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Getting the marketing right at an event product launch

This is the seventh article in a continuing monthly series chronicling the growth path of Screenreach Interactive, a startup based in Newcastle upon Tyne in England’s North East. Screenreach’s flagship product, Screach, is an interactive digital media platform that allows users to create real-time, two-way interactive experiences between a smart device (through the Screach app) and any content, on any screen or just within the mobile device itself. We invite your feedback.

By Francis Moran and Alexandra Reid

FM startup banner head ART1 300x145 Getting the marketing right at an event product launchLast time we checked in with Screenreach, the company was dealing with issues at the Apple application store to launch the new version of its Screach application. After coordinating efforts with external organizations and working through the problems at hand, the team managed to push through to launch. Following in the wake of this recent achievement, the team launched Screach’s sister product, Screach TV, at TechCrunch Disrupt NY in May. CEO Paul Rawlings explains what he and Chief Strategy Officer David Weinfeld did at the event to gain favour with investors and media.

Never stop innovating

One thing we have learned from listening to the many startups in our Startup Story series is that new companies must never stop innovating if they want to survive. Following this advice, Screenreach didn’t call it quits after improving its Screach application. Instead, it listened to its market and in doing so identified a substantial pain that it wasn’t already addressing through its current service offerings. Smaller venues and independent restaurants were approaching the team to see if they could use Screach to develop their own personal experiences for their customers. But many explained they didn’t have the funds or development resources to support these initiatives.

Rawlings and his team decided they would fill this market need by developing Screach TV, an inexpensive hardware box that syncs a mobile device with any TV. With this box, any business can instantly offer its customers previously ordered and developed Screach experiences that can later be branded according to the needs of each business’s target demographic.

Getting the marketing right

The warehouse venue for TechCrunch Disrupt, which boasts an estimated 2,000 participants, housed for three full days some of the biggest startup talent the world has to offer. Although this year’s TechCrunch Disrupt was reportedly less busy than previous years, it was vital for the Screenreach team to make sure its newly launched Screach TV stood out from the crowd, especially in the highly competitive Startup Alley where startups vie for the attention of potential investors and journalists who troll for the hottest new startup talent and products.

While the messaging for the Screach app was challenging to craft due to its complexity, the straightforward Screach TV concept was a comparably easy sell, making it a great product to launch at the busy event. Sarah Athey, Screenreach’s marketing coordinator, collaborated with Rawlings and Weinfeld to simplify the messaging for the product for quick consumption to suit the needs of the event attendees who typically only make short stops at each booth before moving on.

“The audience needed to learn about Screach TV in a simple way without feeling bamboozled,” said Rawlings. “We stayed clear of buzzwords and stuck to a simple pitch.”

Once Rawlings and Weinfeld attracted an audience, they championed their product, and the power of customer interaction, by allowing attendees to play with Screach TV to further whet their appetites.

“We had a big TV on a stand set up with lots of Screach experiences,” said Rawlings. ”Attendees could play with the experiences on the spot, giving us a visual and hands-on interactive entertainment advantage, which goes down well at these kinds of exhibitions. It was far more than just a boring stand.”

Hooking the right audience

Rawlings and Weinfeld make a great team for events because they both have deep-seated passion for the product and complete knowledge of the company. While Weinfeld has the elevator pitch down pat and can succinctly and confidently explain the product and company to any journalist or investor, Rawlings, who founded the company and has had a hand in every aspect of the business from development to sales to marketing, is intimate with the company’s roots and knows every detail of the product and how it works for businesses. Together, they can tailor the messaging to the needs of every interest group and answer complex questions with confidence and unity.

“I know the business inside and out, but explaining it to others requires practice,” said Rawlings. “Articulating the business and exuding passion and confidence comes from experiencing the natural day-to-day flow of the business and having a hand in every part of it. I also listen intently to the needs and progress of each department and relay information from my own interactions to help refine the messaging further.”

While Rawlings has managed to successfully move the company further into the media spotlight without media training, this is an area that the senior team at Screenreach will be looking to develop in the very near future with the help of some industry experts.

In our next instalment, we’ll hear more about the company’s media training and its exciting moves to create a new PR program.

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Posted by: Francis Moran on June 6, 2012

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Posted in: A Startup Story, Marketing strategy, Product marketing, Public and media relations — Leave a comment

Learning how to deal with the unexpected

This is the sixth article in a continuing monthly series chronicling the growth path of Screenreach Interactive, a startup based in Newcastle upon Tyne in England’s North East. Screenreach’s flagship product, Screach, is an interactive digital media platform that allows users to create real-time, two-way interactive experiences between a smart device (through the Screach app) and any content, on any screen or just within the mobile device itself. We invite your feedback.

By Francis Moran and Alexandra Reid

FM startup banner head ART1 300x145 Learning how to deal with the unexpected When we last checked in with Screenreach, the company was in the midst of tweaking the new version of its Screach application for a March 7 launch. The team was well on track and seemed to have all of its ducks in a row. They had found out what their market needed, solicited feedback from beta testers, sharpened their story, identified qualified customers, worked collaboratively, promoted their product and garnered media attention.

But as can be expected at a startup company, things didn’t go completely as planned. On launch day, the Apple application store informed the team that there was a problem.

In this post, Screenreach CEO Paul Rawlings explains what the team did to push through to launch.

The new product

The new version of the Screach application focuses on the user experience. Now users can personalize, socialize and localize their interactions with content using any device that can download the application. While the original application focused on allowing users to interact with content on a digital screen, the new version allows for the same interactive experiences between smart devices and a smart  device and a location.

