Hi Bill,

I listened to your Podcast #30 from Friday ‘Evaluating OOH’s Response in the COVID-19 Crisis’ today—time for my weekly rant!

I enjoy the Podcast. Your Board Members understand our business and it’s good to hear the varying viewpoints.
I have two comments:
1.) Local business is getting killed. Every account I handle (which is less than ten!) have either cancelled a program scheduled for March/April or received a discount from the billboard vendor. If a “1” is awful, local business in our market is a “2.”
2.) I agree with Jack Sullivan’s prediction about when business will come back. Let’s define what “come back” means. As a market operator, our goal is always to make a budget. In other words, beat last year by about 5%. I don’t think major markets will beat a “same time last year” month until April of 2021. Across the country, last year was a pretty good one—the bar for 2020 is fairly high. I don’t see any “up” months coming despite an even numbered 2020 election this year. Certainly, I don’t see markets having a 105% quarter until Second Quarter of 2021. Like Jack, I hope I’m wrong!

Some clarification is needed – what do your Board Members mean when they say “clients are working with them?” Are they offering more space or a discount to compensate for reduced traffic? Every advertiser in our market who has asked for a discount during this crisis has received a discount. The number I hear most often is 50% off.

Here’s an interesting question: Are the ONLY advertisers receiving the discount the ones who ask? Is it ethical to give one car dealership a discount, but not give a discount to the dealership down the street because they didn’t ask for one?

Final Rant, the employees of Lamar and OUTFRONT are generally pleased with their upper management. Why? Because to this point, there haven’t been any significant layoffs of salaried employees. (I don’t have enough information of CCO to comment —I haven’t heard their status.) But it’s inevitable that layoffs are coming if the shutdown in our market extends through May.

Here’s a suggestion, why doesn’t corporate staff at Lamar and OUTFRONT and their General Managers at the market level, announce that they are taking a 20% salary reduction effective immediately? “Everybody is in this together!” PROVE IT! What a way to get their employees to understand how dire the current situation is and layoffs are inevitable! And please tell me one thing that management have done in the last 30 days to earn their substantial salaries. They’re all sitting at home trying not to be bored out of their minds—just like the rest of us!

Thanks for listening. Curious what others in the industry think and feel.

This is better than a therapist!

Carole