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Advertise online on The-RiotACT.com in 2012

Why choose The-RiotACT.com?
Who reads the RiotACT?
Advertising options
FAQ
What others have said
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Download our 2012 Advertisers kit

Over the past few years, internet usage has surged ahead of all other media types to now dominate consumer media consumption. In fact, according to Nielsen surveys in December 2011, Internet usage is now estimated to be 50% higher than its closes rival (TV) in average consumption hours per week, and more than the combined total of Radio, Gaming, Newspaper and Magazine consumption together.

Consumers connecting with brands and organisations via social media has continued to increase, reaching an all-time high of 41 percent. Tapping into other consumers’ opinions found on social media is the most common activity, undertaken by 73 percent of the increasing number of online Australians and as an entirely online platform focussed on Canberra News, Issues and Events this places RiotACT at the centre of any effective marketing strategy for business, NGO’s or government organisations trying to reach a Canberra based audience. Consumer confidence in publishing opinions online is growing and one of the biggest increases in this category is the incidence of consumers discussing brands or products online, now at 43 percent.

RiotACT’s thriving community is made up of those very individuals who are consuming your products and services. They are increasingly looking to engage with you online. They are looking for social proof. If you’re considering advertising in Canberra you need to consider including online advertising on RiotACT as an integral part of your strategy.

We look forward to working with you to reach those consumers

The RiotACT team.

“Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.” Mark Twain

RiotACT reaches an audience of educated, influential, and in-the-know readers who are primarily based in the Canberra region. The details below are just some of those we regularly poll from RiotACT’s readership.

There are three easy options available to get your message out there:

1. Pay-Per-View Advertising — From $15 per day
Pay-per-view (PPV) advertising is an ideal way of building community awareness of your brand, or driving traffic to your website with a compelling message to your target audience. Advertising online has the unique advantage of being easy to change and able to track performance. RiotACT’s campaign reports allows you to drill down to into your campaign to look at what’s working, and what isn’t to inform your marketing decisions. Most importantly, you’ll only pay for your advertising when people actually see it.

2. Advertising Feature — From $1100
Advertising features are a great alternative and supplement to banner advertising. Not only do they give you an opportunity to give RiotACT readers an insight into your business and key products, and gain further engagement with your audience, but they can have an excellent impact on the SEO of your own website with backlinks from RiotACT.

With approximately 97.5% of RiotACT’s audience researching products & services online before buying there is almost no better way of reaching a relevant audience, and as all articles on RiotACT are persistent it will buy you a lifetime of exposure.

3. E-Newsletter – From 25c per recipient
E-Newsletters are a great way to leverage the trust that RiotACT has with its newsletter subscribers and deliver your message right to their email inbox. Not to mention slipping past those pesky spam filters.

We know that every organisation is unique. Contact one of our account team to discuss how best to structure a package to suit your goals and budget.

What is the RiotACT?
RiotACT is an online open journalism project founded in Canberra in November 2000. Its aim was to create a platform whereby Canberrans could publish and engage with each other in an online forum on issues, matters and events of interest to the local community. With the increasing influence of technology in our lives, the emergence of blogging and social media over the last 10 years RiotACT has grown to have a loyal audience in excess of 130,000 unique visitors every month. With our unique focus on Canberra region news and events our audience is almost entirely local and with an estimated 10% of Canberra’s population changing every year we’re not short of new visitors either.

How do you measure your stats?
One of the great things about being online is that we can accurately measure each time the site loads data or ads. If a reader doesn’t hit the site, our numbers don’t increment. Right now we’re using industry leading tools such as Google Analytics and Google Ad manager which allows us to track when visitors come to the site, what they do while there and how long for. We can even go down as far as what screen resolution and colour our visitors have in addition to the higher level information about location, time on site, and what they’re reading.

Do I need a website to advertise on RiotACT?
No you don’t. Websites are a great opportunity to capture web leads and give your clients further information about your business but just like offline advertising in print, radio or TV, if your aim is to get clients through your shopfront door that can equally be achieved online using the same strategies. Ad features in particular can be effective at building trust with your clients & we can always update the content later when or if your website comes online.

Can i change my banner creative during a campaign?
Sure, just send us a new one & we can switch them in and out with a moments notice. Banner advertising is an ideal way of testing if your message is generating responses at the same time as promoting your brand, products or services. If you’re running more than one banner in a campaign we can also optimise so that the one that is responding best, shows more often.

Can I do a call to action campaign or run a promotion?
Absolutely. Speak to one of our account team to work out the best way to structure your campaign or promotion. We can run just about any online content as part of your campaign.

