Digifil has officially launched EBXDF.com in a new partnership with East Bay Express. Digifli has created new digifli East Bay Express racks that display local events and promote local independent businesses.
Select locations in the east bay will receive an upgraded digital East Bay Express rack.
The EBX Digital rack combines all the great features of Digifli with the distribution power of the East Bay Express..
Digifli screens were created to support small independent businesses and to strengthen the bond between neighboring businesses. Every kiosk comes with a free Digifli account where businesses can upload up to 10 of their own messages. Most businesses post their specials, class schedules as well as new products they want to feature. Businesses are also given a campaign totally free. They can choose to upgrade and add more locations if they like.
Digifli also supports the community by providing discounted and often free advertising to select fundraisers and local artists.
Keep an eye out for the new East Bay Express Digifli Racks coming to a location near you!
Multi-channel marketing is the key to an effective advertising campaign.
The key to an effective campaign is getting your message in front of your customers. Ask any marketing professional: The way to do this is by showing your message on multiple channels. This article will give you some insight on how to get the most of your advertising dollars. You will also learn how Digifli delivers the power and convenience of digital with real-world distribution.
Most local small business owners use a handful of popular advertising and marketing channels, the most successful ones use a combination of several in tandem.
Traditional Advertising Channels:
Local newspaper and magazine ads.
Printing and distributing posters, flyers, and postcards.
Sponsorship of local events.
Billboards and banners.
Radio or local Television spots.
Digital Advertising Channels:
Social media advertising. (Facebook, Instagram)
Search engine Pay-Per-Click ads. (Google)
Websites and blog posts.
Event listings. (Eventbrite)
Lead acquisition and review sites. (Yelp, Yahoo! Local)
One of the most popular traditional methods for small business is print. Print media like flyers, posters, and advertising in local publications lets you target a specific demographic in a specific area. Ask any publisher or ad agency and they will tell you the key to a successful ad is to run it over and over again.
People need to see the same brand (or offer) multiple times before it makes a lasting impression. Traditionally they say seven views are required for someone to actually take action.
With print, you get thousands of copies printed and distributed in the real world. Print media is still a valuable channel and is rated as the most trusted source of information by consumers. It is an essential part of a complete strategy. In the East Bay, local papers like The East Bay Express and Alameda Sun are great ways to target local residents with print.
Outdoor is still rated on the higher end of consumer trust. Outdoor advertising (billboards/transit ads/posters) can be effective, although for many businesses it is cost-prohibitive. A billboard can easily run $5000 a month in a busy city like Oakland. Posters are slightly less expensive but printing costs and distribution can be a challenge.
Print Media Strengths and Weaknesses
As mentioned above, some of the strengths of print media are distribution, targeting, trust, and having a presence in the real world. However, limiting your advertising to this one channel would cause you to miss out on a huge segment of the market.
Only readers of these local publications, (or drivers who pass your billboard) will see your ad. Many readers are casual and might only pick up a weekly paper once a month. Postcards and flyers can sit in a shop and overlooked by the majority of the patrons. By relying on a single channel, it could easily take someone a year before they saw your offer seven times.
To be truly effective you need to get your brand in front of people in multiple ways, commonly referred to as multichannel marketing.
Supercharge your local marketing with Digifli.
Digital Marketing
Digital advertising provides a very cost-effective way to reach specific demographics. You can target specific geographic areas (aka geo-targeting) and user interest with social media advertising. Google allows you to run pay-per-click ads that appear when people search for a specific term in a specific city. Digital provides great ways to reach people via their screens in the virtual world.
Digital saves money on producing physical material and simplifying distribution. It is a critical component of a successful marketing strategy. To be effective, you must present the same message, branding, and artwork across all channels. If your customers see your add in the East Bay Express, then see the same ad on Facebook – that greatly enhances the impact of your brand. This is far more effective than just seeing the same ad twice in a single channel.
An effective campaign will combine digital (search,social,video) and traditional (print/outdoor/radio/tv) to create a multi-channel strategy.
Digital advertising alone is less effective than cross-channel marketing.
