Company:  Arthur Outdoor

Markets: Georgia

Headquarters: Rome, Georgia

Phone: 706-512-0620

Email:  jdouglas@arthuroutdoor.com

Arthur Outdoor was founded in 2017 by James and Samuel Douglas. The company owns an out-of-home plant with 1 digital and 5 static faces in Rome, Georgia. James Douglas is Head of Operations and Sales. His brother and business partner Samuel is Head of Strategy and Finance. Billboard Insider talked with James Douglas.

Back in 2015, I was a Summer Intern at Waitt Company in Omaha, Nebraska. In my time there, I became close with the team over at Waitt Outdoor, formerly a major player in a few Midwest Markets. They walked me through the basics of scouting locations, writing up land leases, obtaining permits, and the benefits of digital conversions. After the internship ended, my older brother and I sat down and decided we were going to create our own billboard company. After wrestling with a few names, we settled on Arthur Outdoor, named after our maternal grandfather Arthur Brook. Formerly the CEO of NBP Engineers in Macon, Georiga, he has always been a skilled builder. Whether it is building a company, a family, or woodworking, he has been a role model and inspiration in our lives, as well as to our little brother William.

Working with an extremely limited budget, we organized all of the subcontractors to construct our first poster in our first year. We built our second poster organically the following year and took a digital/static back-to-back under management. We are currently in the process of permitting the Arthur Digital Network, a collection of digital billboards here in Northwest Georgia.

Billboard Insider’s Newsletter and Podcast, Frank Rolfe’s Big Bucks From Big Signs, Randy Romig at Romig Consulting, Britt McConnell at Formetco, William Schmelter at Outfront, and Rich Montanaro at the University of Georgia Small Business Administration, and Robert Wallace at Southeastern Media Company and a few classes at the School of Hard Knocks all play a tremendous role in our current and future growth as we expand our footprint here in Northwest Georgia.

2020 was an interesting year. All of our clients were on 12+ month leases at the time. The pandemic was very good for many of our local businesses so we did not lose any business from our local clients.

However, we faced a bigger issue: several of our local doctor’s offices, senior living facilities, nursing homes, and the local hospitals were faced with a PPE shortage. After reaching out to a few of our local businesses, the Arthur Outdoor Team was able to source PPE directly from overseas manufacturers. After closing our PPE operation in December of 2020, Arthur Outdoor supplied over 250,000 pieces of PPE to businesses and medical facilities across 5 states.

We currently manage a digital/static back-to-back sign on Highway 411 in Rome, owned by Pender Outdoor. We currently have a Watchfire face in the air.

Britt McConnell over at Formetco has been a tremendous help in planning our next steps with the Arthur Digital Network. We are also very impressed with their product, service, and warranties.

2021 has been an amazing year of growth for Arthur Outdoor. So far this year, we have permitted 2 new digital billboards. This past week, we closed a round of funding that will put our new digitals in the air in early Fall 2021. Our goal from here is to permit the other digitals in our pipeline that will fill out the first collection of signs in the Arthur Digital Network. We are excited for the road ahead and the opportunity to provide our local businesses with more opportunities for affordable outdoor advertising.