LINK-Caribbean Magazine

DISRUPTING CARIBBEAN ADVERTISING

Larren understood that consumers were exposed to an increasing number of platforms vying for their attention, most of which had limited brand reach. Further, getting and keeping consumers’ attention is harder than ever as traditional mediums use a broad-brush to spread messages to wide cross sections of consumers which is inefficient and not cost effective. In view of this Bluedot Media set out to disrupt the spaces where consumers currently reside and create new spaces for them. The company wanted to attract consumers through utility, convenience and rewards and importantly collect data from consumers to enable refined targeting. Bluedot’s solution is the only existing product that allows advertisers to directly target the “banked” population, a key demographic. Larren applied for an investment readiness grant in 2016 and delivered his pitch at the headquarters of Caribbean Export in Barbados to a panel of judges. His engaging pitch enabled the company to receive the US $25,000 cash injection to investment in developing the business to be more attractive to investors. For Larren it was important to get angel investment as he explained “We were at the point of growth in the company where we could either continue to bootstrap and grow slowly and organically or get some sort of capital injection either through debt or equity.” With the investment they were

able to purchase software and hardware that would improve the product offering and their ability to advertise in ABN/ ATM and collect the data for analytics. With the wealth of data being collected Larren saw an opportunity to focus more on the delivery of data analytics to companies and transitioned his company to do just that. As a result Bluedot Insights was born providing full service research and data to a suite of companies across a range of industries such as banking and finance, tobacco and many more. The company has partners in Barbados and Trinidad and now employs eight people. In a relatively short space of time they have become pioneers in business data insights across the Caribbean, U.S. and Canada and claim to have the most comprehensive research toolkit available to deliver the only benchmarking system built on transactional, emotional and scientific platforms to discover powerful insights and develop actionable recommendations. Since participating in the LINK-Caribbean programme Larren has found that receiving investment from angel investors or venture capitalist not only gave them great PR but also “forced us to implement reporting procedures that we didn’t have otherwise. Which has helped us in our day to day operations because what can’t be measured, can’t be managed” he shared. “I am extremely

His engaging pitch enabled the company to receive the US $25,000 cash injection to investment in developing the business to be more attractive to investors.

grateful for everything they have done for my company, we would not be where we are now, which is looking to IPO in 2 years if it was not for the funds received.”