Why doesn’t my ad appear when I load the site?
The good news here is that you’ve already a convert and advertising to yourself isn’t going to increase your sales & brand awareness. However the real reason is that your ad is part of our overall inventory. Depending on which package you’ve purchased you’ll have a number of ‘impressions’ or ‘views’ over a fixed period (effectively setting a daily quota). As each visitor to RiotACT has ads served from our inventory those probabilities are adjusted to meet the quota’s for each advertiser. This has two benefits. Firstly the price you pay per view is fixed and gives you certainty. The second benefit is that if we try to serve your ad to someone with an ad blocker, it goes back into inventory and increases the probability of it being served to the next reader. No impressions are lost on a page that nobody will read. If you’re interested in getting blanked coverage contact us to discuss options.

I’ve heard about social media and am concerned about what feedback I might get.
It may be small consolation but you’re not alone. In fact most of our clients had the same concerns before they started developing their digital strategy and advertising online with RiotACT. Over the past 5-6 years there has been a global shift in how individuals want to engage with your business. 97.5% of our readers are now researching products and services online before buying and there has been a notable change in how people develop trust in your brand by asking for and evaluating the opinions of their peers, ie social proof. What this does mean is that there is already a conversation about you. Its up to you if you want to involve yourself in it or not.

What happens if my ad appears next to comments I don’t want to be associated with?
It has been said that any publicity is good publicity, and people soon forget the context; however we understand your concern. To address these RiotACT has moderation filters in place which will automatically scan submitted comments for certain words, or which are submitted from posters who abuse Riot’s terms and conditions. Riot’s editorial team also keep a close eye on whats going on and wade in with the moderation stick where necessary. It’s not something we enjoy doing, but moderation is a necessary part of maintaining a civil forum & protecting your brand as one of our valued advertising partners.
The great news here is that over 94% of our readership have told us that they make no association between ‘negative’ comments and any banner advertising on the site. Where they appear on a advertising feature (assuming its made it through moderation), its the ideal opportunity for a bit of positive PR. “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” Bill Gates

Can you guarantee that my advertising will work?
Unfortunately no. However your advertising feature will remain online indefinitely giving you an ongoing external reference and SEO link back to your own website (if you have one) and with PPV we can track exactly what is, and isn’t working in any banner campaign and can change it at a moments notice if we find something that isn’t giving you the ROI you expect. If you’re still concerned, ask about our money back guarantee.

Who are your other clients? What was their experience?
RiotACT has had a number of clients both large and small. Some of those include; The National Gallery of Australia, Transact, King O’Malley’s, Vac to the Future, Chicken Gourmet, Wybrow & Associates financial planners, Adventure Paintball, Canberra CBD Limited, Ben Aulich, IAG, NRMA, The National Acting School, Bell Shakespeare, The Australian National University, CSIRO, CWC Auto Services, Grill’d, Canberra Furnished Apartments, Urban Pantry, Molonglo Group, New Acton, the ACT Chamber of Commerce, Mailboxes etc, ANU school of Law, The Street Theatre, Canberra Musicians Club, Belconnen Community Centre, Face 2 Face recruitment, Abundant Potentail, Erica’s Aesthetics, Burbury Hotel, Peninsula Bar, Hellenic Club, Focus Your Money, Best in Canberra, Jims Cleaning, Woden Community Festival, Corinbank, Canberra Tourism, Regus, st Vincent de Paul society, Sportscraft, Small Fish business coaching… and the list goes on.
You can read some of their testimonial’s below.

What are your client club and taste test packages all about?
The whole online experience is a new concept for many of our clients & we’ve developed our taste test package with this in mind. For a small cost you’ll get not only an entry level package of advertising but we’ll also send you a weekly update on how to get the most of your online advertising and introduce you to many of the associated concepts. Conversely our Client club has been developed specifically for small business who are ready to take the next step. Not only will you get our newsletter with online advertising insights, marketing tips and the latest social media trends but it’s priced accessibly to fit in with the vagaries of cash flow that affect all small businesses.

Rachael Hunter, Dominion Finance

I had a number of concerns about the legitimacy of RiotACT in the ACT market. I had heard a lot about the numbers of readers, their demographics and how engaged they were with content on the RiotACT but wasn’t sure if they were real or just claims by the RiotACT team.

