A new advertising trading platform has been launched, providing businesses access to new advertising opportunities and allowing them to recycle unsold stock and service capacity for the benefit of charities and other good causes. The platform, created by QPQ Media, was successfully trialed and is now being rolled out in full.
The platform operates using a non-crypto digital currency called BBX, which is pegged to Sterling. This currency was created by QPQ’s partner company, also called BBX, in 1993 and is widely used across the world for cash-free trading. All participating organizations are given secure online BBX banking accounts that comply with standard accounting protocol, allowing transfers to be recorded in profit and loss accounts.
Publishers, commercial broadcasters, and outdoor advertising companies can use the platform to trade advertising space and airtime at full price, enabling them to purchase from traded-in stock and services or make donations to charities and environmental organizations. This opens up a wide range of new advertising possibilities for businesses, particularly SMEs and micro companies that may have been constrained by financial limitations.
For media owners, the benefits of using the QPQ platform are three-fold. Firstly, they are able to convert potentially lost or heavily discounted advertising inventory into spendable value. Secondly, they can boost their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Environmental Social Governance (ESG) ratings without incurring any cash costs. And thirdly, they can acquire new incremental customers. Media owners who have already utilized the platform during the test period include i-media, Readers Digest, Byline Times, C Screens, Elonex, Mash Media, City AM, Heathrow Hopper Buses, 360 Publishing, and Phonetic Media.
The platform also benefits various charities, including MacMillan Cancer Support, Shark Trust, Safe Steps, Helpful Hounds, Street Soccer Scotland, Food For All, and The Cat Survival Trust. These charities receive donations from media owners who have traded in their otherwise wasted media for BBX currency.
Jon Lewis, CEO of i-media, which owns the UK’s largest network of outdoor full motion large format digital screens at motorway service stations, has praised the QPQ service. “It provides a backstop for any excess inventory, and is becoming an important factor in developing ESG. It also introduces us to new advertisers. There is no downside,” he says.
Stephen Colegrave, co-founder of Byline Times, also sees the value in using QPQ. “We have become firm adopters. It is not often that advertising space looks like going unsold, but when it happens, having the opportunity to trade it rather than have it disappear worthlessly is clearly valuable. It doesn’t take much consideration,” he says.
The QPQ platform is led by Jeremy Whitaker, managing director, who was previously the European managing director of global marketing services group, Brann Worldwide. “We are opening up a vast array of advertising possibilities for companies previously constrained by cash flow, and we are working with an ever-increasing portfolio of media organizations that recycle their otherwise wasted media into good causes or profitability,” says Whitaker.
The platform was established in response to increasing demand for ways to mitigate waste from redundant media stock and unused services, to counter post-pandemic charitable donation declines, and to provide an affordable means for medium and smaller businesses to advertise and seek growth.
Derick is an experienced reporter having held multiple senior roles for large publishers across Europe. Specialist subjects include small business and financial emerging markets.