It’s called Flyerboard and it paves another way for local businesses to advertise online. TribLocal (www.triblocal.com), suburban Chicago’s source for real-time relevant news, has introduced a new interactive ad platform called Flyerboard (www.flyerboard.com) to enable small, local businesses to advertise online.
Owned by the Chicago Tribune Media group, TribLocal is implementing Flyerboard into a majority of their 88 hyperlocal websites that provide comprehensive coverage of the individual communities in the Chicago suburbs.
The platform, developed by San Francisco-based PaperG (www.paperg.com), takes the concept of a virtual cork bulletin board and repurposes it for the Web. A local retailer submits an image and some basic info and Flyerboard automatically converts that data into an interactive ad that can be shared via social networks, like Facebook and Twitter, or e-mail. Through the ad platform, publishers can post and manage their ads, look at analytics, and bill clients.
When a user clicks on one of the “fliers,” a larger image of the ad pops up with the additional info, a link to the advertiser’s website, a map of the location, social network buttons and a way to send the ad to friends via e-mail.
PaperG has also signed the Los Angeles Times, MediaNews Group, Lee Enterprises, and Sun Times Media Group, in addition to current contracts with Hearst, McClatchy, Gannett, New York Times Regional, Boston Globe, Newsday and New York Post. Flyerboard will be on more than 100 local sites.
TechCrunch reports in order to get access to the Flyerboard service, a publisher signs a revenue-sharing contract with PaperG, which takes a 20 to 30% cut of sales. And depending on the publisher’s prices, the advertiser’s rate generally ranges between $150 to $400 per week.
For a large website like the Triblocal.com, with its 88 hyperlocal sites, it’s an easy way to expand and manage local advertising. The Houston Chronicle, which debuted their Flyerboard widget last year, reported $100,000 in new sales in their first month of using the product.
