This story was originally published on February 2, 2016. Marty Williamson has 32 years of experience in the Outdoor Advertising industry. He is currently a Principal and founding partner at USA Outdoor, LLC, a Georgia headquartered company which has been developing new billboard sites since 2014. Insider talked with Williamson about site developmwnt.
Marty, how did you enter the outdoor business?
I was GM of our family owned Radio Station, WLOV in Washington Georgia and when we decided to sell the station, which was the last of several small market radio stations my Dad had put on the air, I found myself needing to decide what the next step was in my career. Billboards had always intrigued me and I had used them to promote our radio station – my rep at what was then Georgia Outdoor said sort of jokingly, “you should give Billboards a try”… and as they say the rest is history. I’ve done pretty much everything there is to do in this industry and have loved every minute. This is a great business to be in!
What’s makes a good outdoor site?
After so many years in the business and after developing hundreds of new locations you would think that should be a very easy question but the fact is it’s not always easy to know. Of course the basics, like is there a demand in a given market or area, competition, traffic counts, approach view and length of approach, other sign clutter, market rates, ground lease cost and so forth. While it’s certainly not rocket science it can be hard to predict… I’ve built new signs and have been very disappointed at how the location performed even though it seemed to be a location that would do very well, but I have also developed new locations that totally surprised me with performance. One recent example is a new 12’ x 24’ digital that we just completed about a month ago in a suburb of Birmingham Alabama, we all felt like it was a great spot… on a busy road with a decent traffic count of mostly commuters, a Red Light read and great approach. We had over 30 phone calls in the first 3 weeks after the digital went live and it’s almost at 100% occupancy… very rare. I can compare that to great Digital faces I’ve owned on West End Avenue in Nashville Tennessee that had red lights, great reads and much, much more traffic and yet I would seldom get call in’s from our Self- Promo phone numbers. Go figure…no one should get into this business thinking all they need to do is put up a sign with a space available phone number.
What’s the best site you were ever able to develop?
Well I would obviously have to put the above on the list. It would be hard to pick just one but the ones that come to mind are those that were hard to get due to restrictive ordinances… the ones that were a challenge and took creative thinking to get the ground lease and to get the site fully permitted. I like it when we secure a site that makes the competition scratch their heads and say how did they get that spot.
What advice can you give on handling the permitting and political aspect of development?
It’s always a case by case, market by market, location by location issue. My partners and I like to think we are experts at what we do. We always try to work cordially and professionally with any City or County government. Of course we sometimes disagree and we always try to work things out without the use of an attorney. If we feel a variance could work we certainly try but every billboard operator has to also be willing at times to lawyer up if need be and if the location(s) are worth the effort and expense. Developing new Outdoor Advertising locations today is totally different from years ago. It is extremely hard to find areas where really good billboard locations can be leased and permitted and it’s getting more and more difficult every day. In 1997 I started my first company, Williamson Outdoor Advertising and over a 5 year period we were able to lease, permit and build 200-300 locations in Georgia, South Carolina and Alabama… that would be impossible to accomplish today.
