DailyDOOH

This month we welcome Garry McGuire, CEO, RMG Networks, Dallas, Texas.

1. What is the biggest change that you have seen since RMG Networks became a public company?

   RMG became a public company listed on NASDAQ in April of this year. The biggest difference from being a private company is that we now operate in the public eye with a great deal of regulatory compliance. We have many institutional and retail investors, and managing investor expectations and working with industry analysts takes a great deal of time.

2. Is RMG’s venture into the stock market performing as you had hoped? What can you foresee that could improve that?

   We are legally prohibited from comment on this.

3. After becoming the #1 provider of digital place-based networks in the travel sector, what made you decide to add mall networks and why?

   RMG operates the leading Air Media advertising network in the Unites States. We have publicly confirmed our desire to expand this network outside the U.S. and that is a core growth strategy for our business. We also offer Managed Services for other networks. Our Enterprise Solutions Business Unit offers the technology and services to manage networks that we build for companies and organizations.

   We offer best in class services, including advertising and network management as a service. The RMG Mall Media network is a client of RMG and is not an RMG company-owned media asset. We see this business model and offering as a unique differentiator for our company.

4. Do you intend to add to the network malls or to add new products to that sector? Explain, please.

   We would consider adding to the Mall Network with acquisitions of companies or assets in the sector.

5. Getting back to your travel networks, what are your opportunities for expansion? Where and how?

   I believe these captive media assets are among the most in demand in the digital place-based sector. We have been deploying new large format HD video walls in airport business lounges across the U.S.. We also recently added Southwest Airlines to our in-flight media network. Southwest is the largest airline in the U.S., based on passenger traffic. It has an exceptional new technology that allows us to sell advertising into live television during the flight.

   This IPTV with ad insertion is the future of entertainment in planes, and significantly adds to our media inventory. We are also working to add new airlines to our network. The collective power of the RMG Air Media network is a very compelling revenue proposition for airlines looking to deliver turnkey ancillary revenue.

6. You are moving your headquarters to Dallas, partly, I suppose, because your new Symon acquisition is there. Please tell us about your new building, when it will be finished, and who and what will occupy it.

   After the acquisition of Symon, we made the decision to move the corporate headquarters of RMG to Dallas. This decision was made due to the concentration of employees we have in that market, the highly skilled labour force from high-tech companies, and a central location in between New York City and Silicon Valley. We are developing a new corporate HQ that includes an Executive Briefing Center that will showcase the best technology and applications for digital signage. This facility and office is approximately 30,000 sq. ft. and will be completed in Q4 of this year.

7. And now, what are your plans for Symon?

   Symon Communications has become our Enterprise Solutions Business Unit. We are now a vertically integrated digital signage media business that can offer our clients turn-key digital signage networks and the ability to monetize them with advertising revenue. This Business Unit designs and sells the hardware, software, and services for Consumer and Corporate digital signage networks. The RMG Enterprise Solutions Business Unit also includes our Professional Services division. Professional Services is becoming a very important part of large-scale digital signage implementations.

8. I believe you will still have some senior people in your San Francisco office. Who will still be there and what responsibilities will be handled from there?

   RMG is a global company and we manage our business from Dallas, NYC, London and several other cities. Our executive leadership team is very distributed. Our San Francisco office includes members of our technology team, our sales team, and our marketing team.

9. Tell us a little bit about RMG’s strategic plans for the next 12 and 24 months.

   We have communicated in our public filings that we intend to focus on growing our software business and our media business by continuing our aggressive organic revenue growth and through strategic Mergers and Acquisitions. We believe that this industry will benefit from consolidation. The next 12-24 months present an opportunity for significant growth for our business as we enter new markets and grow our sales force.

10. How do you see the digital out-of-home sector performing in general in the same time frame and why?

    We expect to see the continued growth and adoption of digital place-based networks for media applications at the existing 13% CAGR or possibly higher. Video neutral media planning is a big theme right now in the ad community, and this benefits Digital Out-of-Home ad networks that run video.

11. You have offices in the U.S., U.K., China, India, and the United Arab Emirates. What do you expect of each of these this year and what area is next on your horizon?

    Our international offices are located in countries that are rapidly adopting digital signage. Some of our fastest growth is coming from these markets. This year, we are opening new offices in Brazil and Singapore, and we work with many of our global customers in multiple countries around the world.

12. What is the newest thing in the industry that excites you the most and why?

    No longer having to explain what digital signage is. Consumer awareness is finally high enough that most people recognize that digital signage is a product and an industry at the same time.

13. If you could change one thing in the digital signage sector, what would it be and why? Have you any ideas how it could be changed/improved?

    We are seeing the industry rapidly adopt digital signage technology for corporate networks, retail and consumer applications, and for ad networks. I wish the advertising and media community would adopt this powerful and effective media at a faster rate. We should see hundreds of millions of dollars of media shift to this category in the coming years. This shift will come from less effective, traditional media budgets.

14. Please give us your thoughts on the recent trends of consolidation in the industry. Can you foresee an increase or slowdown in consolidation of networks by the end of 2013?

    I have been an advocate for industry consolidation for several years now. Size and scale will fuel growth. Fragmentation makes our industry hard to buy. I believe that the next 12 months will bring some interesting consolidation activity that will benefit everyone.