Billboard Weekly

The Oath of Good Conduct

With the recession in full swing, it’s important for all outdoor advertising companies not to heighten its ill-effects with their own behavior.

So we have written this oath that we’d like everybody to recite and think about it. (more…)

Time To Get Back To Basics

J. Paul Getty, founder of the Getty Museum and one of the world’s richest men from the 1960s, with investments ranging from oil and gas to aircraft manufacturing, had a theory that recessions were good for business, because they cleaned them up, and made them more efficient and focused. He actually got excited when a recession was approaching.

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How Is The Industry Changing?
I had a call last week from an analyst wanting to know how the recession is changing the outdoor billboard industry. My first observation was that occupancy in smaller markets is holding up better than larger markets, mainly due to the sheer number of units in the larger markets. The second was that local advertisers are holding up better than national advertisers. But the real point of the question was what fundamental changes the industry was making in response to the recession – ones that are permanent lessons learned. And the answer: there was none. The outdoor industry is not really changing as a result of the recession, and there’s not really any reason why it would. The billboard industry has been around for a long time, and has been through numerous recessions. The industry, itself, is already extremely lean and efficient. Since it does not require programming to garner the viewership of its audience, it does not have a big staff or overhead – and no need to tinker with its line-up of shows. And the structures have only one moving part – the time clock – and are not prone to breakdowns or structural obsolescence. In a world in which we are always looking to assess blame and find the quick fix, the billboard industry is innocent. The recession is certainly not its fault, and there is no reason for the industry to reform as a result of it. Similarly, when the market returns, sales will be business as usual. It doesn’t make for great journalism, but it’s the truth.

Think Twice Before You Remove That Sign I read that a major outdoor company had removed over 1,000 signs that were non-economic. While there may be some of those that really needed to come down, there are probably others that could have been saved from removal. (more…)

The current public service message campaign from the OAAA is themed “Recession 101″ and urges readers to not panic about the recession – that it is temporary. So why are so many outdoor companies running around like a chicken with its head cut off?

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A new public service message campaign being promoted by the Outdoor Advertising Association of America is designed to remind readers that the recession is not permanent. It was designed by Charlie Robb, who was the creator of the “God Speaks” outdoor campaign from about a decade ago.

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