Company: Barrett Outdoor
Headquarters: 381 Highland St., West Haven CT
Markets: Eastern Connecticut
Phone: 203.932.4601
Email: sales@Barrettoutdoor.com
Barrett Outdoor operates a billboard plant in Eastern Connecticut along the I-95 corridor including Bridgeport, Stratford, Devon and Milford. The Company was started in 1962 by Jack Barrett. John Barret is the company’s President. Barrett is a member of the Outdoor Association of America (OAAA), Geopath and the Outdoor Advertising Association of Connecticut (OAAC).
John Barrett was a participant in the Independent Lens panel at the 2016 Geopath/OAAA Convention. Here are some of his comments.
Barrett was asked how his company weathered the 2008 recession:
“Before 2008 life was pretty nice. We didn’t have to do any sales. The phone rang. Occupancies were 98%. In 2008 the first thing that happened was the nationals pulled out. We had to change our strategy. We had to focus on local sales…We continued to use our old school method which was customer service and quality. The market was getting soft. Our competitors were dropping rates…We have the advantage that we own all our real estate but I’m a first believer that if you allow your rates to drop you’ll have a hard time getting it back…We empowered anyone on the company to solve any problem that comes up at any time…In vegetation we took that stance that the time to deal with trees is not when they are blocking your signs. It’s five years before…We cleared the interstates. We were able to maintain our prices.”
Barrett also sounded a cautionary note about programmatic buying of out of home ads:
“Digital came in. We held back. The reliability did not meet our standards for customer service…We’ve now started investing in digital…I still have some questions on how it benefits certain advertisers…What really bothers me is when we talk about programmatic. Programmatic sounds like we become a commodity. How does that make it easier for me to compete…Are we turning ourselves into a commodity and starting a race to the bottom.”
You can watch the 2016 independent lens panel discussion below. Barrett’s comments start at 33:35 minutes.
You can register for the 2017 OAAA/Geopath conference by visiting the Lookout 2017 webpage.
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