Local businesses help others with free billboard ad for 3 months

It's a big opportunity for a local charity or business. Venture Commercial Reality and The Electronic Billboard have donated three months of free advertising to help pay it forward in these unprecedented times.  

“We know that times are tough right now and we really do want to give back to our community,” says Jason Wills, vice president, sales and leasing with Venture Commercial Realty. 

“We partnered with The Electronic Billboard Company ... to provide three free months of advertising on the billboard.”

The eBoard is unique as it’s the only electronic billboard on the strip that is locally owned. 

“We saw this as a really good opportunity to do something that wasn’t just about raising funds or giving funds to an organization, to a company,” Chris Wills, principal, sales and leasing with Venture Commercial Realty. 

But a way to set-up a platform to give some of that exposure and our hopes are also that, with this exposure, the recipients and nominees will be able to pay it forward,” which he says is really important to duo’s vision. 

“We’re fortunate in Kelowna to have tourism and have this great weather but that does go away and there’s going to be the small businesses, the initiatives and the groups - I think it’s going to be more difficult than ever for them to raise awareness for whatever they’re trying to do good in the community.”

They hope the billboard ad will give them that extra platform to get their name out there during these tough times. 

Venture Commercial Realty has only been up and running for three months but they knew from the start they wanted to give back. 

“As a matter of fact, we actually left a large real estate firm, started our own company and three days was the mandatory shutdown, everything closed for us,” adds Jason. 

He says they were in the thick of the pandemic’s effects but were able to turn it around, thanks to small businesses which they, in turn, are hoping to help now. 

“We’ve been very fortunate to rebound and that’s because of the help from the small businesses that we work with."

The eBoard will play the advertisement a minimum of once every two minutes, which amounts to 2.5-3 million views per month. For those interested, nominations are open now and close on August 28th at 4 p.m.

They're encouraging the community to nominate any local business and/or charity of their choice. Either through their website or tagging Venture’s social media to spread awareness and to aid them in finding a cause that will benefit the most from this exposure.