Geopath Member Spotlight | Grace Outdoor
A conversation with Josh Madsen, COO of Grace Outdoor

Spotlighted Company and Speaker

• Josh Madsen
• Chief Operating Officer
• Grace Outdoor
• 7 years

What led you to work in OOH?

I married the company owners’ oldest daughter almost 8 years ago. It was inevitable that I would be working for the family company at some point, so I did not last long working for any other company other than Grace Outdoor. I think for a lot of OOH companies, you either fall into it or have some sort of familial ties that draw you in. It is such a dynamic industry that people fall in love with it once they start working in it.

About Grace Outdoor

Grace Outdoor began in the early 80s in Columbia, South Carolina. The company started out leasing locations and building up an inventory of locations. There was a vision of eventually outright owning that inventory and selling ad space on it on its own. Grace Outdoor settled into a home base in Columbia, SC, and became what we all know it as now.

The inventory spans the southeast between North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Some of the oldest inventory is on I-95, the main corridor down the southeast. Traffic is heavy throughout the year, but particularly, the snowbird migration down to the southeast for the winter brings a dense and diverse crowd. Over the years, we have grown into markets like Charleston, Charlotte, and Greenville, to name a few. We also operate an iconic 35 ft x 100ft digital in Atlanta on the downtown Connector.

Current Initiatives and Goals

We are in growth mode. We have added a services wing in the last two years. We had been using contractors for installations and digital services, but it was time to bring that in-house, and that has been helpful. We are also working on developing new locations as well as smaller acquisitions where they make sense. We have found good success in smaller poster-sized digitals on secondary routes and are continuing that strategy. 

What current trends do you see developing in the industry?

The big buzzwords of programmatic and AI have a lot of crossovers. I see the use of AI a little differently compared to the rest of the industry. I think about how it can benefit the industry at large, especially in the creative area. To me, the human element of design will be hard to replace. The way I would use AI would be for media planning. I imagine a scenario where someone could plug a variety of data into a dashboard of our inventory that allows AI to find the best-performing or similar spots for a campaign. I am sure it will be a useful tool for our agency partners who need to cover large areas for nationwide campaigns.

The other buzzword I mentioned, programmatic, did not come out of nowhere. It seems like it is a side of the industry that is here to stay.

How does Geopath membership help Grace Outdoor?

Clients are accustomed to the insights that digital ads and connected TV can provide. They want trackability so they may understand the value of their ad purchases, which leads them to bring the same expectations to OOH. With Geopath, we can provide them with numbers that explain far more than a traffic count could. We tell them that Geopath’s metrics take into account the location, placement, size, vehicle volume, and vehicle speed to create a reportable impression number. National and regional agency purchases require this information to even consider buying ad space from an operator. You will always have clients who only want a certain local board or the one closest to their store location, but that will never go away. Geopath numbers can even help them find alternative options when needed.

Have you ever used Geopath data to help alter a client’s plan?

I have frequent conversations about static versus digital units, usually around the subject of sharing space with others. This is where Geopath’s data helps the most. We can take Geopath numbers and explain to them how digitals grab attention, and then directly compare them to static inventory numbers. We can shift someone’s view of digital and make it more accessible to those who may be doubtful of a digital unit’s performance.

What motivates you to keep pushing forward in your career?

I feel like I am an invested partner with all of our clients. I enjoy seeing them grow by playing a small role in their overall business plan. This is not just because we want them to renew their contracts, but because of the relationships that we build together. Our business partners are all over the city, so seeing them expand locally to us is always a big reward.

A family-run business like Grace Outdoor comes with built-in motivation. I want to work hard with them to make the company a great partner and employer. It is a company that I respect, so I work every day to continue to keep this company successful and a great place to work.