Empowering Local Businesses through Streaming TV Advertising | David Van Beekum

David McBee: Hello and welcome to Simpli.fi TV. I'm David McBee. Our guest today is David Van Beekum, co-founder and creator of tweva, the world's first social TV network for small businesses and influencers. With a profound passion for digital marketing and technology, Dave's talents span across multiple domains, including insights on startups, automation, AI, custom software development, patents and more. When not revolutionizing social tv, he enjoys family time in sunny Florida, constantly dreaming up new ways to transform the world of digital marketing with an unwavering dedication to helping small businesses thrive. Dave, welcome to Simpli.fi TV. David Van Beekum: Hey, thank you, David for having me on the podcast. David McBee: I'm so glad you're here. Let's start by talking a little bit your company, tweva. You refer to it as the world's first social TV network for small businesses and influencers. Can you describe exactly what tweva is and how a person might leverage it? David Van Beekum: Yeah, so tweva is a digital display, but it's also a digital bulletin board for every small business across America. So most businesses have a TV in their business, and it's showing maybe a local TV channel for a major city. And we wanted to transform this into a local TV channel for the actual city. So if you think about a way that business owners can share their ads and other content and offers amongst each other, but in a non-competition way. David McBee: So if I own a local restaurant, I can download a tweva app, I assume on my Roku device or my Amazon Fire Stick, and I have local programming and local commercials? David Van Beekum: Yep, that's exactly right. So we started with a digital box when we first started. And it was a little bit cumbersome to get the box, connect it via HDMI. But then with the invention of Smart TVs, now we've pushed our application to Apple and to Google, and soon Roku. But they use a little bit different of a programming, so we have to take a little sidestep over there. But yeah, that's the idea, is business owners can say, "Hey, I want part of that network and I want to kind of join the other TVs in my area and I want to kind of share what I do." David McBee: So a lot of businesses are thinking right now, should I get into the streaming advertising space? I feel like broadcast was way too big or too expensive for me at one point. What do you say to that? David Van Beekum: Well, it was. Broadcast TV is a little bit more expensive, but you do get a lot of coverage with it, and there is definitely benefits to it, but the price point it doesn't make it available to most small businesses. So if you are a small business and you want to get involved at a lower price, you definitely look into this streaming side of things. David McBee: So what advice do you have for local businesses who want to take advantage of being on streaming TV? David Van Beekum: Well, you have to look at it a little bit different than that general regular TV is, what are you doing to create that content? And the content is a little bit different because you want to tell a little story about your business using that new form of infotainment. David McBee: Okay. Talk to me more about infotainment. I think I know what that means, but why don't you describe it? David Van Beekum: Well, it's like the new generation. They want to be entertained while they get some information. And so I'll use it as an example of one thing that I used to do or that I recently had. A problem with the shower. And one of the valves have gone bad, so it was leaky. And so you type it into your favorite search engine, maybe TikTok or Instagram, and that's where you go first to see if anyone else has had this problem. And you end up watching a funny video or somebody being frustrated with the handle or the valve not being corroded and they hit it with a hammer. And you think, "Oh, that's funny." But then they tell you, "Well look, I got this other brand which comes with the sealant that doesn't cause the corrosion." And so that's a little bit of a infotainment versus just, "Buy my brand, it's better than the other one." David McBee: So do you think production quality matters in that case? It sounds like that could be filmed with a phone, it would even maybe make it feel more authentic. David Van Beekum: People are kind of choosing or watching more of that non-production video. I don't know how long it will stay. But I do have a theory that for a long time we've gone into the industrial large corporations doing everything, and now people are realizing with the age of technology and the internet that they can go more local. They want to work remotely in a small town and maybe buy local bread, eggs, and milk from someone else. So they're tending to look at more local ads. David McBee: Yeah. I know I would rather buy from a local farmer's market or something like that as opposed to going to the big grocery chain. So if that local farmer were to create user-generated content that felt very authentic, and maybe show me his farm and the people who actually work on it, that could be a very effective way of advertising his business. David Van Beekum: Absolutely. I know my wife would. Where's this local... There's local farm over here. And it's even gone down to what restaurants carry the local chickens. And though I may not even agree with that, I think that's where society is going. If you think about 50 to a hundred years ago, how many people did you do commerce with? It had to be 10 or 20. And today you have three or four, Amazon, Walmart, Target, and a food store. That's four. So at what point do we come back to that local business, the local consumer, and how do we target them? How do we talk to them? And it's not in a corporate language, it's more in this local, "Hey look, this is what I do." And people are really enjoying it. David McBee: And you believe streaming TV is an opportunity for them to really get their message in front of the right audience, locally? David Van Beekum: Yes. If you have a smaller budget to start with, it's an incredibly great platform to test because you may not even know. It's not like we've been creating user generated content for 10 years. So a account representative can't call you and say, "Hey, we have this local farmer and he's been creating local Instagram, TikToks and YouTube content for the past 10 years. We're going to use his model." We don't know. So there's a little bit of testing in there and it's a great platform to do that testing on. David McBee: Of course, with digital, you have the ability to do some testing and find out if the ads are actually working. So we love that. All right, final question. What do you really want people to know about Tweva and running local ads and streaming TV? What's the most important piece of advice you have for advertisers out there? David Van Beekum: Well, the most important part is, just start. It's not that you don't have a 4K camera in your pocket, so start playing with the ideas. And I know that when you first jump on any kind of camera or microphone, you start slipping up and you start saying, "Well, I didn't want to say it this way." That's fine, hit delete guys. We're not in film anymore. So just hit delete and try it again. And after you've done it about 18 to 20 to 25 times, because you know it takes me that long. You'll find, "Hey, this is not as uncomfortable and I can do this." Because really as a local business, you want as much exposure as you can get. So if you're not doing radio and TV and social media, then you got to take that dip in. And I know most of you're going to think, "I can't." And that's why the suggestion. Take the phone out of your back pocket or your front pocket, and just start shooting little things that you're doing. And when you look at them again, you'll say, "Hey, I could do this." David McBee: I love that. I love that a lot. All right, so David, if someone wants to get in touch with you, what is the best way for them to reach you? David Van Beekum: Well, let's just go to our website @tweva.com or on any of the social media handles. You can find us @twevatv. We'd love to have you join the network. David McBee: Perfect. Thank you so much for being my guest today, David. David Van Beekum: Thank you for having me. It was a lot of fun. David McBee: And thank you guys for watching. Simpli.fi TV is sponsored by Simpli.fi, helping you to maximize relevance and multiply results with our industry leading media buying and workflow solutions. For more information, visit Simply.fi. Thanks for joining us today. I'm David McBee, be awesome, and we'll see you next time.