Ads Global eyes listing
LOCAL outsourcing firm, Ads Global, wants to list on the Jamaica Stock Exchange.
First, it plans to acquire a business process outsourcing (BPO) company and open an office in Kingston by next month.
“We currently have an acquisition in the area of BPO that is pending approval in Nashville, Tennessee that has an annual gross revenue of US$10 million ($1.1 billon),” said Ron McKay, CEO of Ads Global and Caribbean Tourism Investment Company (CTICo).
The outsourcer is also looking at taking on businesses that do transactions via mobile phones, tour operators and database management businesses.
“Jamaica has been trying to go after good database management, but to date has not been too successful in competing against India, Philippines and Mexico,” said McKay.
Ads Global increased its revenue by 38 per cent over last year, according to McKay. He is hopeful that the new marketing and client relations office in Kingston will help boost revenue by 30 per cent come next year.
The CEO also expects that his company’s foray into the loyalty and rewards programme business to increaes revenue by 50 per cent within two years.
The outsourcer plans to earn money from customising its recently launched Go Value Destination programme for other companies, and charging them a fee for it. Ads Global also plans to apply a small fee on transactions conducted through the rewards programmes.
“There are also premier levels that persons can upgrade to and get great discounts and rewards by paying an annual fee,” McKay told the Jamaica Observer. “The revenues of the annual fee will be shared between us and the business starting from 75 to 25 percentage split depending on the model.”
Before establishing its own rewards programme, the outsourcer developed programmes for Mystic Mountain and Mystic Ridge Hotel, Paymaster Jamaica Limited and the American Chamber of Commerce Jamaica (AmCham).
Paymaster rewards programmes involve paying bills on time and referring friends to the company, for which the customers can earn points and redeem for vacationing, purchasing small electronic items, among others.
Members of the Amcham programme can access discounts at restaurants and tourist attractions globally, while the Hotels programme rewards customers for revisiting.
Ultimately, Ads Global will help businesses customise their benefit offerings, whether it be vacation packages or savings on purchases.
“A company may average 10,000 persons per month in visitors, but most of those people won’t come back again after the first visit,” said McKay. “If the company builds a loyalty programme where customers receive something for just visiting, they are going to refer their friends to it and that will grow customer base.”
“Now we are working on projects for Sea Gardens Hotel in Montego Bay, Sun Holiday Tours, Dolphin Coves in Ocho Rios, Lucea and Cayman Islands…so it’s expanding,” McKay told the Business Observer.
Rewards programmes are also underway for AmCham Colombia, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados. McKay hopes to expand the service to AmCham Dominican Republic, Argentina and Haiti.
Ads Global currently employs 400 individuals to handle each client’s customer service, bookings and reservations, social media marketing, online chats and loyalty rewards programme.
“We are now offering turnkey solutions as part of our core business model to fit the need of our customer base,” McKay said.