E168 ‘Redefining Advertising for SMEs’ with Buymedia’s Fergal O’Connor and Galvin Venugopal

Today’s guest is Fergal O’Connor, CEO/founder and Galvin Venugopal, Head of Engineering at Buymedia. The company have been nominated for the 2024 AI Awards in the Best Application of AI in SME for their AI-powered platform, which is designed to transform how SMEs approach advertising.

In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) often struggle to match the advertising power of large corporations. With limited budgets and resources, smaller businesses face tough challenges in planning, executing and measuring media campaigns effectively. But what if there was a tool that could level the playing field, making sophisticated advertising strategies accessible for SMEs? Enter Buymedia!

The company’s innovative approach stems from the insights of CEO Fergal, whose background in media sales exposed him to the recurring issues SMEs face in advertising. He envisioned a solution that could help smaller businesses manage advertising across various media channels more effectively and affordably.

With this mission in mind, Buymedia developed an advanced AI platform tailored to simplify and enhance every stage of an advertising campaign – from planning to execution and performance analysis. It empowers SMEs with the tools and insights they need to compete with industry giants on a fraction of the budget.

Buymedia’s platform applies AI to create a highly detailed “persona” of a target customer. By developing a deep understanding of the ideal audience, Buymedia’s technology can make more accurate recommendations about media targeting and ad spend. This precision enables SMEs to maximize their limited budgets, investing in the most impactful advertising channels and formats.

The platform also incorporates predictive analytics, which allows businesses to simulate, analyse and refine their media strategies before a campaign even launches. This strategic advantage, previously reserved for large corporations with extensive budgets and resources, is now accessible to SMEs, making it possible for them to optimize their ROI and enhance their media reach.

The Buymedia platform isn’t just a planning tool; it’s a comprehensive marketplace that automates key aspects of campaign management. By providing SMEs with data-driven insights and an all-in-one dashboard for planning and purchasing media, Buymedia simplifies the complex process of running omnichannel campaigns. This includes advertising across TV, radio, social media and more, with a centralised marketplace for easy access and decision-making.

With Buymedia’s automated campaign management, small businesses can avoid the headaches of coordinating multiple platforms and vendors, ultimately saving time and resources. The result? SMEs can now compete more effectively with larger enterprises, achieving results that might otherwise be out of reach.

Galvin highlights an exciting next step: integrating creative data with their platform’s existing analytics capabilities. While media spend and targeting are essential for campaign success, studies show that up to 55% of a campaign’s success relies on the creative itself. Buymedia plans to add creative insights into its data set, helping businesses understand which types of ad creatives are resonating most with different customer profiles.

With this integration, Buymedia aims to provide SMEs with a truly holistic view of campaign performance. By analysing both media efficiency and creative impact, businesses can make informed adjustments to every element of their campaigns, ensuring maximum effectiveness.

Buymedia’s AI platform is more than just a tool—it’s a game-changer for SMEs in Ireland, the UK, and beyond. By democratising advanced media planning and econometrics, Buymedia gives smaller businesses access to advertising power that was once out of reach. This means that SMEs can now enjoy the benefits of big data insights, predictive analytics, and automated campaign management without needing a huge budget.

This approach is a lifeline for SMEs facing rising costs and increased competition. In the evolving advertising landscape, Buymedia offers these businesses a way to boost their reach, grow their brand, and see significant returns on their advertising investments. The future of AI in advertising is here, and for SMEs, it’s a future filled with possibilities.