transaction. Indeed, the reporter actually says, “It might be a little dated, but when the times get tough, old tricks might be the best tricks.”

Can we convince the media somehow that barter is a 21st century concept involving complex software, online access, and fiscally intelligent operators who create real value for their members?

Corporate barter company Astus UK predicts that media barter sector will achieve billings of £250 million by 2014.

Corporate barter grew steadily throughout the past decade and is currently enjoying a period of rapid growth. When Astus UK joined the sector in 2003 it was worth just over £50 million – this figure has more than trebled and is expected to top £169 million by the end of 2010. This expansion is due to an increasing number of companies turning to corporate barter as a way of using their products and services to part-pay for their marketing spends. The model also enables media owners to use incremental media space to off-set their expenditures.

Although the barter sector has undoubtedly been helped by the recession, growth in the sector has also been aided by the introduction of a new risk free trading model, developed by Astus and adopted by the rest of the sector, which is now leading to more responsible trading methods.

Even as the country pulls out of recession there will still be huge pressure on media agencies and media owners to deliver extra value for clients, and agencies are now working proactively with barter companies like Astus to achieve this value.

The retail and FMCG sectors have been leading the way, doubling their use of barter between 2008 and 2009. This is set to continue in 2010, with media campaigns worth £19.5million being bartered over the course of the year in these sectors alone.

Asked whether Astus were concerned about how barter would be viewed as the economy improved Frances Dickens, CEO of Astus said “Although it would have been easy for us to have taken a short-term approach and been very aggressive with media owners, we have always taken a long term view. Corporate Barter is an established trading model and every deal we do has to work for all parties”.

Mark Green, European Trading Manager,  Aegis Media said: ”We think that Barter usage will continue to increase provided it continues to offer the opportunity for both clients to hold and increase marketing spend and also for media suppliers to attract incremental revenue, which is especially relevant in the current environment.”

Every business needs advertising. This includes the businesses who you buy the tools and machinery for your business from.

Reaching an agreement where you erect billboards for them in trade for the equipments and machinery you need will save you the cash that you can then spend on other areas.

Even billboard advertising companies need advertising. Barter can be especially helpful offsetting the cost of advertising. TV and radio stations use a lot of billboard advertising. If you can cut a deal with them wherein you give them some percentage discount on the work you do for them, along with the most creative billboards especially rotating digital ones in turn for free advertising on their airtime, you can save yourself a lot of cash investment.

Barter can also be used to get other assets for your business. Have you ever considered direct or indirect barter for real-estate upon which to erect your billboards? High rise buildings are generally considered good locations for erecting billboards. Hence, you can rent this space for free by trading, or discounting, services with building owners.

Being creative and innovative is necessary in the advertising industry. However, using the same innovative approach to plan the financial end of your enterprise can help you get an edge over others in the same line of business.

Small business generally can’t afford huge billboards but if you plan carefully and arrange deals between two or four such businesses which compliment each other you can make even better use of existing space and achieve greater returns. You will be able to get customers who would otherwise not be able to afford a full advertising campaign and, in turn, receive smaller quantities of those “still essential” items that you would normally pay cash for.

When you use barter you get customers guaranteed. When you spend cash with a business today there is no surety that they, in turn, will make a purchase from you. When you barter with someone both parties win [provided they need one anothers product or service]. If you can structure direct deals with suppliers you have a great way to save cash. Even when this is not possible you can employ a Commerce Network to develop a three, four or multi-way transaction which will let all parties involved acquire the product or service that they require out of the deal, thereby making everyone happy – and saving everyone cash.

Brought to you by Neha Gupta
Marketing Department
Ormita Australia Limited
http://www.ormita.com.au

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Marc Boyan, founder and chief executive of Miroma, said: “Miroma is growing rapidly, and as our global operation expands we need confident, experienced people to nurture this growth.”

According to BusinessWire, “Lévy-Lambert previously served as Asia CEO for advertising giant Publicis, a role he held for over 10 years. Back in 1997 the sole employee dedicated to Asia, Lévy-Lambert was the driving force behind the company’s rapid expansion in the region. When he left the company, he had taken Publicis to tremendous success in Asia, leaving behind a network spanning 60 Asian cities, a team of 2000, and revenue of one billion US dollars. Maurice Lévy , the current chairman and CEO of Publicis Groupe acknowledges Lévy-Lambert’s pivotal role in the company’s success in Asia, explaining: “Guillaume masterfully and fearlessly built our presence.”

See the full story at http://eon.businesswire.com/portal/site/eon/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20100128005989&newsLang=en

The benefit for media owners is, theoretically, to expand share by attracting new clients who could not afford to buy space on a cash basis. A key factor is the ability to deliver the required media inventory. “If we can’t deliver the media, we can’t do the deal,” states Michael Denmark, Astus Asia’s managing director, who claims Astus trades in “prime real estate” rather than acting as a broker for unwanted media inventory.

See the full story at http://www.media.asia/DigitalMedia/Analysisarticle/2009_12/All-About-Media-barter/38230