Advertise Your Way with Daktronics and Blip

Daktronics is proud to work with Blip, a company that sells digital advertising space at the advertiser’s budget. We spoke with Andy Gotshalk, Operator Relations Director at Blip about what this means for billboard operators. Get to know what the company does and how Blip and Daktronics work together to provide customers with the exact amount of effective ad space they are looking for.

Tell our readers a little bit about Blip.

Historically, small-budget advertisers have not been viable customers for billboard operators, because the cost of servicing them for so little revenue would have made them unprofitable. This has left operators competing for the same big-budget advertisers year after year while online advertising takes the lion’s share of small-budget advertising dollars.

Blip bridges this gap and profitably brings the vast sea of small-budget advertisers to the table for operators, complementing existing sales channels and dramatically affecting profitability.

How can Blip help outdoor advertising companies generate more revenue?

Every day Blip attracts hundreds of new subscribers to its self-serve digital billboard marketplace (which is already tens of thousands strong) and gives them a buying experience similar to what they have grown accustomed to with online advertising platforms such as Google and Facebook.

Blip advertisers compete for placement in DOOH operators’ unsold space. Since Blip handles the whole process, including attracting advertisers, training, support, billing and reporting, sign operators benefit from increased revenue without having to bear the expense of servicing small-budget advertisers.

Instead of taking a slice of the pie, Blip brings a whole new revenue pie to the table. 95 percent of Blip advertisers report never using billboards before or that without Blip they would not have considered advertising on billboards.

How easy is it to use Blip with Daktronics digital billboards?

Blip and Daktronics have worked together to make it quick and simple for Daktronics customers to participate in the Blip marketplace. Blip’s staff handles the required software installation (with support from the Daktronics software team) and trains the operator’s staff on using Blip software and moderating Blip advertisers’ creatives.

What success have you seen with outdoor companies that are using Daktronics digital billboards and Blip together?

All of our partners with Daktronics boards see significant increases in revenue through Blip. Our oldest operator whose inventory includes Daktronics displays, YESCO Outdoor Media, reported that Blip increased its digital revenue by 10 percent in the first year and 16 percent in the second year without adding to expenses—resulting in a dramatic increase in profits.

What do your most successful customers have in common?

Our most successful billboard operators fully adopt Blip as a new product line for their business. They share a common set of behaviors and characteristics:

• Do everything they can to have space available to the marketplace on their signs
• Encourage other media owners in their market to join the marketplace
• Work with Blip’s marketing staff to promote the marketplace to local media outlets and trade groups
• Leverage the best one-to-many broadcast assets at their disposal (their billboards) to promote the marketplace to small businesses
• Train sales staff to refer small-budget advertisers to the marketplace rather than turning them away

What is exciting to you about the future of the OOH industry?

There are a lot of interesting things being done in the OOH space around using technology to automate and improve the buying experience for existing advertisers. We applaud those efforts. With that said, most of what we see happening in the industry represents small incremental improvements to the existing game. Meanwhile, advertising mediums that remove barriers and engage the masses are experiencing tremendous growth. What gets Blip and its partners excited is introducing truly new dollars and actual growth to the DOOH industry.

What is one thing you’d like our readers to know about Blip?

We feel very fortunate to have been so readily adopted and warmly welcomed by the OOH community. Focusing on meaningful relationships is a core value at Blip. From media owners, to manufacturers, to industry groups and software providers, we have found ourselves in the most enjoyable of interactions, and we’re grateful to be associated with such a diverse and excellent group of people and celebrate in our mutual success.