A top woman in OOH is promoted, Big 3 earnings recap, and Intersection partners with Lyft yellow cabs. A weekly recap of the top OOH stories you missed may have, along with colorful commentary from BB for Memorial Day weekend 2024.
1. Julie Johnson Named Adams Outdoor Charlotte GM
Julie Johnson will leave Wisconsin to become General Manager for Adams Outdoor in Charlotte. Johnson was recently named as one of the top women driving growth in out-of-home 2024. She’s been with Adams Outdoor for 16 years in the Madison market.
B.B.’s Take: There is a BIG difference between managing a small college town, which Madison (University of Wisconsin) is and a large Metropolitan market like Charlotte, North Carolina. I know from selling and managing college towns in Lawrence, Kansas (Rock Chalk Jayhawks) and Charlottesville, Virginia (Go Hoos). No college located there would mean no town. These are big time universities with international and solidly geographic hailed student bodies from around the USA. There are few markets any easier to sell and manage than a predominately college town. Sales are just too easy. Julie Johnson, you can do this!
2. Is There a Gun-Toting Killer Among Us?
B.B.’s Take: There is just no room for this behavior, social media or otherwise in our Industry. It can be spun as a joke, a deep fake, a slow news day, a red herring or passed off as the fault of those who reported it to authorities, what ever the newest spin of the day is today on justifying it, the threat of violence against an event and an individual both of which were tagged and called out in the offending LinkedIn post, must be taken seriously and called to task. More information is now coming in since we shared the heads up, the story will be published later this week.
3. Big 3 Earnings Q1 2024: About As Expected
OUTFRONT, Lamar, and Clear Channel all saw growth year over year from q1 2023 to Q1 2024. But Clear Channel led the way with a 9.3% revenue increase. All three companies still have significant debt. But they also met or exceeded their forecasts for the first quarter of 2024.
B.B.’s Take: 9.3% revenue increase! Pretty, pretty, pretty damn impressive. Congrats CCO. Three more to go!
4. Intersection Partners With Lyft
Intersection is partnering with Lyft in New York City. They will manage advertising sales for their fleet of digital taxi tops on Yellow Cabs. Intersection already has a portfolio of street-level, transit, and place-based OOH media across New York City. The Taxi inventory will provide marketwide coverage for advertisers and an opportunity to reach targeted zones throughout the city. Intersection plans to make the offering available programmatically.
B.B.’s Take: Capitalize or cannibalize? This is a big opportunity for Intersection. OOH people should be selling OOH. Is Intersection the right people?