Ground-breaking Advertising Channel For Mobile Landscape

Thursday 28 November 2013

Ground-breaking Advertising Channel Set To Change Mobile Landscape

The next generation in advertising launches this month; Little Lot connects consumers with brands and charities they care about through their mobile wallpaper.

A world first and founded here in New Zealand, Little Lot works by asking users to welcome advertising onto their android lock-screens. In return, 75 percent of the advertising revenue is channelled to their chosen charity.

The company has already received international accolades under its former guise, Donate Your Desktop, when the concept was introduced on PC and Mac desktops. In January this year, they were named one of the Netexplo Top 100 Digital Innovators - a UNESCO initiative that identifies the most innovative web-based digital work.

While continuing to enhance the application’s desktop features, launching into full-screen mobile advertising is something Little Lot co-director, David Hillier believes is the breakthrough advertisers have been waiting for.

“There’s no doubt that mobile is the hottest area in advertising at the moment. Brands face a constant challenge trying to connect with their audiences and we are thrilled to be offering the largest and most frequently viewed consumer spaces on the mobile to clients. ”

Little Lot is all about the small effort made by individuals which, when viewed collectively, make a big difference, he explains.

“We’ve all got busy lives, we don’t always have a lot of spare cash, but what most of us do have is a smart phone or a computer. It’s a new way of giving that costs you nothing, and actually builds a relationship with your chosen charity.”

The mobile development has been made possible by $200k in seed investment and an MSI government grant for their social enterprise. “This was really the turning point for us. There was only so much we could achieve on sweat equity and personal capital. Now we have been able to develop a world-class advertising platform,” says fellow director and brother, Stephen Hillier.

Lock screens and desktops are personal spaces, but the great thing with how the Little Lot app works is that the audience gets to call the shots,” Stephen Hillier says.

End-users are encouraged to rate each wallpaper image and are invited to share it via a variety of social media. Overtime, a consumer profile is built up, enabling Little Lot to provide the consumer more of what they like and less of what they don’t.

“Spray and pray is over. We’re connecting our audiences with content they’ve already told us they’re interested in and eliminating the inefficiencies of traditional media. Little Lot puts the control back in the hands of the individual,” says Stephen Hillier.

The initiative already runs desktop wallpaper campaigns for big name clients including Barfoot and Thompson, Huffer, Heinz Watties, Air New Zealand and University of Waikato - along with a host of local businesses.

“It doesn’t matter who the advertiser is. Our expectation is that every piece of advertising we accept must have an outstanding design,” says David Hillier.

Four new partner charities join Little Lot from its launch: World Vision, Paw Justice, Sustainable Coastlines and Zeal. “We want to become a communication platform so users can engage with their chosen charity. That means we need charities that have a strong online presence and know how to really engage their supporters on our channel” adds David Hillier.

A number of well-recognized charities, including The Starship Foundation, the New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation and Auckland City Mission are already on-board.

Post-launch, clients will be able to target by charity. Should an advertiser want to target only Oxfam supporters, then the entire 75% of their advertising spend will go directly to that charity rather than being spread across the 10 partners. This means companies can improve their triple bottom line by potentially merging some of their CSR and advertising spend.

The brothers are currently seeking corporate partnerships from companies that offer potential synergies, in a move to expand their reach and resources for the New Zealand operation – and potentially leverage themselves into international markets.

ENDS

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