Screach.com has also been redesigned. While the site was originally a place for product information and the Screach blog, anyone can now launch their own Screach experience on the site and interact with it through the Screach app on their smartphone. One example of how the experience has been personalized is that it lets users connect to Twitter and Facebook, allowing the system to identify Screach experiences relevant to their location.

The first version of Screach was launched at DEMO in March 2011 and since then, the product and team have evolved and grown. As such, the launch of Screach 2.0 was one of the biggest projects they have worked on together since this time – there were bound to be a number of new obstacles.

One problem equals many individual challenges

One of the main challenges the team faced was balancing every aspect of the launch for it to come together in unison at the end. You need to remain aware of the fact that not everything on the run up to launching a product will remain in your control. You need to account for issues or delays that may arise from external organisations.

The team came across challenges when the approval of their new version of Screach was delayed with Apple. The issue meant that every team member was faced with their own unique challenges.

“Whilst the development team began trying to resolve the issue as quickly as possible, other departments dealt with any knock on effects that a potential delay could create.”

But that doesn’t mean you tackle the problem individually.

“The main thing when a challenge like this occurs is to keep the communication going,” said Rawlings. “You must bring everyone together because you can never foresee how something will affect someone else. You’ve got to identify the challenge, the various solutions, what works for everyone and the problems that can come up in individual departments.”

Always give yourself more time

“We knew the problem could take two days to fix, but then again, it could always take a little longer,” said Rawlings. “Make sure you account for this potential extra time in your schedule. If you don’t need it then great, but if you do, then at least you’ve given yourself everything you need to deal with the situation.”

Debriefs are critical

Startups are almost always on a learning curve, explained Rawlings.

“You’ve got to make a conscious effort to make a note of all the struggles and make a list of strengths and weaknesses. Then you must hold a debrief and go through everything to ensure you make things better next time. That way, you feel so much more prepared for your next project, how you’re going to take it head on and solve the problems. You’re able to see problems before they happen.”

After a few days of tough work, the Screanreach team was able to fix the problem and launch the application. They have since been busy uncovering and developing more ways for users to play with Screach and raising the profile of the application for users. To attract users, and fast, Screenreach is taking a gamification approach and has launched a number of new personalized experiences available online and through the Screach app.

“Getting the application out has been a huge accomplishment,” said Rawlings . “We’ve all gotten through this challenge as a team and we’ll come out a whole lot wiser for the next time.”

In our next installment, we’ll go over Screanreach’s new product developments and how the team is tailoring them to create unique and exciting user experiences.

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Posted by: Francis Moran on April 12, 2012

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Posted in: A Startup Story — Leave a comment

Giving your team ownership

This is the fifth article in a continuing monthly series chronicling the growth path of Screenreach Interactive, a startup based in Newcastle upon Tyne in England’s North East. Screenreach’s flagship product, Screach, is an interactive digital media platform that allows users to create real-time, two-way interactive experiences between a smart device (through the Screach app) and any content, on any screen or just within the mobile device itself. We invite your feedback.

FM startup banner head ART1 300x145 Giving your team ownershipBy Francis Moran and Leo Valiquette

In our last post, we looked at how Screenreach Interactive is managing its beta testing process to prepare for the launch of a new version of Screach in the near future. We focused on the logistics of soliciting, encouraging, filtering and interpreting user feedback to fine tune and debug the new app.

But working toward a deadline and ensuring that all of the pieces fall into place is about much more than technical and logistical details. Perhaps the most important variable to manage is the human factor. Individuals from different parts of the organization, each with their own role and responsibilities, must work together collaboratively and appreciate the needs and priorities of their peers.

“We are fortunate to have a team that is more interested in achieving an ultimate common goal than focusing on their own interests,” said Screenreach CEO Paul Rawlings. “Decisions must be made based on what’s best for the product and the collective.”

In this post, we’ll look at how the beta testing process is coming along and how the Screenreach team has learned to keep everyone rowing in the same direction.

Assessing the feedback as a team

In the last post, we described two different third-party platforms that Screenreach is using to help manage the beta testing process. The first is Test Flight, a free web service that provides developers with an easy means to distribute their beta apps for testing. The other is Get Satisfaction, an online platform for brands to host their community of users, interact with them, and collate the feedback.

To quickly and easily disseminate the data, the Screenreach team categorized the feedback from Get Satisfaction based on whether it was related to bugs, functionality, user experience, design or was simply a content-based suggestion.

Assessing the feedback involved the whole Screenreach team. As marketing manager Sarah Athey pointed out, “the whole team had already been involved in engaging with the beta testers so many of them already had a good understanding of the feedback we’d received.”

This is important. Preparing and launching a product touches every aspect of an organization, from sales and marketing to technical support.

“We place a big emphasis on the whole team having ownership of the product, so for us it’s essential that everyone is involved,” said Robyn Lingard, head of operations. “We only ever take decisions to small groups once the discussion has been narrowed down and refined.”

However, this approach doesn’t come without its challenges, not the least of which is keeping the process from getting bogged down.

“When things like this are discussed you have to be aware that each department is looking at the suggestions with more of a design, development, or marketing eye based on their expertise,” Lingard said. “Although this can cause conflicting suggestions, it’s vital for getting the overall picture and coming to those decisions together based on these different perspectives.”

Crunching the data, making the decision

Once priorities have been set through this team process, the senior team looks at the themes which have emerged that impact on the technical aspects of the app. They must consider what changes in functionality and design should be made and what impacts this will have elsewhere. Always, the emphasis is on looking at the final product from the end-user’s point of view.

