Movement

Time flies when you are trying to change the world! We have made tremendous strides in the last 2 months towards getting our new initiative off the ground. Rob Gorrie is my new hero. He is a next-level business owner who has taught me so much about this new industry. He founded a company called AdCentricity that provides a hugely important service in the marketplace.

AdCentricity's model is to aggregate digital signage screens in order to make the space more attractive to premum media buyers. Advertisers are not going to put out-of-home advertising dollars into the marketplace until there is a critical mass of screens (read: eyeballs) for them to reach. AdCentricity is accelerating this growth.

Instead of myriad Digital Signage networks INDIVIDUALLY vying for premium ad buys, Rob is quietly building a powerful platform from which to sell space/time. Everyone wins. SeeSaw is another company in the space; they too are non-exclusively aggregating screens but there is an important distinction between the 2 companies. AdCentricity is changing the way the game is played by forcing the national brands to make PREMIUM AD BUYS into the space while SeeSaw is placing remnant buys. The Industry is so fragmented that I am grateful for both of these companies. They are both accelerating what would take forever if it were up to individual Networks to do.

I spoke to the owner of one of these 'individualists' who scoffed at the idea that someone would charge a fee to sell advertising on their behalf (typically 20%-30%).

"They are doing exactly what we want to do."

Yeah, but...They are doing it NOW.

"The national brands will be coming to us. We won't need a middle man."

Oh yeah? And when exactly do you think Coca Cola or The Gap is going to be interested in your 30 screens?

This kind of thinking is keeping the industry fragmented as well as keeping these networks from generating the kind of revenue that we all know is possible.

My interest is in the future of these Networks, which I know will soon be clamoring for the kind of content that I think of when I hear the word content. Not commercials. Entertainment. This day is coming, and industry innovators like Rob Gorrie are leading us there.