Company: New South Outdoor

Markets:  Alabama

Address:  2135 Interstate Drive #123, Opelika, AL  36801

Phone:  334-625-0345

Email:info@newsouthoutdoor.com

New South Outdoor operates a billboard plant in east Alabama with a concentration in Opelika and Auburn.  The company has innovative tiger tail billboards which play up loyalty for the Auburn Tigers in Auburn.  New South uses Blip to sell excess digital sign space.  Insider talked with New South’s owner Neil Bell.

Neil, how did you get into the out of home advertising business?

I started right out of college with Lamar in Tallahassee as a sales person and then sales manager. I was immediately in love with the industry. After only two years of working there, I realized it would be many years before they let me run a plant on my own – so a friend and I left to start our own plant. Now, after 18 years and four plants later, I still love the business. I can’t imagine doing anything else. 

Tell us about your plant.

New South will be three years old this April. It is made up of 12 digitals and 35 statics. I plan on building another 20 static faces and at least two more digital units by this summer. I have an amazing crew keeping things rented, posted and on track. Having great people has been such a blessing.

You’ve written before that Blip increased your sales by 3%  Any update on Blip?

Yes. We are still very happy with Blip. It has been very interesting. Over thepast 18 months we have kind of experimented a little with how much of our open inventory to allow them to sell – seeing if it effects the average bid rate. It has also been intriguing to see how Auburn Football home games have caused big variations in Blip spending.