Revving it up for small business

Busanimen

Haircelerate

Schoolhub

Journey Leather

An organisation that supports fast-food delivery entrepreneurs in the course of its business has saddled up with a corporate that is assisting small businesses to get back on their feet during the Covid-19 pandemic, creating a win-win-win situation for all.

When pioneering small business MotionAds, which supports food-delivery motorbike owners by securing advertising on their vehicles, came across Hollard’s Big Ads for Small Business campaign to share its “big” advertising spaces with promising small businesses, it approached the insurer about a partnership to extend its own reach, as well as to support this innovative campaign to help SMMEs survive and thrive.

Hollard kicked off the six-month initiative to share its “big” advertising spaces with deserving small businesses in February this year. One of its main goals was to be a catalyst for good and to inspire others to follow suit – to the benefit of small enterprises, communities and the economy at large.

Through the Big Ads initiative, Hollard has provided 12 SMMEs across the country with their own customised advertising campaigns, including television, radio and street-pole advertising, press ads, billboards and promoted social media content, as well as business training, public relations help and more. The returns are being ploughed back into the small businesses.

The partnership with MotionAds to brand 10 delivery bikes in four areas – 40 in all – was a match made in heaven, resulting in a joint effort to support food-delivery micro-enterprises across four regions of the country, while at the same time giving exposure to four small businesses.

The SMMEs that are benefiting are Journey Leather, a Western Cape SMME that creates customised leather products; Busanimen, a custom suit and tailoring business based in Maboneng, Johannesburg; SchoolHub, an innovative app operating from Durban that offers parents a cashless solution to school spending; and Haircelerate, an online hair-treatment products company that sells nationwide.

The branded delivery bikes offer the perfect opportunity for the SMMEs to reach the right markets in the right locations in an unconventional way, complementing existing media like street-pole advertisements.

They also ensure wider (and moving) coverage – with the Journey Leather-branded MotionAds bikes delivering in the Stellenbosch area; the Busanimen-branded bikes in Rosebank and Sandton; the SchoolHub-branded bikes in the Durban CBD, Umhlanga and further afield; and the Haircelerate-branded bikes in Fourways and Bryanston, Johannesburg.

Hollard paid the production costs for the stylish, eye-catching branding on the bikes and made a small donation to each of the motorbike riders, while MotionAds is taking care of logistics and other costs.

Hollard Group marketing manager Joanna Mondon says its partnership with MotionAds – a “like-minded brand” – is tied to Hollard’s purpose to enable more people to create and secure better futures.

Win-win-win partnerships have always been key to how the group operates and the Big Ads for Small Business campaign aims to be a catalyst to inspire other big businesses to help small enterprises. This goal has certainly been achieved through the MotionAds partnership – not only have four worthy SMMEs benefited from additional marketing, but 40 independent food-delivery micro-enterprises have received a welcome boost.