Print
Marketing/Media

Billboard Messaging Changes With Times

By Jenny Callison, posted May 11, 2015
Blue skies: Billboard company owner Grey Vick stands under one of his signs featuring Front Street Brewery, which has embraced outdoor advertising. (Photo by Chris Brehmer)
With the advent of smartphones and tablets, not to mention vehicle GPS, are billboards still an effective way for businesses to advertise these days?

Jordan Davis, business manager at Atlantic Marine, says they are. His company rents outdoor advertising space regionally, especially along the main arteries leading to the company’s Wilmington location: Interstate 40, U.S. 17 northbound in Brunswick County and U.S. 17 southbound in Pender County.

“We are out there always trying to buy advertising that places us at the top of the customer’s mind,” Davis said. “Billboards are placed around southeastern North Carolina so that when folks are coming to the beach, they see our image, brand and logo. Then, when they’re ready to make a boat-buying decision, they think of Atlantic Marine.”

Atlantic Marine is one of the local businesses and tourist destinations that continue to use this very traditional advertising medium to put its message in front of potential customers, even in an era of increased digital marketing. But because those potential customers are likely to check online for more information about a company whose billboard they see, the way that advertisers use billboards has changed.

 “Ten years ago, it was important to have your phone number on the billboard. It’s not important now,” Davis said, adding that his company uses the ads to create an impression rather than to convey information.

“We portray a boating lifestyle on the billboard so when people think about boating, they think about us first: pictures of kids having fun; a picture of your wife in a boat. We want to sell the lifestyle … to create that top-of-mind advertisement.”

Unless Atlantic Marine is promoting a particular event, its billboard ads rarely include details, Davis said. The company expects viewers to check it out online for more information.

“We try to maintain a good web presence,” he said. “Something changes on our website every day, and certainly if we can get [people] to see our billboards, see our ads on TV and visit our online presence, then, if they come into the store, their comfort level is going to go up quite a bit.”

Wilmington businessman Grey Vick, who owns two billboard companies, agrees that the way people digest and use information from billboards is changing with the advent of computers, and especially smartphones and other mobile technology.

“How people respond to billboards is different,” he said. “They don’t call [a business] so much from the billboard; they look you up online. The realm of advertising now is connecting the dots: you see the company’s billboard, you see the name in another kind of ad and you look them up.”

That has been the experience for Front Street Brewery, which uses billboards to get its name out to visitors as they drive toward Wilmington.

“When you’re driving down I-40 there’s a lot of pine trees – and a lot of billboards,” said Ellie Craig, who handles sales and public relations for the restaurant. “We definitely still are using billboards as advertising and will continue to do so. We do a lot of market research to learn where people are finding out about us. Billboards are one of the primary ways.”

Craig said that Front Street Brewery gets a lot of traffic through Yelp and TripAdvisor, and believes that is a direct result of the restaurant’s billboard advertising. People see the
billboard, look up the brewpub on TripAdvisor, see the reviews and may well decide to eat there, she said.

Vick, who established Waterway Outdoor in 2007 and Grey Outdoor in 2014, expressed his support for legislation introduced this year in the General Assembly – for the third year in a row – to relax regulations limiting how much vegetation owners could clear around their billboards and making it easier to move them or convert them to digital boards.

“It’s really a positive thing for the industry; it allows companies to protect their assets,” he said.

The companion bills: Senate Bill 320 and House Bill 304, which the American Planning Association’s North Carolina chapter said would have made “sweeping changes to the current rules for outdoor advertising uses,” however, appear to have stalled out in committee for this session.

Regardless, Vick is bullish on billboards.

“Traditional media is still hanging in there,” he said. “There is still demand. I’m counting on keeping our signs full,” he said, noting that empty billboard space or billboards with long-outdated messages may mean that those outdoor advertising companies have too many billboards, especially in areas of lower population.

“Sometimes you look at the economy of the area. Sometimes, there are too many signs for the area. But I don’t think, even in a changing landscape, that billboards could ever go away,” he said.

What’s really changing, Vick said, is the increasing presence of electronic billboards. He owns only one – in Goldsboro – and is waiting to see how it does before converting any more of his traditional billboards.

“Location is key to generating income from electronic billboards,” he said, adding that one such billboard can cost between $60,000 and $100,000 and will need to be replaced in seven to 10 years. That’s a hefty investment compared to a traditional billboard, which costs $15,000 to $30,000 and – if it’s a steel I-beam – can “last forever.”

Davis said that Atlantic Marine uses its electronic billboard space differently from its static ads. The company is in the ad rotation on an electronic sign at Bradley Creek, not far from its Oleander Drive showroom.

“On the digital billboard, we have the ability in-house to create a creative for the board,” he said. “We upload it directly to the Lamar site. I can change the message right from my computer, although we maintain some consistency on our rotating messages: the same graphic design, a similar layout, similar color scheme. And we’re concise with our message.”

Because it’s easy to update the message, Davis said his company can promote an event with what he termed a “countdown calendar,” changing the ad wording each day to remind viewers as the event approaches.

Atlantic Marine also has been successful in using the digital space to do something fun and create a buzz, tapping into mobile technology in a different way.

“Our service manager turned 40 the other day,” Davis said. “We posted his picture and said ‘Lordy, Lordy, Richard is 40.’ People took pictures of the sign and posted them on Instagram and Facebook. We got more exposure; it was great for us.”
Ico insights

INSIGHTS

SPONSORS' CONTENT
Jasonpathfinder3

What You Need to Know About SECURE 2.0 and Its Effect on Retirement Plans

Jason Wheeler - Pathfinder Wealth Consulting
Chris 16239425

‘Creative,’ An Adjective To Describe Your Accountant?!

Chris Capone - Capone & Associates
Georgiarowe

Salling and Tate Dentistry Launches Annual "Gunner’s Runners" Shoe Collection Event, Aiming to Surpass Last Year's Success

Georgia Rowe - Wide Open Tech

Trending News

Conservation Group Signs $8M Deal To Buy The Point On Topsail Island

Audrey Elsberry - Mar 26, 2024

National Organization Bestows Top Award On Cape Fear Professional Women In Building

Staff Reports - Mar 26, 2024

Engineering Firm Hires Four Employees

Staff Reports - Mar 26, 2024

N.C. Ports Officials React To Baltimore Bridge Collapse

Audrey Elsberry - Mar 26, 2024

NCino's Fourth-quarter Earnings Signal Rebound From Liquidity Crisis

Audrey Elsberry - Mar 27, 2024

In The Current Issue

Hacking Cyberdefense Shortage

A shortage of cybersecurity professionals influenced professor Ulku Clark and her team to slowly evolve UNCW’s offerings to now include eigh...


Berries, A Battlefield And More In Pender

The N.C. Blueberry Festival, founded in 2003, is one of several events in Pender County that have drawn more attention over the years....


Topsail-area Realtors Share Updates

Pender County Realtors recently shared updates about the coastal market at an event hosted by the Wilmington-Cape Fear Home Builders Associa...

Book On Business

The 2024 WilmingtonBiz: Book on Business is an annual publication showcasing the Wilmington region as a center of business.

Order Your Copy Today!


Galleries

Videos

2023 Power Breakfast: Major Developments