More On Those 6 RFPs (For 3,000 Sites And Larger)

Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief

It’s rare that we repeat a post and even rarer should we (in the next few hours) decide to re-send it via email as part of our Daily Update BUT we had an unprecedented response to this post earlier in the week AND the fuss and the interest hasn’t died down so it’s worthwhile adding some clarification to what was previously written.

First off, it’s nice to see that BroadSign, EnQii and Stratacache were seemingly absolutely on top of the RFPs that we were referring to – strange emails from many others who may need to go and find some new NBD folks.

John Ryan from John Ryan (we love the Regis McKenna business card we have pinned up in our office which simply reads ‘Regis McKenna Himself‘ which makes referring to him or his company much simpler!!!) questioned whether we had really seen 24 RFPs of the size we mentioned (3,000 sites and above) in any one year.

We should clarify what we said and I quote “In the last 2 weeks we have seen 6 RFPs released for projects 3,000 sites and larger” and maybe we should have been more exact (rather than perhaps relying on hyperbole) – YES we usually see sight of 1 -2 RFPs globally of THAT size a month – we don’t see two every month so we are probably talking close to 15 -16 than 24 (i.e. not two every month) but we would stand by that number as accurate.

If we were to just look at the RFPs we know that are out in Europe at the moment or about to be out it’s easy to see those sorts of numbers and those sorts of deal sizes.

These deals are real and will happen (so we disagree with some of those who commented saying that there are often signs of RFP activity and then little happens thereafter BUT yes this has happened in the past and is unfortunately quite common).

In the US at least, these RFPs could be a sign that the economy is starting to bounce back and people are looking to invest and that is only good for our industry sector (BTW we really need to keep selling the positive research stories especially the likes of ‘Kinetic Proves The Value Of Digital Posters‘ and some of the great work that Arbitron has been doing recently AND here the industry associations and even all those who compete with each other can work together to publicise the positive aspects of what we do – now more than ever we really need to market the industry as a whole!!!).

We mentioned that the RFPs were all ‘retail’ or more traditional Out of Home, to be more precise the 6 are a mix of QSR, OOH Network and retail (without giving the retailers away think gas stations, DIY, pet stores etc).

Few people mentioned or asked about our comment “There are also 9 big retail banking deals in both the US and Europe (that includes the UK) that are going to fall in the next 3 to 6 months” and this we believe is because so few vendors play well in this space and to be fair these deals are pretty much likely sewn up already.

We echo our sentiment of early in the week “Hold on to your hats!!!” !!!!


9 Responses to “More On Those 6 RFPs (For 3,000 Sites And Larger)”

  1. The Meeddya Group Says:

    Well Adrian,

    we see a lot of RFPs for very large projects without any following after submitting, projects canceled or postponed (who knows) or sometime the client do the RFP just to get solutions and pricing but there isn’t any real project behind.

  2. john ryan Says:

    Adrian,

    have you really seen as many as 24 RFPs > 3,000 sites in the past year?
    can you publish their names? As your previous blogger mentioned, we do see activity, but we don’t really hear any deals like that being completed.

    JR

  3. Adrian J Cotterill Says:

    Not 24 by any means but YES 1 or 2 of this size per month is the norm!!! As several folks have mentioned not all come to fruition, not all are serious but with these 6 are, we believe, all serious annd all well funded

  4. june Says:

    By all means, share the info! A general search hasn’t netted the 6 well-funded RFPs you describe. After my booth debuts at a trade show this week in my market, I’ll know more about the health of the economy, but yes, I am optimistic that our market has seen its worst days and better ones are here soon.

  5. SC Says:

    Adrian,

    I concure with the above comments as well. However, being a manufactrure of wireless streaming indoor/outdoor solutions, we need to elevate the wireless business and exposure to these large projects for which I can not seem to find. Please help America stay strong and fill me in on the 6 deals.
    I believe it is public knowledge.

    I look forward to your reply.

  6. DigiSHOW.tv Says:

    Adrian,

    We as a small development company do get asked to tender like this on a regular basis.

    Indeed you do have to know where to look and we do lose out becuase of our size rather than technical ability.

    They are out there, but not everyone can talk about them afterwards due to commercial restrictions, and why would anyone want to make it public knowledge other than through already agreed channels.

  7. cs Says:

    How do we get connected to those RFPs?

  8. DS Says:

    if you dont have the RFP’s yet how do you even think you have a shot at winning them. An RFP is specd for a specific company 90% of the time- why would you want to come in late and waste your time replying to something you did not even know was happening. Feel free to though because it helps us continue to find other opportunities

  9. Nancy Radermecher Says:

    OK, so now–after months–who won the big RFPs and (near and dear) what about the 9 major banking deals?

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