A Canadian automotive classified vendor hopes to make a small dent in a crowded market by going super vertical: it is selling a service to radio stations to offer vehicle listings on their own websites. There’s no connection to a national service. Rather, Dealers on Air, as it’s called, provides a simple standalone template for radio properties to go after local area dealers, in particular those with a maximum of 25-50 vehicles to advertise.
Parent company Canadian Media Technologies’ thesis is that these local dealers don’t generally buy radio time but would if stations could offer a combined radio-web offering. Dealers on Air charges a pretty low monthly fee to radio stations, starting at $200/month for up to 3,500 total dealer listings (the service only supports dealers, not individual sellers).
There are upgrade increments for more listings and discounts for stations that band together under a single web domain. Stations can upsell premium and highlighted listings; dealers can transfer feeds or send .csv files manually to the radio station. There’s a business directory listing section too. Dealers on Air supports cars, trucks, marine, motorsport, RV, and agriculture listings.
The template is intended to be easy enough for non-techies to manage, but stations can outsource the entire process for another $90/month. The site itself has the usual bells and whistles, although it’s nothing novel to look at. Here’s an example.
While clearly not a threat to larger classified players, Dealers on Air points to a potentially underserved market segment. Classified advertising players of all sizes should take a look – if not at the technology itself than at a potential untapped revenue generation opportunity.