“Then it’s time to get down to the real work,” said Lingard.

Lingard, along with Screenreach’s account manager, created an action plan for the whole team based on what the senior team decided. To help manage the process, Screenreach uses another third-party platform, a project management and online collaboration software called Basecamp.

With the launch of the new version of Screach only weeks away, the team is busy working through final changes and testing them along the way to resolve any issues early.

“In all of this, it is very important for us to be aware of what our individual roles are and how they have to complement the work and objectives of our colleagues,” Lingard said. “When working to such tight and precise deadlines it is essential that everyone is working in sync.”

Lessons learned

Early on, the team encountered some challenges in this regard. Messages would get miscommunicated within a group that included highly technical individuals and those who were less so.

“We realized this early on in the process and had to step back and realign,” Lingard said.

Openness is crucial. Screenreach has a very strong collaborative team culture and full team meetings are used as a forum in which every individual is encouraged to discuss how work is being managed, how they are coping and how effectively the team is functioning. These meetings will often erupt into brainstorming sessions with unexpected benefits, such as a developer coming up with the solution to a marketing problem, or one of the sales teams solving an issue for the design team.

“I think many people can shy away from such openness but by always agreeing that we are all working towards the same ultimate goal, we accept that we have to constantly adapt to achieve this,” Rawlings said. “What worked for us as team three months ago will almost certainly not work in the same capacity today. We’ve found that by regularly changing our approach – and never our goals – we are evolving as a team as much as our product is.”

While the team has had challenging times over the past few weeks, Rawlings emphasizes the importance of taking advantage of those times when things go wrong to sit back, assess what’s happened and speak frankly to clear the air.

“It’s easy to put issues to one side while preparing for a launch, but actually they are what determine whether you make it through or not,” he said. “We’ve always actively encouraged team members to raise any issues they have.”

Of course, unforeseen hiccups do arise, such as a recent incident in which a key team member came down sick and everyone had to scramble to pick up the slack and keep things on track. But in Rawlings’ view, if someone is struggling to meet their targets despite their best efforts, it is a symptom of a deeper issue.

“We’ve learned that, without a doubt, any problem is never one person’s fault or responsibility,” he said. “If someone is struggling to make a deadline then we need to look back through the full production chain and assess why this might be. Doing so will perhaps raise two or three areas for improvement across multiple departments. Then we can act on these.”

In out next instalment, we will catch up with the team post-launch to see how it turned out.

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Posted by: Francis Moran and Leo Valiquette on February 8, 2012

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Posted in: A Startup Story, Startups — 1 Comment

Putting your assumptions to the test

This is the fourth article in a continuing monthly series chronicling the growth path of Screenreach Interactive, a startup based in Newcastle upon Tyne in England’s North East. Screenreach’s flagship product, Screach, is an interactive digital media platform that allows users to create real-time, two-way interactive experiences between a smart device (through the Screach app) and any content, on any screen or just within the mobile device itself. We invite your feedback.

FM startup banner head ART1 300x145 Putting your assumptions to the testBy Francis Moran and Leo Valiquette

In our last post, we looked at Screenreach Interactive’s recent inroads in the radio and television industries, including its appearance on Popular U.K. television program The Gadget Show at Radio Festival, Europe’s top radio industry event, and its new “experience” for long-running U.K. current affairs program Dispatches.

But making a splash at major industry events and with high profile clients demands one thing – a compelling product. But a compelling product can’t be developed in a vacuum; it must address a clear market demand. As we have emphasized time and again on this blog, marketing and product development must work together from the get go. To quote guest commentator Ronald Weissman, “Great companies constantly test the market, for validation and feedback.”

The team at Screenreach has taken this to heart. With a new version of the Screach app expected to launch in February, every effort is being made to solicit input from beta testers and prospective users. In this post, we’ll look at how Screenreach approaches the beta testing process, what third-party tools it has found to make life easier and the lessons it continues to learn along the way.

In beta with social media

While the team is reluctant to reveal too much about the new features and functionality that will be included in the new version of Screach, it is safe to say the app has been in a constant state of evolution since its launch in the summer of 2010. Market feedback has been fundamental to the process, with social media emerging as a primary means to attract and engage with users.

Screenreach’s blog has proven to be a useful tool and this time around, the lure of winning a MacBook Air is an added incentive. But building a community following on Twitter has been fundamental to mustering a strong and outspoken group of testers. The team has built its following by getting involved in specific industry conversations on Twitter and constantly discussing Screach through the micro-blogging platform.

“There is a need to strike a balance between too few and too many beta testers,” said Screenreach CEO Paul Rawlings. “Realistically, you may have a lot of people signed up for beta testing but experience has shown us that only 25 percent of those will actively download the app and provide feedback – perhaps even less. So from that point of view you need to account for drop off.”

The mobile platform being tested also impacts how large the group can be. At this stage, Screenreach is only testing the iPhone version and Apple limits beta tester groups to 100. Google, on the other hand, imposes no such limitation for the Android.

Finding the forest among the trees

It’s one thing to build a strong community of beta testers who are willing to provide useful feedback and quite another to manage the logistics of all that crowd-sourced input and distil it into meaningful data. For that, Screenreach has found two useful third-party tools.

The first is Test Flight, a free web service that provides developers with an easy means to distribute their beta apps for testing. For the Screenreach team, there just isn’t anything else comparable.

“TestFlight has proved to be a useful tool for us, it has a great dashboard and organizing tools,” said Rawlings.

However, its current version does have one drawback.

