Pat O’Donnell just retired as President of YESCO Outdoor Media after a 40 year career in out of home.  Today Pat talks about treating landlords well and the importance of good-looking structures.

What have you learned about sign development?

It’s changed.  In my day you spent a lot of windshield time.  You’d look for what kind of construction was going on along the highway.  You didn’t have the technology that we have these days.  You’d have to go to a county office and break open the dusty land records to look at properties.  Technology and lawyers have changed that completely.  I still believe sign development means  creating win-win relationships with landowners and nurturing them over time.  After 40 years I have a lot of landowner friends who I’ve known forever.  That’s the way you do it.

You need a fair deal

If we looked at a lease and we felt like it was underpaid we would call the landlord and say “let’s rewrite this because you deserve more.”  If you do that and make it a priority that every single lease has a landlowner who is appreciative of your involvement – that pays off in the long run.

YESCO didn’t cut rents during covid.

We made a conscious decision to continue to pay our landowners full value during the pandemic and during the recession. Business is cyclical and we wanted to ensure we maintained those relationships. I’m convinced it was a good decision.

The importance of great looking structures

It’s a huge thing with me.  The operations people always hate when I’m on the road because I’m going to identify every loose ratchet strap, missing logos and board numbers, rust on a board.  And we’re going to get after it.  We’ve made a point in all of our metropolitan locations to put an illuminated logo and to paint.  Why would we put advertisers art on an easel that looks unmaintained.  One of the great compliments I’ve had over the years is from other operators who are driving through states where we have a lot of inventory.  They call me up and say “you’re inventory looks great.”  It looks better to the advertiser.  It looks better to the community.  It gives us credibility in the regulatory environment.  You cannot say this isn’t important.

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