A typical call to LocaModa goes something like this (animated version here):
CALLER: “My company is interested in LocaModa’s products.”
LOCAMODA: “Thank you for your interest. Please tell me more about your company.”
CALLER: “We are a digital out of home network focused on (select one: cafes/bars/health clubs/supermarkets/hospitals/waiting rooms/QSRs/public spaces/cinemas…)”
LOCAMODA: “Sounds interesting. How large is your network?”
CALLER: “We are rolling out nationally.”
LOCAMODA: “OK. How many locations are you in today?”
CALLER: “We will have over 1,000 within 12 months.”
LOCAMODA: “How many do you have installed today.”
CALLER: “We have commitments for 1,000.”
LOCAMODA: “How many are actually deployed today?”
CALLER. “We’re just closing our funding for the full roll out.”
LOCAMODA: “So do you have any screens deployed today?”
CALLER: “Later this month we’re starting the pilot.”
LOCAMODA: “So you don’t actually have any screens deployed today?”
CALLER: “We’re all seasoned entrepreneurs and we’re confident that we’ll hit out targets and we have a very solid business model and…..”
LOCAMODA: (Genuinely) “Good luck with the funding and the pilot. We’d love to talk to you when you have a minimum of 50 screens in a major market.”
We used to be less discriminating about spending time developing every lead, after all, who knows which opportunity will be the next big deal? But do you know how many how many of those “about to fund/roll-out 1,000 nationally” calls actually did what they said they were going to do?
None. Correction - one :)
Experience has to teach us something - and for me, it’s simply that to be a good partner, we must focus our resources on deals that have a real chance of success - especially as we’ll inevitably be committing opportunity costs and resources to helping make that success a reality.
So last week when someone tweeted:
“So @LocaModa looks awesome but man it is expensive. Per screen cost is fine, but requiring a minimum of 50 screens to start? #DOOH #DOOHWTF”
We retweeted it because, yes, we think the product is awesome. And yes we agree the per screen cost is fine. And yes, we require our licensees to be of sufficient size (a minimum of 50 screens in a key market).
Tags: Digital Out-of-Home, digital signage, Digital Signage Expo, DOOH, DOOH Networks, Interactive, LBS, LocaModa, Location, location-based, place based, place-based social media, Place-Based Social Networks, Social, Social Media, Stephen Randall, user-generated content
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