“One problem we have experienced with TestFlight is that it only allows you to assign one account to your device which has posed problems when a beta tester has previously registered another account,” said Rawlings. “It means they have difficulty swapping the accounts over – this was something we were already aware of and could help the testers resolve but it’s definitely something you need to be aware of. Anything that inhibits the tester from downloading the app as quickly as they need to obviously isn’t great.”

The other tool is Get Satisfaction, an online platform for brands to host their community of users.

“We looked around at a number of tools that could be used to collate feedback on the new app and we chose Get Satisfaction for a couple of reasons,” said marketing manager Sarah Athey. “First, we really liked the way it allows a user to categorize their posts, it means we can manage feedback based on whether it’s a question, idea or problem. It has useful admin features too, such as a management view which helps to track and stay on top of all your posts.”

The Screenreach team never really considered handling these kinds of logistics in house.

“Third party apps like Get Satisfaction are good at what they do and make it easier to categorize feedback topics and assign the best team member to respond to a specific question, problem or idea from a tester,” Athey added. “It also creates a forum for testers to compare notes with each other and for the whole team to get involved in these conversations.”

In some instances, however, nothing beats good old fashioned face-to-face contact. While Get Satisfaction has proven effective for engaging in conversations through online forums, the Screenreach team has still found it useful to hold focus groups for feedback on the Screach experience for versions that have been customized for a specific market vertical, such as television programming.

“We’ve also had a couple of testers who have really gone the extra mile and their fresh perspective on Screach has been fantastic, so we’ve thought about inviting them in to meet the team and see the impact their feedback has made,” said Athey. “Some of the testers put a lot of their time and thought into the process and we’re very grateful for that.”

Lessons learned

Despite the benefits of using social media and specialized third-party tools, the team has found that the process can be more complicated than expected, with a host of small details to manage around the release to ensure the install of the beta version is as painless as possible for testers.

“One thing we’d say is make sure you have the full team involved in the process. Everything that comes out of this involves just about every aspect of the organization,” said Rawlings. “It’s also an interesting way to generate new ideas within the team. We’ve always placed great emphasis on every team member being deeply involved in the user and client perception of Screach so this is an important part of that.

“For example, your developer needs to be ready with the technical aspect of things but this has to be correctly communicated to your marketing person for them to translate that message to the user. Then there will be feedback that revolves around design or bugs or product questions in general – you need to have all of the correct people on board to answer these questions.”

One risk the Screenreach team took was opening beta testing during the holidays.

“We took a bit of a risk, but as it turned out, it meant our core testers had free time on their hands to get more actively involved,” said Rawlings. “You need to be aware of things like this.”

The important thing, Rawlings added, is to immerse yourself in the feedback that you receive by asking followup questions to understand the thought process behind why a beta tester is making a specific suggestion.

The learning process never ends. The new version of Screach will soon be pushed out to Android beta testers, which promises to provide a whole new flood of feedback given the growing variety of Android devices that are now available.

“We’re aiming to launch in February so things are very full on at the moment and the beta tester feedback is at the heart of everything we are working on,” said Rawlings.

In our next instalment, we will take a closer look at the launch efforts for the latest version of Screach, provided, of course, that the team’s best-laid plans do not go astray.

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Posted by: Francis Moran and Leo Valiquette on January 10, 2012

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Posted in: A Startup Story, Social media, Startups — Leave a comment

November roundup: What does it take to get technology to market?

November 2011 Calendar 4 300x225 November roundup: What does it take to get technology to market?Thank you for being with us for the 10th month of our blog. In case you missed them, here is a recap of our posts from November.

Moving forward with our two new series, Technology Marketing 101, and A Startup’s Story, we introduced a new startup, Teamly, and explored how it is managing to drive steady organic growth on a shoestring, and shared Screenreach’s recent adventures in radio and television.

Beyond our series, we offered best practices on how small business can work with government and universities to bring technology to market, explained what makes a good PR person and also what makes a great entrepreneur. We discussed the prior art wall and its impact on patent coverage, the importance of creating a well-researched, well-funded and coherent marketing strategy and sticking to it, as well as the benefits and determents of Google Plus brand pages. Of course, this list of posts merely scratches the surface of all that was covered over the course of the month. You’ll have to read them for yourselves by clicking the links below. And, as always, we welcome your feedback.

November 7: Breaching academia’s ivory towers by Jason Flick

November 10: Driving steady organic growth on a shoestring by Francis Moran & Leo Valiquette

November 14: What an IP coordinator should know: The prior art wall by David French

November 18: Making waves in radio and television by Francis Moran & Leo Valiquette

November 21: Taking the higher ground: from product to leadership positioning by Ronald Weissman

November 23: The layman’s guide for bringing technology to market by Francis Moran & Leo Valiquette

November 28: Beware the million-dollar cheque! by Peter Hanschke

And on a related note…

In addition to our series, our associates and guest bloggers were also busy writing on a great range of topics. Here are our other posts from November as ranked by the enthusiasm of our readers:

November 29: Social Media Breakfast Ottawa with Sean MacPhedran: Post presentation interview by Alexandra Reid

November 30: Why redefining PR is not unlike herding cats by Linda Forrest

November 16: What makes a good PR person? by Linda Forrest

November 8: Five tips on how to use blogs for social media community development by Alexandra Reid

November 1: How stale is your contact list by Leo Valiquette

November 3: Marketing: Steady as she goes by Francis Moran

November 9: The value of shooting the breeze by Danny Sullivan

November 22: There are benefits to publicness and they are worth fighting for by Alexandra Reid

