This blog post offers a little insight and is a response to recent news events in the mobile billboard media category. With many companies, it often seems like bigger is better… but is that really the case? We’re always hearing that your business should “grow bigger” and “grow faster”. “Get out of your comfort zone, and expand!” is often common business advice.
But is this right? Well, the answer is complicated. The answer really is “it depends”. It depends on what is sacrificed with growth. Often business owners bite off more than they can chew, just for the sake of growth and the anticipated profits. I propose a symbiotic co-existence between the smaller and larger players in the mobile billboard landscape. There’s room for everyone. For instance, it was announced a few days back that Streetblimps was "acquired” by Do It Outdoors. My gut reaction is “congratulations, you're a great fit” Douglas Frantin, CEO of Streetblimps has built an impressive company over the past few of decades. As well, Do It Outdoors has proven themselves as a major fixture within the mobile billboard industry.
Is expansion always a good thing for the media buyers? Yes, in terms that they may make a larger media buy through one company that reaches multiple markets. But, often with expansion comes a negative aspect. Would an ad campaign (implemented through the larger billboard company) receive the proper care and commitment?
Before I jump into some of the pitfalls of working with larger media vendors (through the eyes of media buyers), let’s first examine some things that a smaller and more nimble mobile billboard company such as Billboards2Go offers, such as:
- Personal and direct interaction between the VP of the company (me) and our clients, assuring each media campaign is run with the utmost professionalism and accountability. There’s less bureaucracy in my company and, with less people, the owners and founders are closer to the action, resulting in quicker decision-making, streamlined process and faster results. Simply put – we get stuff done!
- A smaller mobile billboard fleet (in our case) is better maintained. When all of your sheep come back to the barn at night (metaphorically) you can implement a more vigorous maintenance schedule, therefor keeping your billboard trucks in tip-top shape. Billboard2GO has a dedicated fleet management specialist working full time in our own depot in Linden New Jersey, assuring that our billboards units will perform as needed on every campaign.
- Since we are not the biggest players in the business, we can offer a more customized approach to our final product. Our competition typically offers a static printed banner loosely fit within a bulky sign frame, with very limited custom options. Billboards2GO on the other hand, offers the skills of their prop-shop craftspeople to design and fabricate 2-D extensions, Pop-offs, 3-D elements, lighting effects, moving parts, and more. We also operate custom-built mobile billboards that feature elevating sign frames. Each of our units can raise the FOUR-SIDED, full-bleed, 10’ x 22’ sign to 18 feet high. So, in this case “Bigger Is Better” We offer the “biggest” visual experience in the mobile billboard category!
- Integrity! Integrity has been the backbone of our business model since 1999. We entered the mobile billboard business to uplift its image. How do we do so? By having a strict philosophy about what is advertised on our equipment. Back ‘in the day” when this industry was evolving many of our competitors advertised for shady businesses (to say the least) My partners and I promised ourselves that if we would be embarrassed to show an ad to our children than we would not run it. Since then, we follow a policy to not run ads that we believe may be inappropriate such as, tobacco products, adult-entertainment, boycotts, doxxing, and other shady-looking businesses.
On the other hand, the larger mobile billboard companies have such an incredible overhead they need to run through ad campaigns (and clients) as quickly (and in many cases ineffectively) as possible. Little thought may be attributed to integrity or accountability of the campaign. As I was once told by a friendly competitor "it doesn't matter what kind of sloppy job we do. If we lose the customer, there’s plenty more where they came from”. Well, that was a shocking revelation to me. We at Billboards2GO implement the opposite strategy. We believe it’s much easier to run an exemplary mobile billboard campaign and retain a client than it is soliciting for new ones. Many of our clients have given us repeat business for over a decade. The simple reason is, we go above and beyond for our clients.
So, the next time someone says bigger is better, think of Billboards2GO, we’re the “smaller” mobile billboard company with the “biggest” mobile billboards!
