United Outdoor Media was formed in 1996 by Baxter Bledsoe Jr, Robert Gilbert and Bobby Jones to develop signs in Southeastern Kentucky with an emphasis on I-75.  In 2002 Trey Bledsoe purchased the interests of the founders.  The company now operates upwards of 500 panels across Kentucky.  Insider talked with Trey Bledsoe.

I was a touring drummer for around 10-12 years.  In short, that means I had managed to find a way to barely make a living yet put in 20 hour days.  Spending that much time in vans and rv’s in the 90’s before cell phones as we know them, the more creative billboards always caught my attention and I formed a very limited understanding of the business by just asking questions.  Somewhere around that same time, my father was an attorney and represented Bob Gilbert in various matters.  Bob Gilbert was one of those guys who just had outdoor in his blood.  Bob and my Father decided to form a small company and I began selling copy for them or helping their crews during the time I was home for extra money.  It wasn’t a large company by any means but selling copy was enjoyable.  It was also a tremendously different time.  The vast majority of agreements were 3 year terms.  I continued to work with Bob Gilbert during days off and just kept doing a little of this and that and eventually bought the boards they had, used them as a base and figured I’d give it a go.  Given the red tape associated with this industry, Charlotte Anders has been as much of the backbone of this company as I have been.  She was a legal secretary for 20+ years.  She has been with me since day one and for anybody who reads this and works with us, you already know Charlotte runs the joint.

Thankfully we did not experience the dramatic shift we braced for.  I flipped out at the beginning.  At the onset of shutdowns, we just dropped every inch of bullsh*t with our clients.  We reached out to restaurants, hotels and any other industry affected and just advised them that we would revisit billing in 30-60 days.  If it was a restaurant with drive thru, we’d ask if a reasonable percentage (20-25%) could be applied, I still can’t get over the lines at fast food places during covid.  At the same time, everyone in our company understood our advertisers had bigger fish to fry so we kept our contact minimal and relied on more emails / texts so they could respond on their time frame.  Beyond that, we just took on one problem at a time but it was a year filled with surprises to say the least.  Glad we’re on our way to whatever is next and thankful as can be.  We’re honestly looking to hire on the sales side right now.  If you read this and you might be interested, hit us up.

We do but we haven’t gone crazy or anything.  We use Formetco (Matt and Meredith are my peeps).  We’re still learning.  It is without a doubt the preferred way to go for a number of different entities but not everyone.  The vast majority of Kentucky is and will always be rural.  Digital has a time and place in rural settings.  Honestly, agencies and creative clients help us as much as we help them.  But I do firmly believe the more creative one can be in 7 words or less, the more attention ya get & digital does seem to help people be more bold on trying out more creative approaches.

You all probably do these profiles with people who could burn this section up LOL!  I don’t have a list of goals in here so I’m not gonna suddenly act like I do.