TO THIS IS OUR TOWN - Round 1 investment pack -
THE OPPORTUNIty The rise of digital, mobile and social media is unprecedented, more people than ever before now use these mediums for their news and information needs. The printed press is crumbling and conventional magazines are becoming increasingly obsolete next to the instantaneous information available in the digital, mobile and social world. The fast-paced nature of this new media presents many challenges. A successful business must maintain consistent relevance whilst giving users targeted information tailored to them. Large, established brands have the clout to seize opportunities presented by the digital world, but small and medium businesses operating on a local scale can struggle to stay relevant. The standard model of conventional print advertising in local magazines and newspapers is hugely expensive, outdated and has dangerously uncertain reach. So where can local businesses go to advertise; and where do thousands of people go to find up-to-the-minute local events and news? The answer is the same: This is Our Town. 2
RECENT STATS 30000 25000 20000 185% Website traffic increase since March 14 RICHMOND UPON-THAMES 25000 20000 15000 10000 Jul '14 Aug '14 Sept '14 WEBSITE TRAFFIC 15000 Jul '14 Aug '14 Sept '14 WEBSITE TRAFFIC 7904 likes WiMBLEDON 97% Website traffic increase since March 14 GUILFORD KINGSTON UPON-THAMES 7294 likes 40000 35000 30000 73% Website traffic increase since March 14 80000 70000 60000 50000 40000 132% Website traffic increase since March 14 25000 Jul '14 Aug '14 Sept '14 WEBSITE TRAFFIC 7088 likes 30000 20000 10000 Jul '14 Aug '14 Sept '14 WEBSITE TRAFFIC 8685 likes 3
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This is Our Town is a local news and events network which, in the two years since its conception, has grown to cover six primary territories: Kingston, Richmond, Wimbledon, Putney, Elmbridge and Guildford. It is now exiting a successful pilot stage following significant audience growth and engagement. In September 2014, the network recorded 250,000 visitors, generating in excess of 3 million page impressions - a 400% increase within a 12 month period. We are now looking to monetise our audience, and seize an excellent opportunity for a larger roll out both in the UK and under license overseas. Across our current territories, local businesses spend in excess of 40m annually on advertising alone. We believe this level to consistent throughout the South East, and by the end of 2016 we aim to have secured a 10% share of this revenue stream through our products and services. This is Our Town offers local advertisers an alternative to the ageing print media, innovative web based advertising through engaging branded content and site sponsorship. On top of this, we can offer clients web services, PR coverage, franchise agreements and ecommerse opportunities. Printed local newspapers have seen their revenue streams diminish by 10% year after year; with a growing audience, and limitless potential, we are the future of local media. We are looking for an investment of 100,000 for 15% equity to fund the expansion of This is Our Town into 50 new territories in the next 18 months, and to finance the creation of a commercial team to monetise existing assets. This is one of the most exciting media publishers operating today. Invest now, and join us in becoming the market leaders of local media in the UK. 4
What is This is Our Town? Each territory of the This is Our Town (TIOT) network is serviced by a standalone named website as well as several social media accounts, for example, Kingston upon Thames is covered by www. thisisourtownkingston.co.uk, and is linked to the This is Our Town Kingston Facebook page and Twitter account. TIOT provides users with the latest news, sport, local information, a What s On calendar, and reviews and features on restaurants, things to do, local jobs, local directory, groupon style offers and, in the future, access to a virtual shopping mall formed by local businesses. These platforms are optimised for mobile devices and each site has a social media presence in order to drive relevance and maintain significant engagement from the community. This is Our Town currently has 8 sites including Kingston, Guildford, Wimbledon, Richmond, Putney, Esher, Weybridge and Thames Ditton. We also have several hub sites, which serve all of the individual sites. These include: This is Our Directory: A directory for local business featuring business profiles which theyw can independently update with videos, offers, maps, blogs, events etc. These are Our Jobs: a local job board recently launched (September 2014) in order to promote local employment. This is Our Town Deals (name to be agreed): a Local Groupon style site, which allows local businesses to target local people to drive loyalty and create a customer base - based on user experience rather than price. Eat Drink Party: a spin off brand utilising the content from the TIOT network. Targeted at a new audience in the hospitality sector. We also have an additional corporate site, which is ever growing with latest news about our products. The unique selling point of This is Our Town is it s potential for growth, from both a technological perspective and a commercial one. Having attracted a broad, growing base of users and having proven its ability to capture audience, TIOT has created a wide enough net to reach a wide spectrum of the population, without any significant marketing spend thus far. 5