November 17: Masterclasses in entrepreneurship by Francis Moran

November 15: Whetting your appetites for social media breakfast Ottawa with Sean MacPhedran by Alexandra Reid

November 24: Cheerleaders don’t move the ball down the field by Francis Moran

November 2: A small business guide to working with the government by John Craig

November 11: The benefits and determents of Google Plus brand pages by Alexandra Reid

November 25: Return on investment served two ways by Linda Forrest

November 4: Technology reporters on the record: how PR flacks annoy them by Linda Forrest

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Alexandra Reid

Posted by: Alexandra Reid on December 9, 2011

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Posted in: Financing and fundraising, Marketing strategy, Product marketing, Public and media relations, Social media, Startups, Technology marketing — Leave a comment

Making waves in radio and television

This is the third article in a continuing monthly series chronicling the growth path of Screenreach Interactive, a startup based in Newcastle upon Tyne in England’s North East. Screenreach’s flagship product, Screach, is an interactive digital media platform that allows users to create real-time, two-way interactive experiences between a smart device (through the Screach app) and any content, on any screen or just within the mobile device itself. We invite your feedback.

FM startup banner head ART 300x145 Making waves in radio and televisionBy Francis Moran and Leo Valiquette

In our last post, we caught up with Screenreach Interactive founder and CEO Paul Rawlings on his way out the door to attend the Digital Signage Investor Conference in New York. We explored how the company has developed its target markets, including the digital signage, or “out of home advertising,” market.

It has been a busy month for the company since then as it continues to build market share in the digital signage, television and radio industries.

David Weinfeld, Screenreach’s chief strategy officer, is based in New York. He and Rawlings hit the tradeshow floor together to speak with experts in the digital signage industry to deepen their understanding of how best to serve this growing global market.

“The conference really gave us a chance to get into the shoes of the clients we wish to serve,” Weinfeld said. “As a result, we are making some exciting changes to the product that we think will make a significant difference in how useful and appealing it is to advertisers and digital signage operators.”

Gadget of choice

After New York, Rawlings headed to Radio Festival, Europe’s top radio industry event, where Screenreach was a sponsor. As we explored in the last post, radio is a growing market for Screenreach and it already counts among its customers in the space Bauer Media, which operates 42 radio stations across the U.K.

“Radio Festival was a very interesting experience for us,” Rawlings said. “It gave us the chance to hear some of the challenges facing the industry. One thing we hadn’t realized was just how important research is to the business of radio. Screach offers deep consumer profiling and we have perhaps been underselling this feature.”

Popular U.K. television program The Gadget Show also held a session within the festival which demonstrated up and coming technologies set to change the radio industry. Screach was used by the audience to allow them to vote on their favourite technology from each round and was also voted the winning gadget in the final round.

Making current affairs interactive

Screenreach has also been working with U.K. television network Channel 4 to provide an app for its long-running current affairs program, Dispatches.

The opportunity to work on the show arose through Tom Gutteridge, a member of Screenreach’s board who worked previously as the CEO of Freemantle Media in the U.S. He made the initial contact with Channel 4 through his production company, Standing Stone.

“This is exciting for us as it will be the first time we’ve seen Screach used in this context,” Rawlings said. “So far, many Screach adopters have used the technology for games and quizzes and our trial on Dispatches will really show how versatile the product is.”

Channel 4 will use Screach to give viewers more control over their news consumption. It will provide additional content and information related to the Dispatches program in real time, provide integration with Facebook and Twitter to encourage viewers to chat with each other during the program via their mobile devices, and provide them with a live polling feature.

“With the polls feature, an example would be if the program was featuring a story that refers to trains, we can ask viewers questions such as ‘how many times have you had to stand on a train journey in the last few months?’ for which they will then see an instant poll,” Channel 4’s Vicky Taylor said in a recent interview.

Playing nice with iOS and Android

Back in the office, Screenreach’s development team has been busy working on the Android platform. It’s now possible for a user to install the Screach app on a tablet device, running either iOS or Android, and engage in a multiplayer experience with other users.

Previously, the only way a user’s smartphone could interact with a tablet was through Wi-Fi synching, AirPlay (synchronization between iOS devices), or through devices with matching operating systems, such as an iPhone and iPad.

With the latest development, an Android tablet can be used as a travelling game board, and people can interact with it through Screach using either an iPhone or an Android device.

Taking stock

For Rawlings and his team, the past month has provided valuable lessons about the importance of refining the current product messaging depending on the needs of specific market verticals.

“This is very exciting for us,” he said. “It means that our continued development opens windows of opportunity that we previously had not foreseen. If we think back to a year ago, so much has changed. One of the favourite sayings in the office is ‘do you want to see something cool’ which is followed by a group gathering around someone’s desk to see something we couldn’t even have imagined the week before. This makes it a very exciting product to work on.”

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Posted by: Francis Moran and Leo Valiquette on November 18, 2011

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Posted in: A Startup Story, Marketing strategy, Startups — Leave a comment

October roundup: What does it take to get technology to market?

3 Blank Calendar 2011 October Planner 300x225 October roundup: What does it take to get technology to market?Thank you for being with us for the ninth month of our new blog. In case you missed them, here is a recap of our posts from October.

Moving forward with our two new series, Technology Marketing 101, and A Startup’s Story, we uncovered how startup BlueArc managed to move past the “wow” factor of its technology to achieve market penetration, explored the fine art of the business hustle and how it helped CommentAir Technologies bootstrap its way to market, explained how telling the right story helped Screenreach drive customer acquisition, and introduced a new startup, Genevolve Vision Diagnostics.

