Going public via digital billboard

Mohd Yunus & Manikhandamurthy holding the signed MoA .

KOTA KINABALU; Sabahan will soon be able to see the latest news and information on State Government programmes flashed on digital billboards throughout the State, under the pilot LED Advertising Screen project of goverment-linked company (GLC) Yayasan Bumiputra Sabah (YBS) through its subsidiary YBS-Tenaga Sdn Bhd.

This was revealed at the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) between Sky Blue Media Sdn Bhd and Yunus Property Consultant Sdn Bhd at Hyatt Regency Kota Kinabalu, witnessed by YBS Chief Executive Officer Asno Amat Muda.

The MoA signing was follow-up to Yunus Property's collaboration with YBS Tenaga in the said project which will see 4000 digital adsvertising screen and 24 giant digital billboard installed in major town throughout the state that was launched on April 12 this year.

YBS Tenaga had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with five local authorities to implement the LED Advertising screen project in the district they are representing.

They are Tuaran District Council, Keningau District Council, Tawau Municipal Council, Putatan District Council and Penampang District Council.

Yunus Property CEO Mohd Yunus Apil told a press conference later that they are in process of identifiying the areas for the giant billboards that will be provided by Sky Blue Media.

"We plan to install the giant billboards within to two three months", he said.

Sky Blue Media Managing Director, Datuk Manikandamurthy Velayoudam said the company which has been in bussiness for more than 12 years in the peninsula was happy to parrtner with YBS and Yunus Consultant to execute the project.

"We want to bring our expertise to Sabah. We want to bring the screen to every town in the state in line with the vision of Sabah Maju Jaya (SMJ). We are bringing in a programmatic technology that will allow small businesses to advertise their products and service at a lower cost," he said.

He said programmatic advertising on digital billboards is a digital advertising that utilities the sophistication of "Artificial Intelligence (AI)" to target a more specific target market.

He said it is an automated process to buy or sell advrtising inventory through and exchange (ad exchange) that can connect between advertising and publisher.

"Basically, this process of buying and selling ads with real-time bidding is using a machine and a algorithm. Therefore through this Programmatic Advertising on Digital Billboard Platform, it can be easier for advertiser to reach a wider consumer by buying advertising space at various publisher automatically.

"For advertisers and publisher, programmatic ads can provide high efficiency without using conventional methods," he said, adding that the Sabah State Government is a visionary one that wants to held small business in Sabah.

"So in line with their vision we are going to execute this project which will help all the small business operators to advertise. All this while the digital media is seen for the larger brands likes telco and multinational companies but this will provide the avenue for small business in Sabah.

"Since it is programmatic and online connected, we will be able to flash the news of the State Government's programmes on the digital billboards. This will be a game changer and we are going to work together with YBS and YPC to ensure we are part of the SMJ vision and digitalization of the state," he said.

Manikandamurthy said that Sky Blue Media knows that advertising budget of small business and will be designing package that affordable for them.

"We managed to do this in Peninsular Malaysia and will be bringing this expertise to Sabah," he said. Under phase One of the project 2,400 units of the screens will be installed along the main routes of the towns by the end of this year and 130 units of the units earmarked for Phase One have been installed.