Richard Blackburn
Independent commercial advice
before an OOH decision
is committed.
I am paid for my judgement, not for getting a particular answer or deal over the line.
I do not name clients or publish their work. It stays private.
I work on Out of Home advertising estates, concessions, commercial rights, revenue models and investment.
What I do is work out where the value actually comes from, what it depends on, and what would have to happen for it to go away.
WHERE I GET INVOLVED
Usually before anyone has settled on a route.
An estate is being looked at. A concession is coming up for renewal. Someone has proposed a new revenue model. There is an investment case resting on assumptions nobody has tested. A board wants an independent view before it commits money, rights or years.
Or something less formal. Someone has told you that you are leaving money on the table. An arrangement that worked fine for years has started to feel wrong. A deal has landed on your desk and the person who brought it stands to do well out of it.
That is usually where I come in.
The question is rarely just what could be sold. It is what creates the value, what the revenue depends on, and what happens when the conditions around it change.
WAYS TO WORK TOGETHER
Most people start by telling me what is going on rather than picking a service.
An Assessment.
£5,000 fixed.
One question. You tell me the situation and we agree what we are answering before I start.
I look at what you've got, talk to the people who can help me answer it, and tell you what I think. What looks true, what I would not rely on, whether it matters, and what I would do about it.
Sometimes the answer is that nothing needs doing. Sometimes it is that you do not know enough yet to decide, in which case I will tell you what you would need to find out.
I give you my answer in writing, the reasoning behind it, and what I think you should do. Then we spend an hour going through it together.
If it turns out to be bigger than one question, I will tell you rather than squeeze it into a fixed fee.
When there is already a decision to make
It has a date on it and someone has to sign it. A concession, a contract, an investment, a change of commercial model.
Those tend to be bigger jobs, and they are a large part of what I do. I go properly into the evidence, the options on the table and the ones that have not come up, and what each of them does to the economics. I tell you what I would do and what would change my mind. You should come out of it able to decide, and able to say why.
Priced for the job.
Keeping me on hand
Sometimes it makes sense to keep me available month to month. You message when something comes up, send me papers for a view, talk something through while it is still moving, or have me in the room when that is useful. No starting from scratch every time.
We agree it when we work out what you need. Anything substantial gets quoted separately.
THE REMOVAL TEST
Revenue usually depends on something.
A relationship. A route to market. A contractual right. A piece of technology. An assumption about how the next owner, tenant or advertiser will behave.
So I take the thing away and ask what happens to the revenue.
Some of it holds up. Some of it disappears with the thing I've removed. That tells me something important about where the value actually sits and what it depends on.
It is how I look at things rather than something I sell.
ABOUT RICHARD
45 years in Out of Home, on most sides of the same argument.
I ran ECN as Managing Director. Before that I was Commercial Director and a shareholder in MediaCo Outdoor. At Kinetic, I founded and ran Zone with full P&L responsibility, and sat on the UK board.
Most of that time has been spent with buyers, media owners, landlords, partners and boards all wanting something different out of the same deal.
So when something is put in front of you, I usually have a fair idea what the other side wants out of it, and why.
These days I give an independent view before the decision gets made.
WRITE TO ME
If you have got something going on and you want someone independent to look at it, send me a few lines.
You do not need to know what you want, or whether there is anything in it at all. Plenty of this starts with someone asking if they can run something past me.
If I can help, I will tell you how. If I cannot, I will tell you that too.
I use what you send to respond to your enquiry and any resulting discussion. Privacy notice.