For many business owners, the alure and ease of accessibility to digital advertising makes it their primary channel. But just boosting ads periodically is not an effective use of marketing dollars. It can be beneficial in the short term, but this is the most expensive form of digital marketing.
Digital advertising has the lowest trust score among consumers. Traditional forms of advertising like outdoor, radio, and newspapers rank much higher. There is so much advertising saturation online, your message needs to be seen much more often to actually get noticed.
All this being said, digital advertising is a critical component of a complete marketing strategy. It can greatly reinforce your brand awareness and give customers a way to directly interact with your offer. Users seeing the same message in the real world and on their phones and tablets will familiarize themselves with your brand more quickly than either channel alone.
Digifli bridges the gap between digital and traditional.
Digifli electronic community bulletin boards deliver the best of both worlds. Local digital billboards reach your audience like never before. Digifli has over 100 electronic bulletin boards installed in the East Bay. They show vibrant colorful digital posters in high traffic shopping districts like Temescal, Jack London, Downtown Oakland, Downtown Alameda, Piedmont Avenue, and Laurel District just to name a few. Kiosks are located in local independent businesses like taprooms, restaurants, boutiques, and art galleries.
Target the neighborhoods and locations where your customers live, work, and play. Digifli combines the ease and savings of digital advertising with the targeting and trust of local distribution. Manage your campaign online and handpick where your ads will show.
2019 was an exciting year for Digifli. We have grown to well over 100 locations in Oakland and Alameda, and we are quickly expanding into Berkeley and beyond.
We partnered with the East Bay Express to create digital racks and expand our footprint in the bay area. We also announced our new business association partnership program that helps promote independent local businesses in places like the Laurel District.
Non-Profit Support
Digifli is committed to serving and supporting our local community. To that end, we are happy to announce that we are offering 50% off standard rates for any local non-profit that wants to advertise on Digifli.
Make Digifli part of your 2020 marketing strategy!
Do you like talking to local independent business owners? Want to help local your community promote events and fundraisers? Are you a digital media marketer in the East Bay? Want to provide clients with a great new way to reach the local market?
There is a huge opportunity to help promote local businesses on the growing Digifli network. We offer a killer commission rate with an ongoing residual income for every account you sign. We also offer placement bonuses for putting Digifli kiosks in new locations.
Digifli is currently primarily in Alameda and Oakland. We want to increase our presence in Oakland, Berkeley, and beyond!
Benefits
Set your own hours (be your own boss).
Work as much or as little as you want: (nice side hustle).
Work remote (from home or on-site at local businesses).
One sale can keep paying commission for a year or more.
Placement bonuses keep cash flowing between commission payments.
Candidate Profile
The ideal candidate for this position is someone with a strong affinity for the local community. You enjoy meeting with local indy business people and helping them grow. You should have a general understanding of different forms of advertising and be able to come up with creative promotion ideas.
Must-Have
Ability to canvas shopping districts like Rockridge, Piedmont Ave, Temescal, Berkeley, Solana Ave, Jack London, etc
Ability to attend area business association mixers and meetings.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
Good computer skills.
Nice-To-Have
A background in marketing and promotion.
Ad Sales Experience (Traditional or Digital)
Established contacts with local businesses and/or organizations.
The ability to set up a computer, connect wifi.
Ability to assist clients with learning how to use the digifli dashboard.
Reliable transportation.
Experience with social media and online marketing.
Digifli launches East Bay Shop Local our new campaign to encourage everyone to support local independent businesses. Look for the Shop Local window cling at your favorite bay area store.
If you have a local independent business you can get a free window cling for your location. Send us an email and we will drop one off. Free while supplies last!
Digifli is proud to announce our new East Bay events calendar. We will list all our community and local cultural events. Just login to your account to add an event.
The city of Alameda is launching it’s very successful Restaurant Week Campaign again in January 2019. In order to help our local restaurants get the most out of this, we are offering 50% off your first month promotion on a 3-month campaign!
Just register and start your restaurant campaign before the end of the year to qualify! This offer expires at the stroke of midnight December 31st, 2018!