Beyond our series, we further investigated the roles of the IP Co-ordinator and social media champion, shared more best practices on PR and marketing and examined how the brain reacts to technology, among other subjects. And of course, we also paid our respects to the Pitch Innovator Steve Jobs. We welcome your feedback.

October 3: Part 1: BlueArc’s challenge to get past the low-hanging fruit by Francis Moran & Leo Valiquette

October 5: What an IP Co-ordinator should know: Closing patent loopholes by David French

October 11: Part II: Dissecting the brain of the market pays off for BlueArc by Francis Moran & Leo Valiquette

October 17: Telling the right story to drive customer acquisition by Francis Moran & Leo Valiquette

October 24: The fine art of the business hustle by Francis Moran & Leo Valiquette

October 31: Meet Genevolve Vision Technologies by Francis Moran & Leo Valiquette

And on a related note…

In addition to our series, our associates and guest bloggers were also busy writing on a great range of topics. Here are our other posts from October as ranked by the enthusiasm of our readers:

October 27: This is your brain…this is your brain on technology: Part II by Bob Bailly

October 18: Canadian CleanTech Summit seeks to further Canada’s global competitive stance in clean technology by Alexandra Reid

October 25: Ideas worth spreading from Tedx Ottawa by Alexandra Reid

October 13: When a product fails miserably, why is the customer blamed? by Francis Moran

October 12: The integral role of social media champions by Alexandra Reid

October 19: Steve Jobs – Pitch Innovator by Martin Soorjoo

October 28: PR frights and hauntings by Linda Forrest

October 26: This is your brain…this is your brain on technology: Part 1 by Bob Bailly

October 20: Social Media Breakfast Ottawa with IBM’s Delaney Turner by Alexandra Reid

October 6: Achieving marketing escape velocity by Francis Moran

October 21: Thanks to social media, the interview is never really over by Linda Forrest

October 14: PR’s David and Goliath: doing media relations for SMB’s vs large corporations by Linda Forrest

October 7: In PR, timing is everything by Linda Forrest

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Alexandra Reid

Posted by: Alexandra Reid on November 4, 2011

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Posted in: Financing and fundraising, Marketing strategy, Product marketing, Public and media relations, Social media, Startups, Technology marketing — Leave a comment

Telling the right story to drive customer acquisition

This is the second article in a continuing monthly series that will chronicle the growth path of Screenreach Interactive, a startup based in Newcastle upon Tyne in England’s North East. Screenreach’s flagship product, Screach, is an interactive digital media platform that allows users to create real-time, two-way interactive experiences between a smart device (through the Screach app) and any content, on any screen or just within the mobile device itself. We invite your feedback.

FM startup banner head ART1 300x145 Telling the right story to drive customer acquisitionBy Francis Moran and Leo Valiquette

When we caught up with Screenreach Interactive founder and CEO Paul Rawlings last week, he was in the midst of packing for a trip to New York, where he was booked as a panellist for the Digital Signage Investor Conference.

Digital signage, a so-called form of “out-of-home advertising,” delivers video content, advertisements and messages to specific locations at specific times on static or touch screens, often in combination with movement detection and image capture technology. According to one recent industry forecast, the market is growing at a compound annual rate of 40 percent, with 22 million digital signs expected to be deployed world-wide by 2015.

For Screenreach, it’s an industry ripe for the Screach app.

In fact, Screenreach recently teamed up with U.K. out-of-home advertising firm Ocean Outdoor to turn a huge digital sign at London’s Westfield Shopping Centre into an interactive driving game shoppers can play using their smartphones as the controller. The game is a marketing initiative for insurance provider Swiftcover. Participants accumulate points as they race that can earn them a prize, can connect to the app through Facebook, and have their Facebook profile picture feature on the screen. In addition to a fun and interactive way to engage with consumers, the connection between Screach and Facebook also allows Swiftcover to garner more information about how consumers interact with its brand.

This project typifies the business model which Screenreach has developed over the past year and a half to break into specific market verticals, establish partnerships with key players within those verticals and work together to create a unique, value-added solution that allows a brand to engage in a much more dynamic fashion with its consumers.

“It’s a new market,” said Rawlings. “A new global market around interaction and we are spearheading it. The world is changing, things are becoming more social. Consumers want better experiences and they want to be engaged.”

Screenreach’s bold leap into this brave new world has also attracted the attention of global food and drink giant PepsiCo. Earlier this month, Screenreach was named as one of the Pepsico10, an annual program in which 10 European startups are selected to work on pilot programs with the company’s top brands.

But reaching this stage has demanded that Screenreach narrow its focus and avoid the temptation of spreading itself too thin chasing too many opportunities.

Those essential first case studies

In our introduction to Screenreach last month, we talked about Rawling’s experience with U.K. startup accelerator The Difference Engine in 2010. When Rawlings entered the program, the underlying technology for Screach had been nailed down. The challenge, however, was figuring out which market verticals to target and why.

“Because Screach is a platform proposition, it exists across a whole variety of different markets,” Rawlings said. “Through The Difference Engine, it became evident that platform could do a lot of different things and mean a lot of different things to different people.”

What Screenreach’s strongest prospective markets had in common was that need to create a unique and interactive experience that would allow a brand to better engage with consumers. A national museum provided the first opportunity to put Screach to the test.

The museum wanted to attract new visitors, keep them on the premises longer and drive additional revenue from the on-site cafe and gift shop. Screenreach made each exhibit interactive with a QR code. When visitors scanned a code with their smartphone, it launched an interactive guide and rewarded them for using the technology with vouchers for the cafe and gift shop.

