Airtasker partners with oOh!media in $6m deal to raise national brand awareness

Australian online local services marketplace Airtasker (ASX: ART) has announced a $6 million media partnership with outdoor media company oOh!media (ASX: OML) to help ramp up its national brand awareness.

The partnership enables Airtasker to scale its business in a cost-effective way through access to more than 35,000 advertising sites owned by oOh!media across the country.

These include billboards, street furniture, airports, office towers and retail centres.

Prominent marketing

Airtasker chief executive officer Tim Fung said the company was keen to advance the partnership.

“Outdoor media can be incredibly impactful because of its unmissable nature in a media landscape that is becoming increasingly crowded,” he said.

“It also presents some exciting innovation opportunities with new digital formats and contextually relevant locations, enabling us to reach our customers at the right time and place when they need something done.”

Under the terms of the deal, oOh!media will provide $6m in inventory to Airtasker in exchange for a two-year $5m convertible note with a 5.8% coupon rate.

At maturity, Airtasker will have an option to convert the outstanding note and coupon into ordinary shares at a 10% discount to its 30-day volume-weighted average price.

Alternatively, it can choose to repay the note in cash.

UK Investment

Airtasker secured a $6.5m investment in June last year from 4 Ventures, the venture arm of Channel 4 and Britain’s leading media-for-equity partner.

The investment gave 4 Ventures a 20% stake in subsidiary company Airtasker UK and is expected to accelerate the company’s growth through access to the nation’s biggest free streaming service and Channel 4’s monthly reach of more than 47 million people (or 78% of the UK population).

It builds on an Australian partnership with Seven West Media, which helped the company significantly increase its revenue over a five-year period.

“We have seen some excellent results with the Channel 4 deal in the UK, delivering a 49% growth in posted tasks soon after its launch six months ago,” Mr Fung said.

“We are now keen to build on that momentum with oOh!media in Australia.”