Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Traveling Movie Theatre with Educational messages

One simple business in a box would be a traveling movie projector. Equipment required by the franchisee would be a charged car battery, a white sheet, and a projector. The franchisor would have a library of movies, provide training on marketing and collections, as well as secure standardized projectors in bulk at a discounted price. But the greatest aspect of such a business in my mind is the ability of getting promotional spots highlighting good health practices or a myriad of educational messages out to rural areas. The could play like previews before the movie. Getting trainers and teachers out across the rural areas to conduct in person sessions is much more difficult and costly than producing a video clip, replicating and tagging it onto a functioning business with a captive audience.

3 comments:

antonio romero said...

"Projectors" could be surplus/recycled office presentation-type projectors (think corporate donations) plus a cheap (maybe ruggedized) laptop with digital movies (a hard drive can hold A LOT of video) and, optionally and long term, some way to connect wirelessly to the internet. Don't hassle with film-- it's too heavy, error-prone. You could even use flash memory drives or DVDs to hold multiple hours of video, if that keeps cost down.

How do you make money doing this, though?

David Stoker said...

I like all of your thoughts. For the operator, collecting money could be a challenge. If they could somehow restrict entry into the viewing area then they could charge an entrance fee. If it was in an open area then perhaps a collection tray type system would be the only option. They could also sell candies or trinkets for extra revenue. The collection tray system might sound condusive to a lot of freeloaders but I was impressed with traveling through Ghana how the people self-regulated themselves on say public transporation.

The franchisor could make money by charging a franchisor's fee or incorporate such a fee into the cost of the projector. Perhaps MFI's would even be willing to pay the franchisor to come train their borrowers as having their clients run a franchised business might be less risky than giving them a loan to start their own business.

David Stoker said...

Coincidence would have it that the same day I posted this article was posted on WorldChanging which illustrates the potential of traveling movies to educate and market products or ideas.