Pelican Billboards founder John D Jackson III operates a Louisiana out of home company with numerous faces including 9 digital faces. Insider talked to Mr. Jackson about where he got the name and the perils of putting up too many digitals in one market.You’re known as “The Billboard Guy”. Where did that come from?
I started Pelican Billboards almost 25 years ago. When you’re starting a billboard company with no locations you very quickly have to let people know what you’re about. My goal was to build some billboards. I didn’t know it would turn into such a great business that I love. I wanted people to understand that there are a lot of Johns out there but there is only one John, the billboard guy. It was first done so people could easily understand what I do. As time unfolds, being known as “The Billboard Guy” becomes even more fitting. Typically a billboard company will have a lease person, a sales person, a manager, an install person and a fabrication person and Etc. So The Billboard Guy unlike most, has done it all and for a long time.
Getting into the billboard business.
It was trial by error. I sold the print that went on the billboards. I did that while attending LSU (Louisiana State University). And then I would look for locations. I represented one of 3-5 printers that printed four color process on vinyl. Within a short period of time I was one representative of 15-20 printers. With more supply, prices came down and I realized I would have to shift gears. I was always interested in steel and welding and engineering so I gravitated to the billboard structures.
Show discipline in picking digital billboard sites
We have 9 digitals. I think digitals are great, but what has happened is that certain billboard companies have overbuilt digitals. They’ve done it because they are afraid of more regulations. They end up with locations that should not have a digital. That interferes with the power of digital billboard advertising. Someone will run a digital billboard and they won’t get the response and they won’t like it. I’m seeing a trend now of advertisers wanting static. I think the digital heyday is done. You have digital locations now which aren’t long reads, they have numerous utility wires and obstructions in front of them…it’s left a bad taste with some advertisers.
My business philosophy
There are certain adages in life and one of them is treat others like you want to be treated. There’s a balance with that. Walk the high ground but if somebody keeps coming at you then at some point you’ve got to fight back. There’s a balance there.
Next week John will talk about what makes a good location and how to build a good structure.
[wpforms id=”9787″]
Paid Advertisement
Spot on comment regarding overbuilt digital by “certain “ companies. I see it in my market in the panhandle and we are getting a premium for our static faces as a result. You are so right “the digital hey day is over” I have more and more advertisers request “no digital” in their request for proposals.
My hat is off to Mr. Jackson for being candid with his thoughts about the proliferation of digital displays. It was honorable of him to critique a product his company sells. Most industry veterans know down deep that Digital is a great product if deployed in the right location, but slinging them up everywhere decreases the value of the product, just like the industry saw in the late 80 and early 90’s in some markets with Trivision Displays. Once the Trivision rotation movement novelty wore off, Trivision advertisers realized they were left only 1/3 of the DEC/advertising impressions, and anybody that drilled down on that delivery number would discover a CPM that comparatively wasn’t very attractive. The end result overall was that astute advertisers only wanted to pay a little more than 1/3 of what the space would go for as a static Bulletin. This is one of the reasons Trivisions are somewhat uncommon now.
I predict the digital display deployment craze will go somewhat the same way, especially if the industry continues to fight within itself about “Opportunity or Likelihood” in regards to impressions. This banter draws close attention to those words. Just as there’s no “Opportunity or Likelihood” to see a billboard behind a tree, it’s a stretch to have a gross impression number per click that’s more than 1/8 a valid traffic count number FOR THE VIEWING LANES only ,multiplied by the time-tested load factor of 1.38 persons per car.