REVENUE POTENTIAL We have currently set up the business to focus on audience before revenue. Now that we have established a consumer base, we are looking for investment to build the commercial side of the business and develop a dedicated commercial team. Revenue will come through directory listings, deal commissions, PR campaigns for councils and brands and display advertising. In addition, we offer web and mobile development services, among others detailed later in this pack. TARGET AUDIENCE Our target audience is broad, past indicators have shown that the current audience is split 60/40 female to male while the age group we re reaching is from 25 to 40. We continue to target this demographic while expanding to appeal to the community as a whole. COSTS We currently have six people working in the UK on this project and a team of six developing software and products in India. The team in India have worked for the business for over 4 years and this team can be scaled quickly and efficiently in order to build capacity, in a cost effective way. For example our web developers are paid 400 a month in India and our SEO employees 300 a month. The primary cost drivers are driven by IT requirements. Phase 1 and 2 costs will primarily be software development for the initial solution. Other Phase 2 costs include distribution and advertising costs to promote the launch of Lifetile. Once posts go live, there will be naturally be ongoing operational costs, which will include staff, legal, accounting, marketing, technical development/support costs and other administrative costs. PROGRESS TO DATE Intellectual Property & Corporate Structure Domains registered TIOV Limited registered Full bank account and finance in place Professional and Management Support Lawyers engaged to provide to start the IP but will need investment to carry on with IP Accountants engaged to file annual accounts for TIOV limited Strong Management Advisory Board in place. Design Websites deployed in 8 territories plus directory, job site and group on developed Brand agreed and deployed Current stats 2 Million page impressions in August 2014 with 153,000 vistors Over 40,000 Facebook likes across the group 6
PRODUCTS - Directory launched - Job board Launched - Deals website due for release September 2014 - Shopping site due for release Jan 2014 NEW SITES INTERNATIONAL EXPANSION International expansion into India will launch in October with Noida and in Turkey, Kalkan will become our first European site. Accredited by the UKTI to help with international expansion. INVESTMENT REQUEST We are seeking investors to provide 200,000 to facilitate expansion and development in order to reach our goal of 30 sites by the end of 2015 and to develop a mass scalable programme in order to license to franchise the model by mid 2015 in a professional and legal way, both in the UK and abroad. 7
This is our directory This is Our Directory was launched in August 2014 and allows for advertisers to sign up to a directory which will service all of our sites. The sign-up process is automatic and each client can upload their own content, videos, photos, blogs events etc. Users of the directory can also take advantage of the network by placing content into our What s On guides and event section of our website giving them a weekly PR channel. We also offer sign-ups the unique opportunity to have two annual pieces of branded content, editorial or otherwise, published on the relevant website, giving businesses a direct connection with thousands of potential readers. Businesses can also use our social media pages to promote and run competitions. 8
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This is our TOWN DEALS This is Our Town will be breaking into the online daily deals market in October 2014 with a brand new deals page dedicated to promoting special deals from local retailers. Similar to Groupon, merchants will make offers on the website using us as a broker. We depart from the Groupon model however, by using content to drive people to the site and specific deals. Our audience has engaged heavily with offers and promotions in the past so we are confident in this ventures success. Along with earning commission for every deal sold, we also will capture a huge amount 10
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SHOPPING SITE With more and more local businesses going digital in order to save themselves from obscurity, and to create a new revenue stream during the decline of the high street, we will be creating a digital shopping centre. Each merchant will be able to upload their own products into a local Amazon with content driven sales. This would compete with Not on the High Street and Amazon Local. This would start small but as the network grows, significant growth will be delivered through this. 12
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OUR WEBSITES Our websites are location based giving our community a digital hub to find all the latest news, events, offers, directories and lots more. They are all fully responsive, mobile optimised and cross browser compatible. They carry advertising and a mixture of original content plus advertorial content and PR releases. 14 We currently have Wimbledon, Richmond, Kingston Guildford, Putney, Elmbridge. We have imminent plans with investment to extend to another 6 sites including internationally in India. Currently all sites are owned by us but we are exploring the potential for franchising and licensing the sites.
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Digital Marketing Clients of TIOT and TIOD benefit from the additional services we offer. By providing web and mobile development, social media strategy, digital marketing, and copywriting services, we offer a comprehensive digital solution for local SMEs, giving us a secondary revenue stream as well as opportunities to up-sell our services. So far, we have developed digital solutions for 15 companies, including website design using Wordpress, Drupel and Magento, and app development on ios. 16
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Example of client newsletters. 21
ROUND 1 INVESTMENT We have built the audience, the time has come to expand. We are looking for investment to grow and develop the commercial side of the business. The initial cap invested by directors so far: 200,000 (200,000 shares each valued at 1) For Round 1 investment, we are to issue 40,000 new shares with the objective to raise a further 200,000. We have five primary objectives for the first round of investment: - To develop sales team - To build and protect the brand - To develop more sites - To increase market share - To launch shopping channel. 22