Top Women in OOH Spotlight 2024: Julie Johnson

The pure raw emotion from this ad emulates the power our industry can create.
When you can drive by a billboard and feel something, you know you have a home run

by Amber Larkins, OOH Today

We recently posted our annual list of the Top Women Driving Growth in OOH for 2024. Today, we highlight Julie Johnson, General Manager, Adams Outdoor

Julie Johnson, General Manager of Adams Outdoor, is an experienced advertising professional with a demonstrated history of working in the media marketing industry. She describes herself as a strong sales professional skilled in Advertising Sales, Management, Copywriting, Advertising, Integrated Marketing, and Sales.

Johnson says the OOH world found her.

“Adams recruited and rehabilitated me from TV sales, and I have never looked back,” Johnson said.

Johnson has been with Adams Outdoor Advertising for nearly 16 years, working her way up from Account Executive to Sales Manager to her current position as General Manager. Before joining Adam’s Outdoor, she was an Account Executive for WMTV NBC 15.

She received her BA in Journalism and Mass Communications, Radio/Television in 2001. In her free time, she is a community volunteer for the Clean Lakes Alliance of Dane County and has previously been a Parent Volunteer with the Girl Scouts of Wisconsin.

Driving Growth in OOH

Johnson has had many successes in her years with Adam’s Outdoor. Recently, she lit up a back-to-back 14X48 digital bulletin in a western suburb of Madison, which is in Dane County, Wisconsin. Dane County is one of the country’s most restrictive for OOH. They have only 12 digital faces in Dane county. The most recent was constructed in 2016.

“The real estate side of our business can be so intriguing yet frustrating,” Johnson said. “You have to find the needle in the haystack and rely on creative ways to change laws. Persistence can pay off, and when it does, there’s nothing better than knowing you and your team made change happen.”

One of her favorite all-time campaigns was Adams Outdoor’s collaboration with the UW-Madison Athletic Department.

“The pure raw emotion from this ad emulates the power our industry can create. When you can drive by a billboard and feel something, you know you have a home run,” Johnson said.

Johnson thinks the OOH industry has already begun its journey to gaining a larger share of the ad spend.

Johnson says OOH has tremendous power right now with Gen Z and Millennials.

“They do not consume media the way we did 10 years ago. They can be the unreachable generations unless you work in OOH,” Johnson said.

She says business owners understand that their new target is not tuning into radio or watching the evening news, which makes her extremely excited and optimistic about the future of OOH.

“We need to continue to educate advertisers on who their target is, what they are doing, and where they are going,” Johnson said. “No one can deny that the patterns have shifted and OOH is in a prime spot to deliver the ROI that clients are craving and missing.”

Overcoming Challenges in OOH

Johnson said her biggest challenge was taking over the GM role in Wisconsin right at the beginning of 2020. She had to learn the ins and outs of how to run a market and also navigate the insane challenges of this new pandemic world.

“I failed many times, and what that taught me is that obstacles create an opportunity to change who you are as a leader and how you want the culture of your organization to be,” Johnson said. “I now feel more agile, focused, and determined, and I am grateful for that early struggle.”

As to women in the industry, Johnson thinks women continue to struggle in leadership roles across all industries—not just out-of-home. She thinks this could be due to women’s mindsets.

“As women we need to put down old stereotypes,” Johnson said. “When you see no barriers, there are no barriers. It’s really that simple.”

Promoting Women in OOH

Johnson says we can get more women into positions of executive leadership in OOH if we teach and develop them into future leaders. Johnson believes that constant collaboration makes organizations run better.

“Women bring that to the table, and in turn create healthy cultures that expect the same from their teams,” Johnson said. “Healthy workplace cultures produce better numbers because the team wants to be there and to grow.