At last week’s IBO show Billboard Insider’s Dave Westburg moderated a Founders Journey Panel.  The panel included out of home execs from a small company (Charley McIntyre, Bullfrog Outdoor), a medium sized company (Steve Richards, Pacific Outdoor/Mile Hi Outdoor) and two larger companies (Bill Lodzinski, West Virginia Outdoor and John Siegenthaler, Lind Media Outdoor).  Here are some excerpts from the discussion.

What have you learned about putting up digital billboards?

Charley McIntyre: When I was thinking of putting in a digital, Glenn McCann told me I’ve built 100 digitals and I’ve never met anybody that regretted.  It made me think, and soon I built a digital … a left read … 10 by 20.   I should have went 12 by 24 but it’s fun. Make sure it’s a good location. Mine was pretty simple.   It was on the major north-south road at a traffic light.  It was a sign that everybody wanted to rent.  It was great

Bill Lodzinski: I’ve learned that doing thorough due diligence is key …. locations is key.  Make sure it’s permittable…I consult with our sales team to see if the location is going to have a lot of demand…we get feedback from our customer base to see if there is going to be a demand.  We try to project the economic environment to see if in the next five years the location will do well. The biggest thing I’ve learned is making sure your structure is in good shape. Structural integrity is key.   A lot of monopoles built 40 years ago have no engineering plans so we don’t want to take the risk of dropping on a back-to-back 14 by 48 digital.   Doing the due diligence before you get to select the site is important.

Steve Richards: We buy digital billboards and hope we don’t have to replace them for … 7 to 10 years and especially in today’s climate with labor shortages.  Have a backup plan. Having a couple service options is important because a digital billboard is down you’re not making any money and it seems harder and harder thing to get somebody ready and trained to work on digital signs.  So have that backup plan on your maintenance.

John Siegenthaler: Don’t go cheap. You want limited inventory within the corridor you don’t want to build a digital network that cannibalizes and negatively affects your strategy.  Make sure your sales team has bandwidth to sell both static and digital.

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