WDA - How Do We Do It?




a typical day... "the new Siemens phone has a bug and won't play music files -- who do we call? Will the carrier launch it without music or do I need to wait and fix this?" "the graphics on this game are terrible -- we need this fixed -- who's the best team for this project?" "Can you explain to me how this publisher arrived at this net revenue per download when the foreign excise tax is calculated in local currency but the downloads ran through a euro platform provider and was reported in British Sterling? And when was the exact date of the calculated currency exchange rate?" "our band is on tour so they weren't around when we produced the ringtone. But they just heard the mastertone on the road and freaked because it was awful. What do we do now?" "We have a movie coming out in 6 months. Package an entire team who can deliver a branded game, trivia contest, ringtones and associated wallpapers for worldwide release." "Does my contract with these guys allow me to produce a derivative game from the same game engine if it's outside of the genre of the other game and is not network-aware?" "the carrier just declined my app submission and we've just spent $250,000 in branding fees and production. What do I do about it?"

The Family...

The creative and technical talent that WDA represents, along with the publishers we serve, collectively form a family. You could call it an ecosystem. You could call it an in-crowd. But whatever you call it, "it" works -- and it works every day.

The companies who are part of the family draw upon a bigger pool of resources and knowledge, so they get more done in a shorter period of time, and they make more money as a result. We have come to find that winners run with winners, and that the results are predictable. (Incidentally, losers run with losers, and those results are predictable as well.)

Time...

WDA manages an incredible deal flow rate. We find that the number one problem is time. There just isn't time to be inefficient. Everyone has 200 unread emails in their inbox. (Don't worry -- yours is in there somewhere.)

The key to success is rising above the noise. WDA gets that done because it has earned respect for honoring people's most precious resource -- time.

WDA has identified that one of the biggest obstacles to time efficiency is legal process. There is an enormous backlog of legal work in our industry, and just "getting the contract" can be months and months. Therefore, WDA has established a number of powerful time-saving legal instruments for our clients to use:

Agency-wide NDAs; all of our talent and our clients sign a single NDA that covers them for any other talent or client represented by WDA. It's a blanket. One NDA and you're done.
Master Service Agreements; Instead of writing an agreement for every writer, graphics designer, or porting company you need to work with, just sign one MSA and each assignment is a one-page addendum. All managed by WDA.
Content Distribution Agreements; If you want to sell ringtones, wallpapers, videos or games on your portal or content service, sign a single CDA with us and we can deliver the works of hundreds of publishers under a single agreement.
Master Publishing Agreements & Pass-Throughs; If you want to publish content directly with a network operator but can't wait 12 months to go through the legal process, you can piggyback onto WDA's established master agreements and get to market immediately.

Money...

WDA is probably the single largest processor of wireless royalties in the world. For every imaginable content type (WAP, SMS, ringtones, wallpapers, screensavers, games, video), payment structure (advances, first-dollar recapture, split equity) and event trigger (downloads, minutes, tokens, credits, subscriptions), we manage tens of thousands of unique royalty bearing events.

We provide support for BOBO (billing on behalf of) and SO (seller originated) billing on behalf of our clients and manage the collection and distribution of proceeds from royalties worldwide. WDA uses a separate set of financial accounts for artist royalties that is not co-mingled with WDA operations (we call it a "trust account") and we typically clear funds in 3 to 5 business days.

No one handles money better than WDA.

Results...

The Agency measures results in a number of ways, including profitability, commercial success of properties, longevity of product, and more. But our greatest measure of success is what is commonly referred to in business texts as the "win-win" relationship; that is proven by repeat business.

In this market, no short-term financial gain is worth the price of a damaged long-term relationship. The real money is made on the second deal, not the first. So what WDA looks for when creating relationships are the fundamentals that will make that relationship stand the test of time.

Bringing the right people together at the right time for a win-win relationship is an art. It is the key to success of the WirelessDeveloper Agency, and the reason we are successful is because time and time again, we get it right. And if we get it wrong, we fix it.

	Friday, July 25, 2008