By E.B. Moss

Out-of-home advertising has evolved beyond traditional billboards. Thanks to data-driven targeting, creative innovations, and deep measurement capabilities, the industry has become a sophisticated media channel that deserves a bigger seat at the table. David Krupp and Jaime Byrdak, CEOs at billups, the largest independent agency specializing in outdoor advertising, recently took me “beyond the boards” to explain what’s behind out-of-home (OOH) advertising and how to create a big impact in the media mix.

Ben and Heather Billups – whose last name syncs well with working in the outdoor industry  – founded the eponymous agency 22 years ago. The now international agency has been granted nine patents that address the ad industry’s pervasive challenges of measurement and capturing data-driven insights, and are likely nine of the many reasons billups also claimed a spot on the 2024 Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies that are “building the future.” Still, having worked together for years, first at Starcom and then at WPP’s Kinetic, Krupp and Byrdak have a shared vision for moving the industry, and even the agency, forward.

Proving OOH’s Worth

Out-of-home is more “in” and generating more buzz than ever, especially with eye-popping anamorphic (3-D) creative, but it still is not a slam-dunk media buy. Despite billups’ strategic planning and measurement and industry-leading AI-powered optimization, they continuously work to cement the value of OOH. Byrdak expresses both enthusiasm and frustration: “Out-of-home is sometimes the first to get cut from a media plan, but it shouldn’t be,” she stresses. “We’re proving that it’s measurable, it drives sales, and it deserves a seat at the table.”

“Jaime’s right,” Krupp adds: “It’s always been viewed as an awareness-based media. We want to be able to show the direct transactions and engagement that occur because of it; beyond ‘yes, I’m aware of the brand’ to ‘I actually took an action because of the billboard or digital screen that I saw.’ We want to show what individual boards and campaigns achieve, and how they drive both retail traffic and online engagement. That, to us, is the powerful step change we’re working towards.”

To illustrate the kind of traffic a billboard may drive to a retail store or to online engagement they’re working on ad-serving content in real-time situations, and pioneering technology and measurement data to better understand – and report on – the effectiveness of outdoor media.

Market Intelligence

There’s tangible excitement around numbers with this team. Byrdak, recently promoted to CEO of North America, points out that “if a client uses other channels or digital and has not used out of home to complement that, we’ve got a lot of data points in our back pocket from research we’ve done with our clients. For example, some sales studies have shown that OOH helped increase sales for some packaged goods by 8%, with an additional 4-8% lift when used with digital or social media. Presenting different factors that impact the outcomes help get the client excited about the channel.”

Educating and Ideating

Still, Byrdak takes a different approach to educate clients each time: “The landscape is different and audiences move differently throughout any given market depending on what’s relevant to the client.”

Krupp concurs and applies the “science” or data side via an example of different trade radiuses: “Five miles in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, is really different than five miles in Manhattan. …So, it may require challenging the client and showing them the data that supports hitting boards across a 35-minute commute time or getting down to just the block level as important for their business.”

He points out that “the question is, are you buying the right space in the right place at the right time for the right reasons against the right audience?” Yet even the right location can be improved with the right idea. One he shares that “still gives me chills,” he admits, was being the first agency to leverage the Hollywood sign on behalf of Nike by lighting up the last letter, the D, when the LA Dodgers won the World Series.

And, while their strategy expertise is called upon more than their creative opinion, “we’ve been around the block enough to know, ‘you may wanna bump up your font size,’” he adds with a smile. But, more seriously, he points out that billups is also relying on tech to improve upon that human advice: they’ve actually built an optimization tool that reviews a client’s creative and objectives and helps them understand if the work will stand out, then suggest adjustments. “Good creative is a vital portion of success given the size of the canvas that clients are able to paint on, so we want to make sure that it’s the best creative to withstand whatever the consumer’s vision of it is going to be.”

The Art and the Science

Byrdak, whether contributing an idea or educating a client, taps into the power of storytelling. “We always say it’s the art and the science, and showcase what’s been done in the space,” says Byrdak. She believes brainstorming around big, bold ideas is key to bringing brands to life. Even though billups is not a creative shop, per se, by layering data science on ideation, billups is delivering better audience understanding. And thus, better efficiencies and outcomes.

He touts their three areas of focus as the true differentiator for billups: planning and buying, or the managed services, the ad tech, and the research and data science and bringing all that together under one roof with an approach that is aligned globally. Their use of predictive modeling shows how OOH can actually drive incrementality for clients, and illustrate that it was a billboard that drove the desired actions. “That to me is the exciting part of this space.”

“The data that we’re using around media buying and planning can actually go into a much more interesting place within the client’s business,” Krupp says. Living up to their reputation as planning and strategy consigliere, he shares an example of how data saved the day, or at least one retail market for a major brand: “We were doing in-flight reporting and then post-campaign reporting, and we were seeing one of the client’s markets not doing well. We were actually the ones to inform them about their market. We pointed out there was something anomalous, and lo and behold, it turns out they discovered distribution issues with a vendor that were causing it.

Adding to the pursuit of proof points, a dedicated billups sciences team works behind the boards to build out custom audiences identifying certain criteria that would motivate a walk through a door, move product, or drive other outcomes. As a result, Krupp feels they’ve been able to report an uptick in the research from a footfall perspective, “showing how many folks walk through the door, who have been exposed to an out-of-home advertisement, meaning they come within viewable proximity to the outdoor ad. And then what actions they took because of the outdoor ad. A smarter use of data helps better understand consumers and find the intersection points that clients need in order to drive whatever outcome they are looking for.”

With their trademark can-do attitude, Krupp and Byrdak challenge clients to “bring us the KPIs; we’ll figure out a solution for them. And if we don’t have one that’s standard today, we’ll look to try to develop it.”

Tech Meets Human Touch

AI is certainly a part of that process. Krupp thinks it helps create efficiency in their workflow and answers many of the broad questions about a campaign opportunity, the planning work, and locations to optimize. “But,” he cautions, “I also think it is a tool within a toolbox that allows the team to have more time to build relationships, think about their clients’ strategies, and drive those client goals ahead.”

Krupp, who initially set out to be a lawyer, has a common-sense style that suits him equally well as Global CEO arbitrating the value of OOH, while maintaining a human side that works well at an agency focused on forging relationships while leveraging new technology as a path to grow the great outdoors.

He and Byrdak have a shorthand and mutual trust that is rare and refreshing to see. “We’re able to get things done very quickly. You find people throughout your career who mentor you, and you get to mentor; you’re just better because of them, and that to me really is this relationship.”

Even on its fast track to growth, billups has stuck to its commitment to community impact for the greater good. That has led to planning pro bono OOH campaigns for causes like anti-trafficking and human rights, supporting client causes, and encouraging employee volunteerism. Krupp cites the example of working with the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, saying, “It is an honor and a privilege to work with them, and it’s also fun because their messaging is always very provocative; they are challenging people to wake up and see that there’s still a danger of sexually transmitted diseases out there and to take precautions….”

“We want to be a company that gives back. But more than that, we want to be a company that recognizes that it’s not just about doing the job every day,” says Krupp, adding, apropos to someone who works on media’s biggest canvas, “it’s also about how this should lead to bigger relationships and bigger things.”