Since advertising my perception has changed enormously. Its dawned on me that there is a very large section of the community that are interested in seeing the perceptions of their peers. I was able to leverage RiotACT’s interactivity to really engage with potential clients in a very open and transparent way. It has done amazing things to how much trust my clients have in me and my business before I even meet them face to face. I received an influx of clients in the first week and month after my campaign ran but even 12 months later i’m still receiving referrals from people who are Googling my business to research my credentials before they meet me. Ironically something that I do myself when considering where my dollar will be spent. Advertising on RiotACT has given me a marketing $ that last much longer, providing significant value for money, and over a very long term.

I particularly liked that there was 2 way feedback with my (potential) clients. Every advertising approach i’ve tried in the past is presenting the picture you have of yourself. If you are prepared to be open to feedback from the public its not only amazing what you can find out what the public think of your profession or business but also what you may need to change to be more appealing to your potential clients. The ability to answer questions in ‘live’ time, and finding out if other people have the same questions made the advertising on RiotACT gave me a feeling of transparent, open, organic advertising which was so much more powerful than other things i’ve tried.

I would absolutely recommend advertising on RiotACT. In this day and age when more and more people are discerning where they are spending their money, leveraging a space where you’re not marketing AT people but where they have some interaction in what’s going on and they can ask questions of you means you’ve got a great chance of winning the business before you even start selling.

Rachael Hunter
Dominion Finance

Wybrow & Associates

Advertising with Riot Act has been an excellent experience for us. I was initially very cautious in getting involved because it was an unknown medium to me as I had no presence on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter. I now smile at my cautious approach and concern that the interactions would consume too much of my time. Not only has it yielded cost-effective results but it has allowed us to engage and interact with people who have read about us and viewed the feedback our clients have written about us.

We are continuing to advertise with RiotAct because the high quality people that we want as clients, are increasingly contacting us as a result of our presence on RiotAct. As a service business we rely most heavily on word-of-mouth advertising and RiotAct is the advertising medium that most closely approximates this.

I would recommend advertising with RiotAct to any organisation that has established an excellent reputation for high quality service and wants to profit further from their existing strong position.

Malcolm Wybrow
Wybrow & Assosciates

Zierholz Premium Brewery

Zierholz premium Brewery has been operating as a wholesale supplier of locally handcrafted beer for the Canberra region since 2006. In 2008, I added a restaurant and bar to the brewery to attract customers to the site and so showcase the products to the people of Canberra as well as cater for interstate visitors. Being located in Fyshwick could be regarded as a bit of a handicap so I knew there would be need for advertising of some sort. Having a very limited budget meant the advertising would need to well targeted and I wanted to be able to measure its effectiveness.

As I’ve had good feedback from previous articles on the RiotACT this was my first port of call. I approached the RiotACT team to see how we might best promote the new arm to my business as it was nearing completion. I didn’t have any pre existing advertising for the beer hall going so this was a good time to evaluate the effectiveness. I though that the best way to keep track of its effectiveness would be to use a voucher system and see how many direct conversions the promotion achieved. The package consisted of 50,000 impressions which linked though to a 1/2 priced pint promotion voucher on the Zierholz website.

The promotion turned out to be a huge success and not only did the vouchers come rolling in – there was a lot and I am sure many came and forgot to bring their vouchers – but many others commented on having heard about the brewery and restaurant on the RiotACT. As far as call-to-action advertising I believe the approach really worked and I will certainly use the RiotACT again for similar launches – as I believe Canberra would welcome a few more Zierholz beer hall style venues around the place!

As an aside, the RiotACT crew have been a delight to deal with, very laid back yet very professional in approach and timely in delivery. I also know for a fact that they actively support my products way above and beyond just grabbing advertising dollars which unfortunately seems to be commonplace in the advertising game. I am pretty sure that the amount of times they’ve personally made the pilgrimage and enjoyed a meal and a pint or three that I am in front in terms of monetary exchange…;-)

Cheers and beers

Christoph Zierholz
Brewer and Manager
Zierholz Premium Brewery

Adventure Paintball

To whom it may concern,

My name is Kieran Hynes and I operate the local ACT business ‘Adventure Paintball’. In addition to the standard Bucks Day/21st/Footy trip type groups, we are also offer corporate training/leadership training.

This is a difficult area to break into.

We tried a number of mainstream (expensive) advertising options, with none being of particular benefit in raising our profile in either our main demographic or in the newer areas we were trying to develop. This was always compounded by having a limited advertising budget which limited the options available. Examples of this impacting adversely included being offered places in newspaper ‘feature specials’ and then finding that a competitor had purchased a significantly larger ad, or hadn’t paid for an actual ad but had paid for the ‘advertorial’ that was the main feature or article. Either way I was receiving, little if any return on investment.

