Tim Fung, the founder and CEO of Airtasker, a marketplace created in the digital world to enable people to pay others to perform odd jobs, is building his brand using traditional media and paying for it by offering equity in his ASX-listed company.
This media-for-equity, swapping shares for advertising space and service, proved successful in 2016 when Seven West Media invested in what was then a startup, taking a 15% stake.
“It enabled us to generate that great brand awareness and revenue growth,” Fung said. “And then we were able to write a cheque for Channel Seven for over $40 million in our IPO.
“We were able to grow our brand awareness from about 6% to about 60%. We were able to increase our revenues by about 20x to over $20 million annualised, and we were able to give Seven a 5x return on their investment.”
Now the company has done deals with oOh!Media and with ARN Media, for outdoor media space and radio spots.
The ARN deal gives Airtasker $5 million in audio media inventory in exchange for a two-year $5 million convertible note.
The Oh!media partnership brings in $6 million in inventory, also in exchange for a two-year $5 million convertible note.
That’s $11 million to spend on outdoor and radio advertising.
“Traditional media -- TV, radio, audio and outdoor -- has become an incredibly high value channel as digital media has gotten massively crowded,” Fung told AdNews.
The brand’s aim is to be top of mind for consumers when they need help.
“What we're trying to do strategically is be that name that pops into your head when you have some Ikea furniture that needs to be assembled, or when your garage is full of boxes that you'd love to be removed, or when you think about getting your gutters clean,” he said.
“We want the first name that pops into your head to be Airtasker.
“And I think outdoor marketing and audio marketing are incredibly cost efficient ways to do that.”
Fung said the deals with media is a capital efficient way for Airtasker to be able to to scale investment into brand marketing.
“At the same time, what's really powerful is that it's not just the advertising inventory, it's also the guidance and input from those partners that can really help us to build our brand.
“Our strategy in Australia next year is very much driven around improving the brand's salience of Airtasker … measured by unprompted brand awareness.”
The company re-launched the Airtasker’s brand at the beginning of 2023, via agency Koto Studio, and launched into the UK with a TV campaign.
“We have a very well developed brand platform but we do need to invest, delivering that brand platform through specific outdoor and audio executions," he said.
“Airtasker is really a mission driven company, and one of the things that we really think about, and what motivates us and drives us to grow this marketplace … we're really creating jobs for other Aussies.
"We don't think about it as jobs as a means to an end to getting things done. We think about like so it's more about we have these incredible taskers. They all have unique skills. How can we help you make money from unique skills.
"Creating jobs is really at the heart of what we do and I'm really proud to say that in 2024 we passed the milestone of putting over $600 million into the pockets of our taskers.”
Aitasker revenue was up 5.6% to $46.6 million in the year to June. The company forecasts double digit growth in the Australian marketplace and generate cash to fund US/UK expansion.
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