Company: Burkett Media
Market: Texas
Address: P.O. Box 163266, Austin TX 78716
Phone: 512.787.2375
Email: info@burkettmedia.com
Burkett Media was founded by Beau Burkett in 2003 while attending college. Burkett Media offers a diverse mix of high profile static and LED digital billboard locations throughout Texas.
Insider caught up with Beau to talk about his business.
Let’s start with some detail on you and your Company?
Burkett Media is based out of Austin, TX but my inventory is scattered all over Texas, the majority of my units within an hour or so of Austin. I own and operate all units and handle all facets of the business myself. I’m in my late 30’s and have grown up in and around the business. My wife, Lauren, helps run the admin and art design part of our team and it’s been great to build our company together. We now have three young kids (twin girls who are 6 years old and a son who will turn three next week on Christmas Eve). We couldn’t be happier as the billboard business allows us a lot of time flexibility to be around our kids as much as possible.
Beau, I understand you are just completing an interesting digital project?
We recently were granted approval for the final two sign licenses in a small town inside San Antonio that otherwise didn’t allow new billboards.
How long did it take to get the permits approved?
It took over a year to work along with the mayor, attorneys and city council to find common ground for our two new sites – the city will get annual land rent and some free advertising as Burkett receives a 30 year lease for the site.
What was the toughest objection you had to overcome to obtain approval on this signs and how did you overcome it?
The biggest challenge was the significant opposition from neighborhood groups who were anti-billboard in general. I made myself available and reached out to them to answer questions, hear their concerns and ultimately come up with solutions that made them much more in favor of the new signs. We focused on changing the configuration, placement and location of the signs to minimize visibility and light trespass from the digital units.
Are you constructing the boards now?
The signs were unanimously approved by council on August 20th and we are wrapping up construction this week and next for both sites. Each will have back to back LED units (so 4 Watchfire units will go live by the end of the month.). One is on Hwy 281 just south of Loop 1604 and the other is on Loop 1604 just west of Hwy 281.
Attached is a picture of the right hand read on Loop 1604 going eastbound to the Hwy 281 interchange
Do you mostly work with Watchfire?
I’ll have 13 digital units in the air once these are done this week. 12 units are Watchfire and I have one Daktronics unit. I’ve been very happy with Watchfire and like how they cater to smaller billboard operators. Their online ignite software is very user friendly and any issue gets resolved immediately with their service team. Lastly, John Carter is awesome to work with on the sales end and always does everything in his power to get a deal done.
What’s coming up in the New Year?
I have a couple other digital units I’ll be installing in a suburb of Austin, TX on a similar deal I just wrapped up that took some city negotiation and creative solutions. That deal took over a year to workout and I’m really excited about it as there are very few digital units in the Austin DMA. It will be installed in early 2020 with 14×48 back to back digital units as well. The city will get some free advertising to promote their town and events along with the sign being branded with the city logo. Also I’ll continue working on filling in with some new static billboard development, other digital conversions and small acquisitions… I feel really blessed and fortunate and look forward to the upcoming year!
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