Graviss Marketing
This DOOH Academy interview covers what JG Graviss has learned about where digital out of home is actually headed.
Why OOH Has Always Sold Location, Not Audience
In this DOOH Academy interview, host Jeff Gunnerman sat down with Jonathan Graviss to talk through what actually separates a strong out of home sales operation from one that is coasting on relationships. Jonathan is a billboard guy through and through. He started climbing signs and pasting up posters in college, moved into sales, and spent the next 25 years managing and building sales teams inside the out of home industry, including stints at three of the big four billboard companies. Graviss Marketing exists because his son, Jonathan P. Graviss, pointed out a pattern: billboard companies are great at advertising their customers and consistently bad at marketing themselves.
The Shift From Selling Location to Selling Audience
The biggest theme in the conversation is a shift already underway in how out of home gets sold. The industry has always done a good job selling location. It has not done a good job selling audience. Jonathan compares it to television: if you are ESPN selling a commercial, you are selling to men 18 to 35, a defined audience a media buyer can compare against every other channel. Out of home controls roughly 5% of the media pie today.
Jonathan argues that once OOH can be evaluated on audience terms the same way TV, digital, and every other medium already is, that share can grow, because operators are finally being compared on the same terms as their competition. The strongest sellers balance both: the physical pole in the ground, speaking to the people who pass it daily as part of their routine, positioned specifically for the audience it is actually reaching.
Systems Beat Talent, But Only With the Right People
Jonathan is direct that sales performance is not just about hiring the right rep, though that matters. It is about putting systems and procedures in place once good people are on the team; not micromanagement, but a shared understanding of what good looks like. That means agreeing on the things a rep does daily, weekly, and monthly, and turning those into real benchmarks: five face to face meetings a week, two contracts a week, whatever the number is for that market. Sellers are competitive by nature, so a visible benchmark gives them something to compete against.
The 120-90-60 Day Renewal Window
One of the most concrete systems Jonathan describes is the renewal cadence. Outreach on a renewal should start at the 120 to 90 day mark, with the goal of a signed renewal before the 60 day mark. The reason is production timing: bulletins and posters need artwork, printing, shipping, and installation, and every day inside that 60 day window without an answer from the advertiser is a day of potential revenue at risk, because that inventory cannot be remarketed to a new customer until the operator knows the current one is not renewing. Nationally, roughly 70% of annual OOH advertisers renew year over year, a strong number for the industry, but it still leaves 30% of the book unaccounted for every year, on top of whatever growth the business expects. That gap only gets filled by a sales process that never stops prospecting.
“People think that they’re good multitaskers and the research doesn’t back that up. You lose a good 40 to 60% of your efficiency because your brain needs time to refocus on each task.”
Jonathan Graviss, Graviss Marketing
Dooh Academy Interview
Jonathan also gets specific on why time blocking matters more than most reps think. Research shows people lose 40 to 60% of their efficiency switching between tasks, because the brain needs time to refocus every time it is interrupted. A rep who jumps from email to a phone call to a proposal and back loses real productive time at every switch. Time blocking, treating outreach, administrative work, and client-facing time as separate blocks instead of constantly reacting to whatever comes in, is what lets a seller move from firefighting mode into something more strategic.
He also draws a distinction between a tactical sale and a strategic one: if the only contact an advertiser gets between renewals is a monthly bill, that is a tactical relationship. Staying in touch, running a real customer needs analysis at every touchpoint, and helping a client understand their own business better is what makes a sale strategic instead.
“It’s about them. It’s not about the board that I’m trying to sell. Still, it’s about making a brand famous. It’s about getting that small local guy to look bigger than he is.”
Jonathan Graviss, Graviss Marketing
You can see how this fits into the bigger picture on our how Graviss Marketing helps independent operators page. And for broader industry context, the Out of Home Advertising Association of America is a useful resource for operators navigating these same questions.
For a real example of this in practice, see how we helped Franklin Outdoor Advertising rebuild their website into a genuine sales driver.