Company: Norton Outdoor
Market: Cincinnati, Ohio.
Headquarters: 5280 Kennedy Avenue, Cincinnati, OH
Phone: 513-631-4864
Norton Outdoor is a private, family owned outdoor company which was started by Jerry Norton in 1949. The company is run by Jerry Norton’s sons and grandson. Tom Norton Co-Chairman. Dan Norton is Co-Chairman and CEO. Jerry Norton’s grandson, Mike, is President. Norton is a member of the Junior Billboard Association, The Outdoor Advertising Association of Ohio, Geopath and the OAAA. Tom Norton is a recipient of the Myles Standish Award, the highest individual honor bestowed by the OAAA. Mike Norton sits on the OAAO Board of Directors, as well as the OAAA Board of Directors, Digital Billboard committee, Innovations committee and Marketing committee. Norton made the news in October 2018 when it and Lamar successfully challenged a tax on billboard revenues and as an unconstitutional violation of freedom of speech. The case has been appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court. Insider talked with Mike Norton about the company.
How has covid impacted your company?
As with virtually every industry and company, COVID-19 significantly impacted us in several ways. Financially, we were certainly affected, as many of our clients requested cancellations, shifting of timing or other changes to their contracted campaigns. Our sales staff worked with each of these clients to create a fair resolution, based on each unique circumstance. This spirit of partnership is who we are, and is consistent with our long-standing mantra of doing everything we can to help our clients succeed.
Due to State-mandated “Stay at Home” orders, we worked remotely for 10 weeks, from late March until finally returning to the office on June 1st. Although we technically were permitted to work in the office, as ours was considered and Essential Business, we opted to follow the spirit of the order, to protect our people. Prior to our return, Dan Norton and I created and communicated guidelines for our employees to return to work as safely as possible, based on Department of Health guidelines and other best practices. These include daily self-checks for employees before coming into work, daily temperature checks at the office, wearing masks in public spaces, social distancing and sanitization, just to name a few. Our employees have done a phenomenal job following these guidelines, allowing us to be in the office and out in the field, serving our clients.
We did apply for and receive a PPP Loan, which helped us to achieve our goal of weathering this unprecedented storm without having to lay off, furlough or otherwise reduce pay for any of our employees. Making sure our employees were cared for, from both a health and financial standpoint, has been our highest priority during this pandemic.
Right now, we seem to be rowing in calmer waters again, and our Q4 is outpacing Q4 of 2019, which is a good sign. There was no playbook for this, and I am very proud of the decisions that we have made and of our team’s ability to get to those calmer waters.
Talk a little bit about your plant.
We are a 3rd generation OOH company, providing over 800 traditional and 16 digital billboard displays in the Greater Cincinnati market. In addition to OOH displays, Norton provides paid Search, Display and Social digitalcampaigns that can be used in concert with our OOH displays, or on their own.
What’s Cincinnati like as an outdoor market?
Despite the fact that we are only about the 34th largest DMA in the country, we are home to several Fortune 500 companies, including Procter & Gamble and Kroger, making this market a very valuable one for many brands. Fortunately for those brands and marketers, Cincinnati is an outstanding OOH market. There are fantastic OOH displays in urban and suburban areas throughout the region. There are outstanding Rotary and Digital Bulletins in the marketplace. Norton Poster displays are all singe-face displays, and the average Norton Poster has an 18% Geopath OOH Ratings advantage over our competitor in the marketplace. Additionally, we are the only provider of Junior Poster displays in the region, which provide a platform for small businesses and an extremely efficient platform for larger ones.
You’ve got 16 digital signs. Who’s signs do you use and what have you learned?
Although there are several very good digital billboard providers, all of our digital displays are now provided by Watchfire Signs. We just added a “Digital Gateway Display” in Milford, OH, which is a beautiful City just outside of Cincinnati. It is the prettiest digital billboard, and with a 10mm pixel pitch, it is the highest resolution digital billboard in the market. We continue to grow and evolve the digital billboard offering. Advertisers are starting to use the dynamic capabilities in better ways, which allows them to provide messaging that is more contextually relevant, in terms of almost anything going on at the time (time, weather, news, trends, etc.). It’s an exciting medium, which still has untapped potential for advertisers.
Norton is highly involved with the OAAA. How did this come about?
My dad has been heavily involved with the OAAA, serving on many committees over the past 3+ decades, including as Chairman. He encouraged me to do so from the beginning of my career, and I have been happy to follow suit. To have the ability to have a voice, especially as a smaller operator, is very valuable. More importantly, having the opportunity to help shape the industry and guide it’s path in the future is both humbling and exciting. We love this industry, and the decisions that we make, whether for our business or in our capacity as committee members, all have the industry’s well-being at their root. At the end of the day, we are all trying to do what my Grandpa told me was the key to his success, which was “Make people money, and you will make money.” We have a great medium to connect brands and consumers, and if we keep striving to leverage our ability to connect and engage, we will succeed.
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