• Business Directory
• Virtual Tours Now Live
• Free Classifieds
• About Cayman
• Government

• Accountants
• Airlines
• Asset Management
• Attorneys
• Automobile Rentals

• Banks
• Business Advisory Agencies
• Business Consultants
• Captive Insurance
• Captive Management

• Company Management
• Corporate Services
• Financial Regulation
• Fund Administration
• Hedge Funds

• Hotels & Resorts
• Immigration
• Insurance Management
• Investment Management
• Private Banking

• Re-insurance Companies
• Real Estate & Development
• Recruitment
• Stock Exchange
• Trust Companies

Mamma Mia! ECAY stops traffic

Source: Caymanian Compass Tuesday, May 24, 2005 Last week’s efforts by the marketing team of Ecay, Cayman’s first printed web directory, caused quite a stir and literally stopped traffic. ‘Your business can be Bjorn Again with Ecay’ read the enormous sign while a model Abba look-a-like, complete with spangly disco gear, held on to the banner for dear life. Of course, the Ecay team was capitalizing on the fact that the Abba tribute band, Bjorn Again, held a concert here last Tuesday, inspiring them to use the event as an innovative marketing opportunity. Over the past few weeks Cayman residents have been treated to guerilla marketing at its finest. As commuters into George Town drive to and from work, they have enjoyed catching a glimpse of the huge, mobile Ecay sign, which has lightened everyone’s journey with constantly changing clever punch lines and models that communicate messages to potential clients on how advertising in Ecay’s directory can promote their business. But it’s not just Ecay’s innovative marketing that’s causing a buzz within the business community; it’s Ecay’s entire product offering. Sheree Ebanks, Butterfield Bank Director and Head of Wealth Management said, “It’s great to see a Caymanian company thinking outside the box. And if you think that their marketing is innovative, just wait until you see the directory product.”

Sheree added, “ I cannot wait until the Ecay launch on September 1st so that I can start using it as an invaluable business tool.”

Ecay is the word currently on everyone’s lips right now, but what exactly is Ecay? It’s the first ever printed web directory for the Cayman Islands. It is the one source that concisely lists website addresses of companies, government departments and non-profit organizations within this jurisdiction. The benefits of advertising in Ecay are manifold: it allows local businesses to showcase their products and services 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and 365 days a year, to a huge, global audience. Leaders in every business sector, from the construction industry to retail, financial services industry to telecoms, have seen the benefits of advertising in Ecay to drive traffic to their websites, grow market share and ultimately beat the competition.

Jim Laurensen from Alba Electric, an advertiser in Ecay, describes the benefits of participating in such a product for 12 months: “ No other publication can boast Ecay’s phenomenal distribution both at home and overseas.” Ecay’s aim within Cayman is to hand deliver a copy of Ecay to every home in the Cayman Islands and every desk of every business person in Cayman, as well as hotels, condos and at the airports and cruise ship terminals to visitors.

The financial services industry will benefit from Ecay’s distribution at overseas business conferences, as well as distribution to the top law firms abroad, in London, New York and Hong Kong, who refer business to the Cayman Islands. Jim added, “It represents great value for money as it is a consistent, effective and inexpensive medium and frankly it is an opportunity which should not be missed.” Some businesses which do not yet have websites also want to be part of Ecay’s incredible success story, as they too see the value of this new medium.

Cathy Williams, Ecay’s Director of Sales & Marketing said, “We can make it easy for you and get your company online for less than the cost of a cappuccino per day, exposing your business to hundreds of thousands of potential clients.” Ecay’s printed web directory is supported by the Cayman Islands on-line portal, www.ecayonline.com which will also be launched on September 1st, thus opening up Cayman’s business to the global marketplace. In today’s business environment the days of a potential client asking for your phone number are over, in essence the telephone directory is now obsolete. Now business people ask for your website address, because your website displays ALL your company’s information including contact details and can be accessed from anywhere in the world instantaneously. Your website is now the most important and most effective communication tool, therefore if you don’t have a website you are not in business!

Hilary McKenzie-Cahill, Managing Director of Ecay concludes, “On September 1st Ecay will invariably change the behavioural patterns of each and every person residing in Cayman, visiting Cayman or potentially investing in Cayman as it will allow them instant, easy access to the products and services that Ecay’s advertisers have to offer. If you have a website or you now finally realize the importance of getting your business on-line to merely compete in your industry and you have not yet booked your space please contact the Ecay team now.”

Cathy Williams Director of Sales and Marketing Alfresco Advertising Ltd.

Cathy Williams states: “The market research we undertook in the Spring of 2004 confirmed that Cayman’s businesses required a medium to promote their websites. Businesses here believe in the value of supplying instant access to their company’s information. The overriding outcome of our research from the end-user’s prospective was that the residents of the Cayman Islands required instant access to information on Cayman. We simply filled that void and thus Ecay was born.” She continues: “We expect the printed directory to reach in the region of 150,000 readers who are potential purchasers of Cayman’s goods and services, but exposure of Cayman’s businesses to millions of potential investors and visitors through our online portal is immeasurable.”

The benefits to Ecay’s advertisers are clear; but the benefits to the end users who are Cayman’s residents, overseas investors and visitors is unquestionable, as a recent NRF/Ernst & Young study (taken from Computer Times, March 2005) revealed 64% of those with Internet access use it to research products and services and later buy them through ‘traditional channels’, reiterating the vital necessity of Ecay as the medium in Cayman that allows Internet users to locate Cayman’s businesses information immediately from one source.

Hurricane Ivan tested the resilience of businesses in the Cayman Islands like no other event in the islands’ history. With traditional methods of communication such as land and cell telephone lines inoperable in the short term, during, and immediately after the storm (and some landlines even now still not up and running), the Internet became the Island’s lifeline to the outside world, and, conversely, international clients had the ability to communicate with local firms.

Straight after Hurricane Ivan, entire companies either moved their operations to new premises or took the entire operation overseas to ensure a continuation of service and their company website therefore became the single point of contact for their customer base. Therefore companies in Cayman now truly appreciate the benefit of a website component to their services.

With an economy heavily reliant upon an effective and operational financial services industry, it was essential after Ivan that businesses were able to use the Internet effectively, to ensure that firms locally did not miss a beat when it came to dealing with highly sophisticated international clientele.

Therefore, Ecay, what was, pre-Ivan, a useful tool for sourcing government, financial services, local business, cultural and tourist websites, has now emerged into a completely essential tool for accessing information in the Cayman Islands.

Usefully, the Ecay web directory not only lists all the website addresses of important companies in the Cayman Islands, but also features helpful maps of George Town’s central business district and tourist destinations, along with vital international website addresses, such as currency converters, international stock markets, overseas newspaper and business publications, international sporting events, travel and arts and culture websites.

Back to top