Overview of the Public Group Business Model and identified areas for expansion of operations. Originally the Public Group business model was conceived and developed for political and social advocacy clients, however the business has since developed and evolved into a larger business.
In the expanded business model we have identfied exciting new opportunities incorporating the following areas:
(1) The “App Services & Engagement” Platform
(a) The Political Silo
(b) The Advocacy Silo
(c) The Commercial Silo
(d) The Union & Membership Silo
(d) The Sports Associations & Codes Silo
(2) The “Big Data” Licensing Business
(a) Third Party Branded Data Licensing
(b) Arms-Length Commercial Data Licensing
(c) Data Mining & Information Aggregation
A. The App Services & Engagement Platform in the Political Silos
It is important for political parties to gauge the voters feelings and intent because:
- it enables the political parties to get their message ‘directly to the voter’ without the interference or ‘spin’ of the media
- it can get instant response from the voters on matters of importance
- it gives far greater coverage and nuanced responses as opposed to standard focus groups or polls
- Empowerment and involvement by the public will not only greatly enhance the quality and value of major political decisions but also substantially ease the pressure and workload on politicians, involved in creating solutions.
For these reasons, and given the exorbitant current costs to political parties as well as the difficulties and costs to commercial organisations in proper targeting of prospective clients and members, the PD platform should be in strong demand.
There are only limited products/services that attempt to provide a similar function (mostly in the US), however to the strength of our expertise in the political sphere provides us with an unparalleled advantage. The PD offering is firmly based on the combined expertise of the founders, both in Australia with more than 20 years of hands on operational campaigning in politics for major parties by the Australian Directors and in the US with the congressional and White House experience of the US Directors.
This is beneficial in that it provides unsurpassed skills in designing content, questions and feedback loops, whilst providing easy access to major politicians and parties from all persuasions.
This solution is in line with current, major disruptive technologies and has the capacity to completely overhaul and greatly enhance the political and democratic process.
B. The App Services & Engagement Platform in the Advocacy Silos
Once this solution is enacted it then can be applied to other, non-political, areas of everyday life. This is a major shift in the way that people interact and determine important outcomes in their lives.
There is now a major shift in the way that people interact and want to be involved in determining important outcomes in their lives, with an emphasis on demanding input and consideration from their political leaders.
Crucial differences to other means of questioning constituents and polls used are: (a) the ability to “engage” with the constituents in real time (b) the capacity to communicate with far greater numbers of people (c) the bi-synchronous (two-way) nature of the communication, effectively providing strong engagement As such there is a “multiplier” in the use and the value of the PD platform.
Empowerment and involvement by the public can not only greatly enhance the quality and value of major political decisions but also substantially ease the pressure and workload on politicians, involved in creating solutions.
C. The App Services & Engagement Platform in the Commercial Silos
Commercial organisations spend very large sums in marketing their products & services. The effective targeting of qualified clients & customers is increasingly becoming vital to the profitability and survival of many businesses.
Traditional marketing methods have shown very low (1%-2%) response rates and are becoming more costly due to their intensive reliance on materials and personnel.
The PD platform, combined with access to and reuse of data that has been aggregated via the use of the various tailored Apps provides an effective tool to be highly selective in the way that clients and customers are sourced. It also provides a level of engagement with clients and customers that is not possible through the more traditional and older style methods currently employed.
It is important for commercial businesses and member-driven organisations to communicate effectively because: - it enables organisations to gather valuable information regarding their constituencies, members and clients - it allows for highly targeted (narrow band) marketing of products & services - it provides clear, effective and low-cost engagement with clients and members - it provides a 'Metric' about members and clients that can support valuation and advertising and sponsorship rates
D. The “Big Data” Licensing Business.
During the process of developing their platform and strategy PD saw the opportunity to form a new joint venture company holding initially a 50% stake, with the option to raise this to 60%, of what was then known as the ‘Eleison Database’. The business has been operating for more than 10 years and has been based around this ‘Big Data’ database, now owned by a subsidiary of PD (PDA Inc.). The PDA database consists of 114 million registered adult US voters, and has been developed and maintained over a 10 year period with large amounts of longitudinal data attached to each entry. This provides a long trail over time of attitudinal and behavioural patterns of the population of the US and can be very effectively used for predictive analyses in both the political and commercial arenas.
This database has been used in well over 100 campaigns, mostly in the not-for-profit sector, and but has generated revenue and been profitable throughout this entire period.
The opportunity is now there to develop the PDA assets further and to use this ‘Big Data’ database in a more commercial environment. PD does however recognize that it is vitally important to use the data wisely in order to fully protect its integrity.
PD is currently engaged in negotiations in Australia, the US and in Europe with major political organisations, corporate entities and several TV networks to make the data available on a commercial and ongoing basis. This process not only provides a ‘fee for service’ revenue model but also a 'licence' revenue model and enhances the ‘Big Data’ aggregation and value enhancement potential in each new market.