Dick Estus on 60 years in OOH

Dick Estus has built and sold hundreds of billboards in the course of a 60 year career in the out of home business.  He currently owns 1 digital billboard and 2 static billboards in Savannah Georgia.  Estus was recently featured as the 300th independent digital billboard customer of Formetco.   Insider talked with the 86 year old Estus yesterday.

How did you enter the out of home business?

I spent 6 months in the service after graduating from Bucknell.  I wanted to be in advertising.  A brother in law who worked for General Outdoor suggested I apply for a job.  I went to work for General Outdoor in sales in Philadelphia and later in Harrisburg, Utica and Atlanta.  I ended up working for Ted Turner in Atlanta for 15 years after the Turners took over the Atlanta portion of General Outdoor.

How did you become an owner?

I was asked to manage Hogan Outdoor in Savannah after the owner died.  I acquired the company after managing it for three years.

You’ve built and sold hundreds of billboards.  What have you learned about siting?

You can always find a couple of good sites.  As I drive around I see sites in every community which are in a commercial area and which have potential to be developed.  You’ve got to be creative and persistent.

You recently installed your first digital sign.

Digital has been kind of fun.  I was reluctant to do digital and sold a lot of billboards when digital was coming out.  I decided to convert one of my billboards to digital.  Formetco was very helpful.  They put me in touch with Leslie at SkyDragon Designs to help manage the digital billboard.  She was a breath of fresh air.  She said focus on selling and I’ll handle the artwork and scheduling…I try to sell my digital on 12 month contracts.  I have a 4 month minimum.  I find that having a flip available allows me to run special content like a billboard honoring George W Bush or a billboard highlighting the temperature.  It’s like having your own local newspaper or TV station.

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