Insights from an OOH Industry Veteran

Jeremy Johnson, Daktronics OOH manager

Today, our OOH manager, Jeremy Johnson, responds to questions about the most important digital billboard feature, the most significant industry trend, the best advice anyone ever gave him, and more.

Last month we published a post introducing the entire Daktronics OOH team. Now, individual members will talk to you about their industry perspectives. This is the first post in the series.

How exactly do you help OOH companies be successful?

My role is to make sure that all parts of our business (design, manufacturing, sales, service, etc.) are delivering the most value possible for our customers. This is done through creating and delivering effective business solutions that meet our customers’ objectives and eliminate the waste that does not add value.

In your opinion, what’s the most important feature a digital billboard should have?

Aside from having a display that performs well in the harsh environment Mother Nature provides, displays must always look great. We are no longer in an environment where digital billboards are an anomaly. They are now part of our everyday life. In order for operators to successfully compete over the long term, their displays must hold up over time.

Looking good on day one is easy. The true test of a product and supplier is how the displays look 5-10 years down the road. Daktronics has continued to evolve the capabilities to maintain image quality and uniformity that we first developed more than 15 years ago. It is these capabilities that allow operators to maintain good profitability over the display lifetime.

What important industry trend do you see right now?

I’m very interested in how the OOH industry can embrace the trends around data-driven content delivery that we see in online and mobile. Bringing this all together could be a very big deal for OOH operators.

What is your experience in the OOH industry?

I had the benefit of being in the right place at the right time when digital was just getting started; this was around 1999, just three years after starting at Daktronics. We did our first digital billboards in 2000. Around that time, I began attending industry events and meeting with OOH companies. It has been a great ride.

What advice would you give a company thinking about going digital?

Go for it!  We have seen so many success stories unfold over the years. I would caution buyers to be aware of low-cost providers. The reasons some display providers can bring low-cost displays are reasons that usually end up costing the buyer more, quite a bit more, over the long haul.

What’s the best advice anyone has given you?

Never burn a bridge. What I take from that is, all relationships are important. Let’s face it, in business, everything we do is about relationships. We can never afford to damage the relationships we build.

The number of people in our lives, whether they be customers, co-workers, family or friends, are limited, and we need all those relationships to work. There is no sense in not doing everything we can, all the time, to keep relationships intact. In order to do this, we need to always act with integrity and treat others with respect and fairness.

Is there a book you’d recommend to our readers, either industry-related or not?

I do like to read a fair amount. I’m currently reading The Billion Dollar Spy by David Hoffman. It is a non-fiction book about CIA and KGB spies during the Cold War. Very Interesting stuff.

For anyone new to supervision or management, I always recommend The World’s Most Powerful Leadership Principle by James Hunter. This is a book about Servant Leadership, a style I really like.

What’s your favorite food for breakfast?

Bacon

If you could invite anyone in the world for dinner, who would it be?

I have three young kids. Dinner for two with my wife would be nice.

Thanks so much for reading our post! We’d love to hear from you. Let us know if you have any questions or comments for Jeremy.