Graviss Marketing
Every trip to IBO sharpens the same read on the state of independent OOH: the operators investing in infrastructure are pulling ahead.
I am back from New Orleans. Four days, a lot of conversations, and a clearer picture of where independent OOH actually is right now than I had going in.
Before IBO, I wrote about three problems I keep seeing with independent operators: a digital presence that does not reflect the business’s actual strength, marketing and sales running parallel instead of compounding each other, and sales teams left to figure out the process on their own. I expected those themes to come up. I did not expect how consistently they surfaced, across market sizes, ownership structures, and years in the business.
Here is what I took away.
Operators Know the Gaps. They Are Not Sure What to Do First.
Almost every meaningful conversation I had in New Orleans started with some version of: we know we need to fix this. The website, the sales process, the way marketing and sales talk to each other. The awareness is there. What is missing is clarity on where to start and confidence that starting will not derail what is already working.
That hesitation is understandable. Independent operators are running lean. Every hour spent building infrastructure is an hour not spent on the pipeline. But the operators I spoke with who had made the investment, even partially, described the same outcome: things got easier before they got bigger. The chaos that felt like growth started to feel like actual momentum.
The Digital Presence Gap Is Wider Than Most Operators Realize
I had more than a few operators tell me they had not looked at their own website in over a year. When I asked what a prospect would find if they searched the company name right now, most paused longer than they expected to.
The gap between how an operator thinks about their business and how their digital presence communicates it is often significant. That gap does not just affect new business. It affects renewals, referrals, and the confidence level of every advertiser who validates their decision online after agreeing to move forward. A weak digital presence quietly undermines deals that were already won.
Alignment Is the Word Nobody Was Using but Everybody Was Describing
Nobody at IBO walked up to me and said their marketing and sales functions were misaligned. But almost everyone described it. The marketing they are doing does not connect to the conversations their reps are having. Leadership is setting revenue targets without translating them into a direction that both functions can execute against. The result is two teams working hard in the same building toward slightly different objectives.
The operators who described the clearest growth trajectories had one thing in common: somebody in leadership had made alignment an explicit priority, not just an assumed outcome. They had defined what both functions were working toward and checked that definition regularly.
Sales Process Is Still the Biggest Unlocked Door in Independent OOH
This one came up the most. Not as a complaint, but as a recognition. Operator after operator described a version of the same situation: one or two people who know how to sell, a process that lives in their heads, and a growing awareness that the business cannot scale on that foundation.
What was different at IBO this year is that the conversation felt more urgent. Operators are not just noticing the gap. They are feeling the cost of it in turnover, in inconsistent pipelines, and in the fatigue that comes from building a business that depends on a handful of people instead of a repeatable system.
What Comes Next
IBO confirmed something I already believed but now have more evidence for: the independent OOH market is not short on capable operators. It is short on operators who have built the infrastructure to match their capability. The ones who close that gap in the next 12 months are going to look very different from their peers by the time we get back to conference season.
Starting next week, we are back to our regular content cadence. The first piece will take the observations from New Orleans and translate them into something actionable. Still, the pattern is clear. The next step is turning it into a plan.
If we connected at IBO and you want to continue the conversation, reach out. If you were not there and any of this resonates, I would be glad to talk through where your business is in the sequence.
You can reach me at jonathan@gravissmarketing.com or through GravissMarketing.com.
State Of Independent OOH
This is exactly the kind of independent OOH operators challenge independent operators bring to Graviss Marketing every week. If independent OOH operators is something your team is actively working through, it is worth looking at how the underlying systems, not just individual tactics, are built to support it.
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 Nomadic Outdoor Media migrate and rebuild their site, driving a 244% traffic increase in 28 days.
For a broader look at where independent operators are investing, stalling, and fixing right now, download the free State of Independent OOH report.