the top three questions that media owners want to know about their billboards are
Daktronics is widely known in the OOH industry for its Digital Displays, which it sells to OOH Owners.
“We manufacture LED displays and sell them to media owners,” said Joni Schmeichel, OOH Marketing Manager Daktronics. “But there’s a lot more that goes into the business from a media owner perspective.”
“…there’s a lot more that goes into the business from a media owner perspective.”
She said while they provide the hardware to media owners, they are also often asked for selling advice.
“Over the years we have found that giving them more value ads and ideas around how to sell their display space better is beneficial to us and to them,” Schmeichel said.
The OOH branch of the company’s marketing department will meet with clients for up to 90 minutes to discuss strategies on how they can sell the space better.
But where does Schmeichel, a marketing guru, learn what she needs to know to make her clients well-thought-out and in-depth sales presentations?
Some content is based on what she sees while traveling, including best practices from the World Out of Home Organization (WOO). She also talks to other media owners and learns what they are finding success with. Though Daktronics will send out certain slides before the sales presentation, the buyer will only receive the full presentation once they have committed to buying from Daktronics.
Schmeichel says a variety of prospects are interested in this presentation, but it’s mostly those in smaller towns who own land and want to put up one display. They may not have much of a history with OOH or know the business model well. They want to learn how to sell the ad space to generate the most revenue possible. Also from time to time, new sales reps at larger more established billboard companies will ask for a presentation.
On a basic level, the top three questions that media owners want to know about their billboards are:
- How much should we charge?
- Who will advertise here?
- How do we sell to them effectively?
Schmeichel believes in setting her clients up for success. Here’s some of what goes into helping them find the answers to these questions in their markets:
- What is in the immediate vicinity of where they are installing the display?
- What does the market look like?
- What brands and industries are in that area?
- How might the media owners find success with those different companies and selling the space?
- How might they break out their ad grid to maximize revenue? For example, some companies might sell six slots on a billboard, while others might opt to have eight. Based on the amount of people they have selling and how much time they want to contribute to selling ad space they can break out the ad space more to generate more revenue and sell more advertising.
Then the team at Daktronics sets about getting answers to these questions. The OAAA puts out information on what advertisers are buying space in digitals by category. Daktronics will pull information from those kinds of lists and cull them down to a top-five list of companies to target. They then will help the media owner develop strategies and a plan, as well as provide templates for contracts, rate cards, and everything else they would need to approach a business owner, such as impression counts.
They even will give training on how to create content for a digital billboard.
“No one goes to school to create content for a digital billboard,” Schmeichel said. “We walk them through what people respond to on a display: simple text, CTA, how are you going to know that the billboard ad is successful, helping with the content and then a follow-up.”
So what advice does Joni have for OOH Today readers who want to know more about how to sell their OOH to advertisers?
“Don’t assume you know what the customer needs, or what they need to sell,” Schmeichel said. “What is your customer trying to achieve? What are their goals? How can they promote that on the digital display?”
What are your thoughts on this? Is this a good strategy for Digital Display companies? Should they be looked to as experts in selling advertising as the makers of the boards? If not them, then who? Let us know in the comments below.
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