Most clients walk into a first conversation with an OOH media company with the same idea in their head. Logo. Phone number. Address. Hours. Website. Tagline. Second tagline. Photo of the owner. Photo of the building. Photo of the owner standing in front of the building. List of services. List of awards. List of locations. “Family owned since 1987.” “Now hiring.” “Ask about our specials.” “Follow us on Facebook.” License number. Fax number. A fax number.
They’re not trying to waste anyone’s time. They just don’t know what a great billboard looks like. They’ve never been shown one.
PitchKit wants to change that.
Launched by Up To Something, a creative studio founded by OOH veterans Todd Turner and Richard Molinaro, PitchKit is a licensed creative library of billboard ads built for OOH media companies and their sales teams. The library currently includes nearly 100 billboard ads organized by industry category, with new creative added every month, and is designed to do one thing: show clients what the medium is actually capable of before they’ve decided what they want.
“The moment a client sees something they genuinely respond to, the whole conversation changes,” Turner said. “They stop thinking about all the information to include and start thinking about actual creative ideas. That’s where good advertising begins.”
The business model is straightforward. Media companies subscribe for $99 a year. When a client wants to license a piece of creative, the media company handles the purchase.
Standard License is $499 and covers one size, a logo swap, and minor revisions. Expanded License is $999 and includes up to three sizes and more involved changes. Up To Something handles customization and delivers finished files within three business days. The media company decides whether to absorb the cost, pass it through, or mark it up.
“We wanted the media company to own that relationship,” Molinaro said. “They’re the ones in the room. They should be in control of how this works for their business.”
Bill Durden of Durden Outdoor had been pushing for something like this for years.
“Todd and Richard have piles of great ideas that never got approved,” Durden said. “Brilliant work sitting on old hard drives and in sketchbooks. I wanted to see it out in the world where people could actually use it.”
Cody Giebelhausen of Civic Digital Displays has rolled it out across his team.
“We use it in the room,” Giebelhausen said. “It gives our reps something to point to and say, this is the level we’re working at. Clients see it and their expectations go up. That’s exactly what we want.”
Devon Wagner of Oaktree Outdoor sees the library as a way to reframe the client relationship from the first meeting.
“You’re not just selling space anymore,” Wagner said. “You’re showing them a vision for what their brand could look like on a billboard. That’s a different conversation.”
Josh Madsen of Grace Outdoor said PitchKit has changed how his team manages its creative workload.
“Our designer’s time is valuable,” Madsen said. “When we have a library of great creative to pull from for pitches, that frees them up to focus on clients who are actually under contract. It’s a better use of everyone’s time.”
At $99 a year, the subscription pays for itself before a single license is ever purchased. When a client sees good creative, they’re more likely to buy into the medium.
“A client who has seen something genuinely good is never going back to a list of services and a phone number,” Turner said.
New creative is added to the library every month. Subscribers can also submit requests through a built-in suggestion form, flagging business categories or campaign types they want to see added.
PitchKit is live now at OOHPitchKit.com. Readers can get 50% off their first year with the code BILLBOARDINSIDER at checkout.
“Showing a client a bad ad just because it’s local or it’s in the same industry — that’s bringing silly putty to a gunfight,” Turner said. “PitchKit is a bazooka.”
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