Advertising online paying off in LV

Nichole Davis

Wednesday, Dec. 18, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

Because of the unusual nature of her business, Susan Bohn was looking for an untraditional but economical way to advertise. She's found it in cyberspace.

Bohn's firm, Profile of Nevada, supplies human resource and management assistance to companies in the form of pre- and post-employment evaluations. She says it's the kind of business where she has to generate demand by explaining to people what she does.

That's one of the reasons she is one of the 150 local businesses that advertise with the Las Vegas Cybermall, one of the largest localized Internet malls in the country. The Cybermall features integrated websites with linked pages at a fraction of the cost of traditional advertising.

"Using the cybermall, I can do a complete in-depth description of my business in comparison to putting it into any other kind of advertising," Bohn said, "and it's much cheaper than using the Yellow Pages."

How much cheaper? For less than what some of the businesses are paying each month for a half-page in the local telephone directory, designers with the 6-month-old cybermall can build a five-page integrated web site with graphics and color. On top of that, companies can change up to 20 percent of each page every month and maintenance costs $50 a month.

Renata's Restaurant marketing director Danny Angelo uses the Internet as a supplement to his $1,500-a-month Yellow Page ads. Angelo prefers the computerized site over the more expensive counterpart, because the 4451 E. Sunset Road facility's two restaurants, 199 slot machines and bowling lanes are all advertised in the same spot.

"I don't get the full blow from the Yellow Pages, because they (customers) don't see all my features," Angelo said.

Restaurants such as Renata's and Alias Smith and Jones are the Cybermall's most visited sites, according to co-owner Gary McDonald. Popular spots get 100 to 150 hits a day.

"If they have a discount and-or a coupon, they get more hits," McDonald said. "It also depends on the kind of business," they offer.

McDonald predicts that online advertising will revolutionize the way companies do business, because families no longer have to purchase $3,000 computers to access the Internet. They can now use WebTV, Prime Cable or even Sega Saturn to enter the information superhighway.

He anticipates 70 percent of homes will be online within the next 1 1/2 to two years as technology becomes more affordable. That was the selling point for Anne Alexander, the owner of Computer Convenience, a computer repair shop.

"I heard about (the Cybermall) from a friend, then they started explaining the concept that with WebTV, people at home would see our product," Alexander said. "It would be like a Yellow Pages for your TV."

In the three months she has been online, Alexander estimates 5 percent of her new business has come from the Internet. Those customers tend to be better educated about her product than the average consumer and more at ease.

"It seems like they're more comfortable with us, because we are on the Cybermall," Alexander said.

An it's not just computer experts who surf the 'Net. Alexander said her site has brought in everyday people from all walks of life, which is exactly what she wanted.

"That was the idea to make (CCI) an in-home name. Make it something people will turn to," she said.

Cybermall customers are entered in the site in chronological, rather than alphabetical order, so those companies who get on now will have the best spots permanently. They can also have prime spots in the GTE Superpages, another computerized directory, which is in the process of merging with a national service bringing 5 million hits a day.

That's why customers are urged to sign on now, because "if you're not in a mall, you're going to in the positioning," McDonald said.

Small businesses and Fortune 500 companies have bought into the concept so much that McDonald and his partner are planning to start localized malls in three to five new cities by March.

"The main thing is that we are a marketing company that does the computer end. We're in this for the long haul," McDonald said. "As the Internet grows, so will the number of hits."