Company: Ralston Outdoor Advertising
Market: Texas
Headquarters: 13450 N Stemmons Suite 240, Farmers Branch, Texas, 75234
Phone: 972-241-4040
Email: sales@ralstonoutdoor.com
Ralston Outdoor is the largest independent outdoor advertising company in North Texas. The company was founded in Dallas in 1976 by Doug Ralston. Ralston operates a plant of over 200 faces throughout the greater Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and other North Texas locations. In addition, Ralston Outdoor has one of the largest inventories of billboard units on surface streets in the city, and we provide locations that service the Hispanic market. The company is an operator associate of the IBOUSA. Insider talked with Operating Partner Ben Ralston about the business.
Ben, how did Ralston get started into the outdoor business.
My dad, Doug Ralston started in the business after law school in 1974; first working for Perry Outdoor (my grandfather’s company) and then starting Ralston Outdoor in 1976.
Tell us about your plant.
We are an all bulletin plant operating in a top five market; which is a rarity these days for an independent outdoor company. In over 30 years of being in business we have maintained a level of great market knowledge and excellent customer service. I like to say there is nothing “global” about us, we are the same local company as when we started in 1976.
What has the State of Texas done in response to the Court nullifying the Texas Highway Beautification Act?
We are awaiting more information as to what the future holds for the HBA and TXDOT. I do firmly believe that as an industry we need to have a good effective regulator. I do not foresee a scenario where there are no rules and no government entity to enforce regulation.
Whose digital signs do you use and what have you learned?
We have a Formetco unit and a Daktronics unit; they both are well engineered and fairly easy to operate. Two of our digital units are subleased by a national company and the third is operated by us. We tend to package digital space in with our traditional vinyl locations.
Who came up with the videos in Ralston’s Media Room? Video 1 does the industry proud and video 2 is hilarious.
My friend Luke Coffee of Coffee Productions and I came up with the idea of doing some short videos for my website. The second video aside from being a spoof was a lot of fun. The old school Falstaff sign that we painted is in the patio of my restaurant, the Katy Trail Ice House. It really is a tribute to all the old sign painters that I grew up watching paint in our old shop as a young kid. Stay tuned for a new video coming to ralstonoutdoor.com in 2017!
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