Member Spotlight | Verde Outdoor
A conversation with Renee Larson, Verde Outdoor Marketing Director

Spotlighted Company and Speaker

• Renee Larson
• Marketing Director
• Verde Outdoor
• Tenure: 3 Years

About Verde Outdoor

For those unfamiliar with us, Verde Outdoor is a growing OOH advertising company with billboards in 10 different states in the Midwest, Northeast, and Coastal Southeast Markets. Our home office is in Tempe, AZ.

We began with some key acquisitions, starting with a mom-and-pop shop operator in the Midwest. We then moved to the southeast with the acquisition of a well-known staple, Renfroe Outdoor, in the Charleston and Savannah markets, and have continued to scale our portfolio into the Hudson Valley, which was a huge growth driver for us.

Late last year, we also acquired Great Outdoor, which expanded our presence into Philadelphia, New Jersey, and the northern tip of Delaware.

Current Initiatives and Goals

We’re committed to educating our clients with a deeper understanding of the data available to us. We want our advertisers to see us as a crucial partner in their advertising efforts, with our sales team positioned as media professionals who can craft OOH campaigns that drive tangible results to clients. This effort will help OOH continue to push for a larger share of the media pie.

The concrete metrics provided to us by Geopath help us inform our clients to think beyond directional signage plans. While this style of ad buying will always have a time and place in the industry, we know that we can steer advertisers into making purchases that utilize the depth of information available to us. We are continuing to educate our Account Executives to understand traditional selling while also making the most of the resources available to us to help businesses make the most out of their ad spending.

How does Geopath Membership help Verde Outdoor?

Geopath is a gamechanger for us. With digital advertising exploding in popularity, advertisers became accustomed to the depth of metrics offered by online campaigns. Rather than offering the board on the hill or the board nearest an advertiser’s location as a directional buy, our team works with a strategic campaign mindset that can better serve a client’s specific needs. We focus on the bottom line by examining the nitty gritty of advertising goals through the audiences or behaviors they want to reach. Our Geopath membership helps us target those audiences and the insights needed to make the most informed ad space purchase possible.

Do you have any examples of altering a client’s original plans with the methods you mentioned before?

I think back to an entertainment client that runs a local theater. Struggling to drive ticket sales, the theater client picked a board they believed would reach their audience well through their local knowledge. They live and work in the area, so the location seemed like the best option for them.

Throughout the campaign building process, we described how specific targeting could benefit them, explained the Geopath data, and offered a few alternatives to the location they knew they already wanted. We searched inventory performing well against Persons 35-54 with expendable income, then presented these insights with the client. The entertainment client did purchase the location they originally picked, but in addition, they selected an additional digital face. Educating the client with hard data for a more targeted campaign increased theater attendance and drove ticket sales. The client was so pleased with the results they renewed (and expanded!) their campaign with us.

Without this well-informed shift, I think the outcome could have been much different.

What current industry trends do you see developing? What about future trends for the next decade?

For us, we’re seeing a continuous shift away from picking billboards based on a gut feeling or a local’s understanding of traffic patterns. While there is certainly an advantage to knowing a market’s traffic patterns and congested routes, clients want proof they are reaching the right audience based on data-driven insights. This is where Geopath’s measurement comes in handy as a helpful tool to educate clients on how OOH can offer targeting tactics with metrics that resonate with their business objectives. In situations similar to our theater client, our team can fill in the blanks where needed to build an effective campaign and help our advertisers reach their goals.

Creative will always be an evolving driver in the OOH space – and rightfully so. Our advertisers are latching on to the dynamic nature of digital billboards and taking advantage of creative updates and dayparting triggers in real time. They are learning that their messages can become more relevant and engaging through rotating copy or messaging. Ad fatigue is real, so the flexibility of digital boards is helping the problem before it happens.

On the static side, we are seeing an exciting evolution of clients’ willing to invest in bigger, bolder ideas. The boldness of extensions on static inventory or the more experiential aspects of out of home gains so much traction on social media, so I think advertisers are going to see that value and continue to stand out in big ways and will be something to watch grow in the future.

Programmatic buying has created such a buzz around the industry. The convenience of making big buys across markets through singular platforms is attractive to buyers, and as that functionality continues to evolve with AI, we will continue to see that grow into something much bigger over the next decade.

What advice would you give to younger folks in the industry?

When I came to Verde Outdoor in early 2022, the industry was completely brand new to me. I spent nearly a decade in hospitality as a brand marketer, so being new in this space had me on the outside looking in. I quickly realized that there are only a few degrees of separation with everyone in this industry. There are so many incredible and talented professionals in this people-driven space.

I would encourage any young professional or someone new to the industry to make connections and nurture those relationships — whether with other operators, agencies or industry vendors. There is so much camaraderie, so a deep curiosity and willingness to learn from the greats will get you far.

Tl; dr: Verde Outdoor Marketing Director Renee Larson highlights the company’s ongoing initiatives to educate clients on the depth of data available to better inform ad buys.