“It was a great first case study for us and got us thinking about the different ways that Screach could work best for the client depending on the environment it was in,” Rawlings said.

Rawlings and his team then took advantage of an in with the Newcastle United Football Club, where Screach was used to turn fans’ phones into voting tools to decide the “Man of the Match,” again, with rewards that would drive foot traffic to the stadium’s gift shop. A local radio station picked up on the club’s use of the app and this led to a project with GMG Radio. This in turn led to a deal with Bauer Media in August, which operates 42 radio stations across the U.K., to use Screach to create interactive location-based services for online listeners.

Finding out what the market needs

Rawlings attributed Screach’s appeal to these initial customers to three points which resonated with their needs:

1. The ability of the app to deliver rewards to consumers which provide an immediate incentive to take a specific action.

2. The utility of the app as a platform for brands to engage in a two-way conversation with consumers to learn more about them.

3. The flexibility of Screach to accomplish the previous two points with unique and customizable games, quizzes, polls, chats and other forms of engagement.

Word of mouth, existing relationships and levering case studies of successful deployments have all been critical to driving Screenreach’s customer acquisition strategy to date and identifying what have become its target verticals – digital signage, radio, print, live events and broadcast television.

Its customer list now also includes Microsoft, TEDx, JCDecaux, the National Soccer Coaches Association of America and RMG Media. With RMG, the Screach app will be used with digital signage located in 800 independent coffee shops across the U.S. to provide polls, quizzes, games and other interactive activities.

The team has taken to the blogosphere and Twitter to establish relationships in target verticals and position Screenreach as a thought leader for consumer interaction.

“We try to be part of the conversations that are surrounding relevant industries,” Rawlings said. “We use our blog to demonstrate exactly what Screach is capable of and what it can provide to clients but we try to do this in a way that is current and acknowledging what is currently going on in the industry around us … we use Twitter a lot for listening too, to learn more about current industry needs.”

It is also actively seeking as many speaking opportunities as it can at conferences that hit its target verticals, such as this week’s Digital Signage Investor Conference.

“If you are on a panel or on stage, the value is there before you’ve even gone to the conference,” Rawlings said. “If all you’re doing is exhibiting, it’s much tougher to ensure a return on the investment.”

Speaking or exhibiting at a conference is about more than just communicating your own story and product benefits, he added. It is also about participating in the debates around timely topics and issues which are impacting a target market.

Lessons learned

A big lesson that Rawlings and the team have learned is the need to properly qualify a customer early on. In some instances, significant time was spent on a prospective customer with nothing to show for it. This problem often resulted from Screenreach’s early efforts to woo trial customers to use Screach without requiring them to provide anything of value in return.

“Because they hadn’t paid anything for it, they were fairly apathetic about how much they are going to use it,” Rawlings said. “In any vertical, you have to make sure the customer has bought in from day one and the only way is with some kind of exchange of value, either money or services in kind.”

Screenreach has also found itself with prospects that range from independent local businesses to major global brands. The other challenge, as the business has grown, has been to understand which customers are the best customers at any given time.

“We work it on a case by case basis and assess the level of opportunity,” Rawlings said. “Obviously we always strive to do as much as we can.”

We will explore that aspect of Screenreach’s growth story in more detail in a future post.

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Posted by: Francis Moran and Leo Valiquette on October 17, 2011

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Posted in: A Startup Story, Marketing strategy, Startups, Technology marketing — Leave a comment

September roundup: What does it take to get technology to market?

free 2011 calendar september printable large 300x225 September roundup: What does it take to get technology to market?Thank you for being with us for the eighth month of our new blog. In case you missed them, here is a recap of our posts from September.

Last month, we concluded our Commercialization Ecosystem series and launched two new series, Technology Marketing 101, which features anecdotal stories about how a successful marketing program was developed, executed and measured, and A Startup’s Story, which will explore individual startups as they work to bring their technology to market. We welcome your feedback.

September 6: 30 considerations for getting tech to market: Part III by Francis Moran & Leo Valiquette

September 12: Where is our blog going next? by Francis Moran & Leo Valiquette

September 19: Meet Screenreach Interactive by Francis Moran & Leo Valiquette

September 26: Meet CommentAir technologies by Francis Moran & Leo Valiquette

September 28: Demo Daze: Five ways to turn a demo from dull to dazzling by Ronald Weissman

And on a related note…

In addition to our series, our associates and guest bloggers were also busy writing on a great range of topics, including social media, PR, marketing and, oh yes, zombies. Here are our other posts for September as ranked by the enthusiasm of our readers:

September 27: Facebook’s new features: What B2B businesses need to know by Alexandra Reid

September 13: How B2B entrepreneurs can establish and access thought leadership using social media by Alexandra Reid

September 14: Small business philosophy 101: Making waves in a sea of competitors by John Craig

September 21: Push selling is over… it’s a buyer’s game, deal with it by Andrew Penny

September 20: The role of empowerment in social media success by Alexandra Reid

September 8: Social media breakfast Ottawa: Sam Ladner and the mobile work life by Alexandra Reid

September 30: Is public relations in the public interest? by Francis Moran

September 15: There is such a thing as bad publicity by Linda Forrest

September 22: Are trade shows the zombies of marketing? by Francis Moran

September 7: Make like a duck: Paddle hard, paddle often by Leo Valiquette

September 1: Fiction: PR can’t be measured – Take 3 by Francis Moran

September 29: High fidelity PR requires open communication between agency and client by Linda Forrest

