Revive classifieds!

Native meets classified with a revolutionary update of QuickAds

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You can go native – times four – and you can resurrect classifieds. That's because when classifieds meet native in QuickAds from Creative Circle Media Solutions, the result is revolutionary.

"This is how we can recoup classifieds," said Creative Circle founder and president Bill Ostendorf. "And we should."

Ostendorf will unveil a slate of leading-edge solutions at next week's Mega-Conference in Austin, including:

  • mediasiteQ – a new release of mediasiteQ, a dynamic, easy-to-run website CMS platform.
  • NativeNewsQ – an expanded NativeNewsQ, which offers four ways to do native advertising.
  • PaywallQ – lower pricing on paywallQ
  • QuickAds – an upgrade to Creative Circle's award-winning web ad platform.

QuickAds: Innovator and disruptor
Ostendorf says QuickAds is the true disruptor in the Creative Circle lineup.
The upgrade features niche-targeted classifieds designed to get newspapers back in the classified game – and build up revenue from local small businesses.

Many newspapers have given up on classified growth, but that's a huge mistake, Ostendorf said. "That's because it's often the only way a small business can place an ad in a newspaper. And local SMBs are still searching for an inexpensive way to get their message out."

To build QuickAds, the Creative Circle team addressed the issues that have kept newspapers from being big players in the classifieds game. That means getting around complicated rate structures and messy online systems that keep classifieds from being affordable, flexible and easy-to-access.

"To really fix classifieds, you have to blow it up," Ostendorf said. "Most existing systems are not simple. They're not cheap. They're not easy."

But QuickAds features streamlined rate structures, reverse publishing, innovative displays and strong SEO. Combined with Creative Circle's native classified strategy and clear customer messaging about pricing and placement, the self-service platform can help newspapers generate more volume – and more revenue – in print and online.

Creative Circle's research showed that 76 percent of local SMBs think they SHOULD be buying Google, Facebook or LinkedIn ads as their primary advertising buy. "That's pretty scary," Ostendorf said.

But the research also found they are unsatisfied or afraid of moving forward with those national portals. Why? "It's hard, and they make you do all the targeting and then ask you to bid on the price," he said. "You can pay $3 per click or 2 cents per click or $10. It's never clear to you what you get with the higher price. SMBs hate that."

With QuickAds, "you get a low flat rate and we take care of the targeting for you," he said.

Another weakness of the national portals is that they can only link to a website or Facebook page, he pointed out. "QuickAds can do that, of course, but since many SMBs don't have a decent website, we also provide self-service tools to build a web page for your business. It has a host of features and is interactive. AND now we can also put your ad in print.

"So now newspapers can deliver an online product that is a lot like a Google ad that has a low, fixed rate, is easy to place, is local and gets in print, too," said Ostendorf. "That's a powerful message we think newspapers can sell."

When you then combine all that with Creative Circle's new concepts for native classifieds and publish these ads alongside relevant content – food, health, outdoors, business news, etc. – you've really got a home-run product that is new and familiar at the same time, he said.

All this amounts to good news for newspapers. "As an industry, we're on the verge of having no classifieds," he said. "But no more. Now we can completely redefine them and grow them again, launching hundreds of new, more viable classified categories."

Ostendorf said Creative Circle has been doing native longer than any other
vendor. Its first native software was deployed at the Tampa Bay Times in 2010, before the term "native" had even been coined. "So we have more ways to do native and know how to do it better than anyone else," Ostendorf said.

NativeNewsQ offers three more native plays – pure native, paid press releases and paid calendar items – and the platforms brings new twists and features to all three.

"We have a great self-service platform that generates more content without the involvement of sales reps. We provide great local SEO in addition to native, a huge benefit for local companies. Our press release platform even saves precious time in the newsroom by streamlining the editing process. And we have ways to display native content that no one else has even thought of yet," says Ostendorf.

Creative Circle Media Solutions, Ostendorf, native advertising
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