Insider likes asking executives how they got into the out of home business. We reviewed 93 origin stories and here are the results. A surprising amount of company founders advertised their business on a billboard and subsequently realized what a great business it was and entered out of home.
First Job (30%)
29 executives entered out of home by going to work for an out of home company. Ad-Trend’s David English tells a typical story: “I started in OOH in 2004 as an Account Executive with Lamar Advertising in Kansas City. I started out selling in many of their outer markets, I was a road warrior, to say the least. The General Manager there took a leap of faith on a young twenty-three-year-old kid, one that I look back on and really appreciate… Lamar was an incredible experience and one that I’m grateful for. It didn’t take long for me to realize that OOH is the right place for me.”
Advertiser turned owner (13%)
12 executives entered out of home because they wanted to advertise on a billboard and realized what a great business it was. This story from Viscom Outdoor’s Bob Townsend is typical: “We started using billboards to publicize out Dingus McGee’s restaurant located in a small town on the I-80 corridor between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe/Reno. Our landlord, Stewart Wells, encouraged us to obtain a billboard to assist us in getting our name out. Well, inside of one year our business had doubled. We went from one billboard to 7 and utilized them for approximately 22 years of good success. We then sold the restaurant and began the billboard business.”
Family Business (10%)
9 executives entered a family out of home business. Connell Outdoor’s Jessica Connell learned the business “Riding in a car seat over 30 years ago…I was brought on for servicing local and national accounts along with business development for the company in 2009.”
Business Search (10%)
9 executives entered out of home after conducting a search of businesses to start. Circle City Outdoor’s Duane Fredrickson tells an entertaining story: “I was just a kid and working behind a counter at a lumberyard. I knew that I wanted to own my business and I wanted it to meet certain criteria. I wanted it to be business to business, have no moving parts, very little or no warranty work, and a whole page of other criteria. I narrowed it down to cement burial vaults and outdoor advertising. The barriers to entry with cement burial vaults was too high and so I chose outdoor advertising. I got in my car and wrote down the location of a number of grassy hills on major roads. I soon found out that there was a whole lot more to the business. I figured out the regulatory landscape and started building sites in 1982.”
Other media business (10%)
9 executives entered out of home as part of a diversified media company. Here’s Tyler Outdoor’s Tony Tyler: “Ralph, our dad, owned a radio station in the 1970’s and began putting out “Courtesy Benches” at bus stops and installing 8-Sheets around town to promote the station. Other business began asking if they could buy advertising and an outdoor advertising company was born.”
Real Estate (5%)
5 executives entered out of home while operating a real estate business. Here’s Becker Boards Mark Becker: “I backed into it as a landlord to OUTFRONT on a commercial building that I owned on I-10 in Phoenix.” Listen to Chris Cowlbeck of Look Outdoor: “Our main family business started 45 years ago now with my mother founding our real estate company in Ardmore. We had terrific response to our yard signs, and had one hand painted 12 x 24 bulletin beside our office (now a location of one of our digitals), which we knew worked well. A grade school friend of mine and now business partner, Charlie Clowe, attempted to get the local tourism effort to build some billboards to generate revenue to promote the city, and when we couldn’t build enough interest, we said heck, let’s do it ourselves.”
Ad Agency (4%)
4 executives entered out of home while running an ad agency. Here’s Ryan Adcroft of Birdhouse Outdoor: “For the past decade, I have co-owned Tribal Media, which is a full-service digital marketing agency, with my wife Krysty. I’ve always had an interest in the OOH industry and knew that our existing client relationships at our agency would benefit us if we decided to get into the space. A few years ago, I began to recognize the opportunity in large format wallscapes in my market and in 2018, we launched Birdhouse Outdoor and began acquiring our first few signs. After about a year and a half we now have leases for over 50 walls in the market.”
Sign Company (4%)
4 executives entered out of home via the on-premise signs business. Here’s what Kesssler Outdoor’s Natalie Kessler says: “We started the billboard side of the business in the 70’s when we had the idea to install billboards on our building of our on-premise sign company. The billboards were a hit so we started investing in the off-premise side of the business by adding new locations and purchasing existing structures.”
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