Sky announces additional £1.5 million for AdSmart SME Support Scheme

The initial SME100 campaign now becomes SME250 as Sky Media invests a total of £2.5 million into the fund, bringing the total number of small businesses supported to 250.

Due to overwhelming interest in its AdSmart SME Support Scheme, Sky Media announces it will extend the opportunity to advertise on TV to an additional 150 businesses. The initial SME100 campaign now becomes SME250 as Sky Media invests a total of £2.5 million into the fund, bringing the total number of small businesses supported to 250.

AdSmart’s flexibility has proven extremely useful for established large advertisers as well as regional businesses over the last few months, and as lockdown eases more brands are returning to TV every day. With more than 1,000 entries received across the UK in just 5 days, the extension of the scheme means helping to get more businesses back on track. The fund was available to SMEs that have been running for at least one year in the UK with up to 50 full time employees. Businesses could nominate themselves or be put forward by their own customers. Each of the 250 businesses will receive a £10k campaign and full support on the creative process.

The initial 100 selected companies come from up and down the country including Sashed, Field & Flower, Care and Carers, Parent Pool, Love Writing and Dunnet Bay Distillers, all of whom will receive additional complimentary support in creating their ads from Shutterstock.

David Sanderson, Director of AdSmart Local & Development at Sky Media said “The response to the campaign has been exceptional – so now we’re extending so more business can benefit.

“SMEs have a voracious appetite for targeted TV advertising at the moment. As lockdown eases more brands are returning to TV every day and advertising via AdSmart allows companies to reach their target audiences and help establish a new form of business confidence.

“SMEs are the engine of the UK – and AdSmart increases the horsepower.”

From some of our selected businesses:

“It feels surreal to have won! We’re a small business, a hardworking team of 8 staff, we’re all really excited to see the business featured on TV. We have big ambitions for the future, we hope this campaign can help kick-start our growth and a future on TV.”

• Sebastian Mather – Founder & Director of Beautiful Game, a wall art and coverings company based just outside of Stockport.

“Advertising on TV with AdSmart will open up a whole new world to us. We’re able to advertise only to the households we want to, which we only ever thought was possible through online advertising. We can’t wait to see the impact it will have helping our business grow.”

• Mark Sherwood – Managing Director, Love Writing, a children’s stationery business based in the Midlands.

“We never thought advertising on TV was a realistic opportunity for us, so discovering AdSmart through this initiative we were surprised at what is possible. We’re delighted to be given the opportunity to advertise amongst Sky’s fantastic content reaching our target audience in the Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire area.”

• Hossein Sharifi – Director & Manager, Care & Carers, which provides trained health and social care workers in Aylesbury.

‘’We had previously looked at TV advertising but felt it was out of our reach.  The SME support scheme has brought AdSmart to our attention and given us the opportunity to advertise on TV for the first time and utilise the power of AdSmart from Sky.  We look forward to the success of the campaign and including TV advertising in the future for Scotland’s Charity Air Ambulance.”

• Nick Harvey – Deputy CEO, SCAA, Scotland’s Charity Air Ambulance.

The campaigns will be delivered via AdSmart from Sky, the market leading addressable TV platform, that easily enables brands to advertise on TV by focusing on the audiences that matter to them. This revolutionary technology means brands can reach audiences nationally based on household make-up or thousands of lifestyle attributes, or a range of regionality options including postcode area and a drive-time distance from store. In only targeting audiences that matter to the business, brands can be assured that their advertising will be relevant, accessible and drive business results.

AdSmart has transformed advertising for smaller and niche businesses. Previously TV was perceived to be too broad and expensive, but the award-winning targeting capabilities of AdSmart changes this. Since launching in 2014, it has been used by 2,380 brands for more than 28,000 campaigns to provide engaging, brand safe and relevant TV campaigns. With 75% of the brands using the technology totally new to TV, it’s allowing businesses to utilise the brand-safe and trusted power of TV for the first. In Sky Media’s recent research report, ‘AdSmart: Five Years & Forward’ it was revealed that addressable TV campaigns increase purchase intent by 7% overall, and as much as 20% for new to TV advertisers who benefit from the exposure and credibility TV delivers. Local brands like Gasway and Richardson’s Garden Centre have seen significant business growth (35% and 17% uplift respectively) through their TV campaigns.

The additional 150 business to the scheme will need to air their advertising campaigns by the end of July 2020.