I was then advised to look into an ACT specific blog, the RiotACT. This blog had a significant range of issues that both reflected my interests and those of my target ‘demographic’. We trialed a few low key placements on RiotACT a long with establishing a low profile as an infrequent blogger on issues that I find relevant. Over a short space of time this relationship proved to have some significant benefits with many groups actively discussing positive experiences at my venue on a public forum, with a subsequent increase in patronage.

With only a minimal persistent presence on RiotACT (based on ‘views’), I received more hits from RiotACT that from Yellow Pages and web/Google searches combined. When I do write an article promoting a competition or other paintball related information and insert my webpage link in the article, my hits noticeably increase. Also, having my business mentioned in discussions on RiotACT has meant that, over time, these RiotACT articles have helped push my paintball business into the first page of Google returns.

Overall, I can honestly say that I have found that being both a ‘semi-regular’ correspondent and advertiser on RiotACT has significantly raised my profile within my demographic, resulting in increased patronage. This is a significantly more cost effective medium for my business than any other I have found to date. I anticipate expanding my relationship with RiotACT in the short term and maintaining a relationship for the foreseeable future. I can recommend RiotACT for any advertiser who is trying to interact with a demographic of predominantly professional, net savvy 25-50 year olds.

Kieran

The Jester’s Ball

Hi, My name is Tom Woodward & I was involved with organising first Jester’s Ball, a masquerade ball held at the Albert Hall. Being a musician we also filmed the event for a film-clip for a song I was putting out.

I’d been reading RiotACT for years and i knew of lots of Canberrans read it, through feedback i’d received from articles written about my music and from speaking with people offline who read the site regularly. Having a highly visible ad when first opening the site was definitely what i wanted for the Jester’s Ball. For the price and the quick and efficient customer service from the RiotACT team it was one of the most efficient expenses made on the entire project.

I’d definitely consider using RiotACT again.

Tom

CapitalJobs.com.au

CapitalJobs.com.au has received a significant amount of targeted web traffic and achieved excellent local brand awareness through its advertising relationship with the RiotACT.

The RiotACT really understands the online advertising space and we are extremely pleased with the results that it has provided for us in a short space of time. Our brand is much stronger as a result of its exposure on the RiotACT.

Clayton Wehner
Managing Director
CapitalJobs.com.au

Belconnen Community Centre

I had no reservations about promoting the collection of cameras for the SNAP film photography project on The Riotact. Johnboy, the Riotact editor is included on an email distribution list that the Belconnen Community Service Community Development Program uses for publicising Cultural projects such as Belconnen Gallery and Belco Flicks. He posted the information for me as he thought it was a worthy cause that may be of interest to Riotact readers.
My perception has changed in that I have become more aware of the large number of people read and respond to Riotact posts. The response to the general call out for camera donations was fantastically positive and many of the donors identified that they has become aware of the project through The Riotact. They acted quickly and with great generosity, donating not just their cameras but also their time to personally drop the cameras off at Belconnen Community Centre. A second post (also by Johnboy) calling for participants in the project also received an instant response from a Riotact reader.
I would recommend the Riotact to not for profit organizations as an extremely time and cost effective way to reach people who have a genuine interest in the Canberra community.
It is interesting to note that there were no comments made on these posts, readers simply acted on the information and identified to Belconnen Community Service staff that they had received the information from The Riotact. Thanks to the Riotact and its readers for such a generous and positive response to this new and exciting project.

Simone Penkethman
Belconnen Community Centre

Vac to the Future

Whilst we had a lot of faith in the quality of our business, opening it up for public comment and potential feedback on the RiotACT was definitely our major reservation before we started our advertising campaign. Our initial reservations were almost immediately quashed as soon as our article was listed on the RiotACT. Within minutes of it’s publication we were receiving and interacting with some really great comments and questions about the service we provide.

On the day the article was listed we picked up a sale through a new client that well and truly covered our initial investment to appear on the RiotACT. In the following week, our web traffic remained at an all time high and we were truly staggered with the number of leads the article generated.

We would highly recommend advertising on the RiotACT to any business that wants to put themselves in front of the Canberra market. Having the ability to post a piece of advertising content then interact with literally thousands of potential customers is an incredibly powerful marketing tool that is simply isn’t found in traditional advertising mediums.

Jeremy Watson
Vac to the Future

All advertising material on RiotACT is subject to these terms and conditions

Regards
The-RiotACT team