September 9: If your company does something and you didn’t tell your marketplace about it, did it actually happen? by Linda Forrest

September 16: My PR agency can’t write by Francis Moran

September 23: Former PostRank CEO Carole Leaman inspires at this week’s Girl Geek Dinner in Waterloo, with tales from her experiences with technology startups by Linda Forrest

Image: Your free calendar

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Posted by: admin on October 4, 2011

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Posted in: Financing and fundraising, Francis's Favourite Fictions, Marketing strategy, Product marketing, Public and media relations, Social media, Startups, Technology marketing — Leave a comment

Meet Screenreach Interactive

This is the first article in a continuing monthly series that will chronicle the growth path of Screenreach Interactive, a startup based in Newcastle upon Tyne in England’s North East. Screenreach’s flagship product, Screach, is an interactive digital media platform that allows users to create real-time, two-way interactive experiences between a smart device (through the Screach app) and any content, on any screen or just within the mobile device itself. We invite your feedback.

FM startup banner head ART1 300x145 Meet Screenreach InteractiveBy Francis Moran and Leo Valiquette

We first encountered Screenreach Interactive and its founder, Paul Rawlings, several months ago when we featured Jon Bradford, the man behind U.K. startup accelerators The Difference Engine and Springboard.

Rawlings and Screenreach completed the first cycle of The Difference Engine’s 13-week program in 2010. When we asked Bradford for an example of a successful graduate from that program, he was quick to sing Rawlings’ praises.

“He was not proprietary about his ideas, he was very open to new suggestions, new directions and wasn’t wedded to, ‘Look, this is what I’m doing and I’m not going to listen to anybody else,’” Bradford said.

“I think having an open mind, being able to listen, to react in a positive fashion was probably the making of him. He was also not very selfish about bringing in other team members, making sure he had a good team around him beyond the program itself. One of his mentors (Sam Morton, pictured right in the photo below with Rawlings) became one of his members of staff.”

There was no doubt in our minds that Rawlings is a man with an open mind. He has, after all, agreed to share with us Screenreach’s evolving story, warts and all, in the hope that there will be insights and lessons learned here that will resonate with other entrepreneurs working to bring their technology to market.

Paul Rawlings and Sam Morton16 300x200 Meet Screenreach Interactive

What is Screenreach?

Screenreach’s flagship product, Screach, is an interactive digital media platform that allows a brand to create a real-time, two-way interactive experience between a smart device (through the Screach app) and any content, on any screen or just within the mobile device itself. Using Screach, the smart phone can become a game controller, quiz answer pad, a voting and polling tool, a bingo card, a roulette table or a number of other things to engage and interact with consumers.

“The cool thing about it is that it allows you to profile your users to learn more about them and measure your ROI, and to also reward consumers for interacting,” Rawlings said. “It allows you to bring your ad, event, TV program or radio show to life by allowing your consumer to interact with you straight from their smartphone.”

How did it come about?

Rawlings began his career creating sales order processing and marketing systems for businesses including Burger King and European electronics retailer Dixons. In 2009, he built several Twitter-based businesses, including Twe2, a free SMS provider for Twitter which he sold privately, and a social auction website called Tweba.

When he began work on what would become Screenreach, Rawlings turned to The Difference Engine.

“The ability to get my head down and really focus on the product for 13 weeks was very appealing,” he said. “I knew that being in an environment where I was surrounded by people all working towards the same goal would be very inspiring.”

Through The Difference Engine program, Rawlings garnered the feedback he needed to refine the product. It was also here that he met his co-founder and COO, Morton.

Rawlings and Morton then connected with entrepreneur Tom Maxfield, who helped build global enterprise software vendor Sage.

“I met Tom at an entrepreneur’s dinner event and he loved Screach, as Tom was one of the original minds behind Sage, we were obviously really keen to get him on board,” said Rawlings. “He became our first investor, investing £250,000.”

That investment in August 2010 was followed by another £500,000 by Christmas of that year from Hotspur Capital Partners.

“Since then, it’s been a whirlwind journey of launching the product to the world and building an ambitious team that can work together and overcome each new challenge that is thrown at us,” Rawlings said.

In March, Screenreach launched Screach to the world at DEMO Conference in Palm Springs, Calif. Screach is targeted at the digital signage, radio, print and live events and broadcast television industries. Screenreach’s client list already includes Newcastle United Football Club, Microsoft, TEDx and GMG Radio.

What’s next?

Screenreach has grown to 20 staff since its launch a year ago, is generating initial revenue and looking forward to moving ahead at full steam in 2012.

“It’s a year that we believe is going to be even more eventful than the first so we’re very excited to be bringing you regular news of our progress and the challenges we come across on the way,” Rawlings said.

“There’s a general sense of ambition and excitement within the team, our culture is something that’s very important to us,” he added. “We tackle challenges together, irrespective of your skills or role within the company. If something needs resolving we all do it together. I think it has given everyone a sense of ownership; it’s good to know that your product is in the hands of a team that feel as passionate about it as you do. There’s no tiptoeing around a situation, if someone disagrees with something we throw it out there and then decide what’s best.”

With a number of new clients coming on board, recruitment is going to be a key focus in the next few months along with the growth of the business and the launch of new Screach projects. In next month’s post, we will explore how the startup is dealing with the dynamic of having to rapidly grow its team.

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Posted by: Francis Moran and Leo Valiquette on September 19, 2011

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Posted in: A Startup Story, Financing and fundraising, Marketing strategy, Social media, Startups — Leave a comment

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