Meet Dave Hecker of Chumba Media in Downtown

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dave Hecker.

Dave, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
When I was 20, I enlisted in the USCG. While serving, I took a few online classes for copywriting and marketing which ultimately led to me leaving the military to pursue business. While working at a restaurant, I came up with an idea for a personal concierge service.

Speedy Wheels Delivery was in business for six months before I realized two things; a delivery business is capital-intensive with small margins and advertising was looking much more profitable and conducive for expressing my creativity. I closed the delivery business, we moved out of the office, and I got job managing a smoothie restaurant in Bernalillo, NM. while I planned my next move into advertising. I started another business specializing in motorcycle billboard advertising and sign spinning.

However, after just two months, my business partner decided to shut down the website and pursue other ventures. At the same time, Colorado had just legalized cannabis and I wanted to get involved in the marketing side of the industry so I moved into a downtown loft just one block away from the 16th Street Mall. Once in Denver, I worked in various jobs, including cannabis and digital media sales. After two years, I decided to start experimenting with new ways to advertise outside in public areas. This led to the design of Chumba Media’s flagship product, rolling billboard carts. Since then, we’ve promoted around 35 businesses over the course of 95 campaigns and have introduced new services including our custom iconic walking towers and backpacks.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Aside from bootstrapping the entire thing, starting a b2b company without any prior experience or knowledge made it tough to get businesses to trust me and have confidence in such a unique concept.

Please tell us about Chumba Media.
Chumba Media designs and manages custom, highly-visual, street/sales teams. The company originally started as an outdoor media agency using rolling billboards in downtown Denver. Since our expansion into Las Vegas, we’ve learned a few things: There’s a huge need for unique walking media formats in public areas including sidewalks and there’s also a huge need for specialized custom street sales teams. Starting in November 2019, we’ve started our transition into more of a creative boutique agency. We’ve also partnered with other marketing and tech agencies to allow us to scale quickly and add in-field lead generation technology and research components to our campaigns.

Contact Info:

• Website: chumbamedia.com
• Email: dave@chumbamedia.com
• Instagram: @chumbamedia
• Facebook: facebook.com/chumbamedia

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