We can get you set up and running in less than 30 minutes! Just contact us today to get started.
One free hour of ad design for any 3-month or longer campaign of at least $99/month. Offer limited to new advertisers. Some restrictions apply.
The City of Alameda: Alameda Resturant Week
Note: This offer only applies to locally owned independent businesses. Digifli does not allow advertising from national brands or corporate chains.
There are several regulations that control beer and wine advertising. I run into concerned independent business owners on a regular basis that aren’t sure what is allowed, so I decided to do some research.
In a nutshell, here is what I found:
Advertising is protected under the first amendment and alcoholic beverage advertising is regulated under the Federal Alcohol Administration Act (FAA) by the Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB).
In general, advertisements of alcoholic products must be truthful and without deception. They must provide enough information about the identity of the product for the consumer’s benefit and for them to be able to make an educated decision about what the product is or what it contains.
Alcoholic beverage advertisements differ based on type (beer and malt beverages, wine, and distilled spirits).
All ads require the class the product belongs to ( beer (ale,stout,lager,etc.), wine (red,white,champagne,etc.) and spirits (whiskey, vodka, gin, etc.)
All ads require the name, city and state of the advertiser.
Spirits also require the alcohol content (proof), name of commodity and percentage of neutral spirits.
Things that are not allowed in ads
Misleading or false statements, misrepresenting data or health benefits.
Disparaging a competitor, indecent or obscene representations.
Claiming that alcohol is made or sold under federal or state regulation.
Claims that wine or beer contains spirits.
Claiming a distilled spirit is “pure”
Any statement that is not consistent with approved labeling.
Promotions and discounts are often popular ways to encourage a person to buy a product, and alcoholic beverages are no exception. Drinking establishments, such as bars and restaurants, often host “happy hours,” daily drink specials, or “mug clubs,” or run other promotions to enhance sales. There are often state regulations about what establishments can and can’t do regarding these promotions. For instance, daily drink specials are generally limited to one type of alcoholic beverage per day; happy hour may not exceed a certain number of hours per day or week; all drink promotions must end by midnight; and no alcohol is to be discounted between 12 a.m. and 2 a.m.
Wine Advertising
The wine institute has a series of guidelines for advertising wine. These rules basically require advertising to be honest. No claiming your life will be great or you will be healthier because you drink wine. No marketing to kids and pregnant women.
Craft Brewery Advertising
Statements of alcoholic strength or original extract for beer are generally prohibited. Using descriptors such as strong, full strength, extra strength, high test, high proof, pre-war strength and full oldtime alcoholic strength are prohibited unless required by state law.
The TTB prohibits advertising statements inconsistent with labeling. A common advertising mistake is to show a bottle whose label is not a faithful reproduction of an approved label. This can include using a label of a different size than the approved label.
Many states have specific rules and regulations regarding signs and advertisements in retail locations. The Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) published a 15 page report that reviews many of the regulations.
Retail windows are often coded and regulated since they are so visible to passersby. Some states regulate how much of the window is allowed to be used for alcohol product marketing. You can see the California sign ordinance here. The “Lee Law” is mostly is concerned with excessive window signage.
The new 2018 California regulations have hundreds of pages, here are a few highlights:
Gas Stations: No beer or wine advertising shall be located on motor fuel islands and no self–illuminated advertising for beer or wine shall be located on buildings or windows.
§ 25503. Prohibited sales, advertising, and promotional activities
No manufacturer, winegrower, manufacturer’s agent, California winegrower’s agent, rectifier, distiller, bottler, importer, or wholesaler, or any officer, director, or agent of any such person, shall do any of the following:
(f) Pay, credit, or compensate a retailer or retailers for advertising, display, or distribution service in connection with the advertising and sale of distilled spirits.
(g) Furnish, give, lend, or rent, directly or indirectly, to any person any decorations, paintings, or signs, other than signs advertising their own products as permitted by Section 25611.1.
(h) Pay money or give or furnish anything of value for the privilege of placing or painting a sign or advertisement, or window display, on or in any premises selling alcoholic beverages at retail.
