Sandra McGlothlin, co-founder of Empire Waste Disposal and Empire Roofing, was the winner of the Clear Channel Outdoor Excellence in Business Award that took place during the LockheedMartin/JPMorganChase Entrepreneur Expo this past March.

As the winner of this prestigious award, Sandra won five billboards (including all design and production costs) for six months from Clear Channel Outdoor.

Attending:

Arnold Velez, President/General Manager of Clear Channel Outdoor, Dallas Division

Sandra McGlothlin, co-founder Empire Waste Disposal & Empire Roofing

Jim Odom, Account Executive, Clear Channel Outdoor, Dallas Division

Matt Kelley, Vice President, Empire Roofing

CCO:                                       First, we’d like to congratulate you Sandra on being selected the first winner of the Clear Channel Outdoor Excellence in Business Award. You have an incredible business and we’re proud to have the opportunity to work with you.

                                                We’re ready to answer all your questions today about the importance of billboard advertising and how it will help your company.

We have a total inventory of 2,300 billboards and posters throughout the Metroplex and that’s a lot to choose from as we decide how best to reach your target market.

EWD/ER:                                 I understand that one of the most important elements of using billboards is location, location, location. How do we go about selecting the right location for my business?

CCO:                                       First we identify your market by identifying whom you are trying to reach?

Clear Channel Outdoor uses a number of highly refined research tools. One includes our state-of-the-art Profiles database. Profiles can analyze all U.S. markets and our advanced computer mapping can define where a target audience lives and where their interests take them.

Based on availability, we’ll show you the availability of billboards in your targeted area and then reserve them for your campaign.

EWD/ER:                                 How long should my billboard campaign last? As a small business, I want the campaign to be effective but I also have budget to consider.

Empire Roofing is a seasonal business so I’m interested to know if we can plan the campaign in the appropriate season.

CCO:                                       The length of time a billboard campaign can last depends on you, the client. We research your business, understand what you want to accomplish with the campaign.

We suggest a three-month to six-month campaign but your budget is also an important component.

EWD/ER:                                 How long does the design and production take?

CCO:                                       After today’s meeting, we’ll have our design team work up some sample billboards for you and bring them back for your review and approval. The average production time usually takes about four weeks.

CCO:                                       Sandra, you gave us a lot of information in our first meeting and subsequent phone conversations. Today we brought some sample designs of what your billboards can look like.

                                                The main theme we’re presenting to you is about “driving your brand.”

Special Note on Branding:

Your “brand” is your business identity. It identifies who you are and what you do. It increases awareness and can build and emotional loyalty or trust in your product.

At a minimum, branding includes:

your company name,

your logo,

your tag line

use of your company name and logo on brochures,  business cards, etc.                                                                     

Companies who’ve successfully used “branding”:

Kleenex

Band-Aid

Dallas Cowboys

Slogan’s that have successfully branded a product:

“Melts in your mouth, not in your hand” (M&M’s)

“Finger lickin’ good” (Kentucky Fried Chicken/KFC)

EWD/ER:                                 In designing our billboards, I’ve learned that less is truly more. These billboards do a great job of focusing on our company’s logo in combination with our company’s name.

EWD/ER:                                 Before we sat down with Clear Channel, I called several companies that had/have or currently use billboards to get their opinion on the effectiveness on this type of marketing campaign. They only had POSITIVE response on the billboards and felt like this was their best advertising dollars spent.

We at Empire Roofing and Empire Disposal had never done an advertising campaign, so this was our first. Recently, we designed a web page and a marketing brochure to join with the billboards in making quite a nice marketing campaign for the company.

The billboards were completely up by May 1^st and we’ve already gotten calls off the disposal billboards. I’ve also gotten calls and emails from friends, family and customers saying they saw the billboards – it’s absolutely wonderful to see this work!

Empire Roofing, Inc.

Empire Roofing, owned by Ronnie and Sandra McGlothlin,  is a full service roofing company specializing in roof replacement and the repair of commercial office and industrial properties. There is no straying from the company’s mantra, which is “Quality Workmanship All of the Time.”  What is now one of the area’s leading commercial roofing companies, started 22 years ago with humble beginnings.  “We were 21 years old, young and broke,” said Sandra. “We had one child and one on the way. I can laugh about it now , but I think our timing to start a company was just a little bit crazy. Ronnie came from a roofing company background and we knew in our hearts that owning our own business was the right thing to do. But it wasn’t until our 5^th year in business that we absolutely knew we were going to make it – and we have.”

Empire Waste Disposal

Breaking the stereotypes in a traditionally “men only” industry, Sandra McGlothlin is the owner of Empire Disposal, a company that provides roll-off dumpsters and compactors for trash, construction debris, industrial waste removal, and recycle hauling.

The company was developed because of challenges Sandra and her husband Ronnie faced with their first company, Empire Roofing. Simply put, the roofing company was suffering profit loss from an inability to work due to trash removal delays. They were unable to find a trash hauling company that could meet their time schedule needs and knew that other companies were having the same challenges. Inspiration, a need, and extensive planning have produced the continual upward growth of Empire Disposal. And as for marketing on a shoe-string budget – well, the sides of a massive garbage container certainly does the trick!

Clear Channel Outdoor

·        Clear Channel Outdoor celebrated its 100-year anniversary in 2002.

·        Clear Channel Outdoor operates approximately 776,000 outdoor advertising displays in 65 countries.

·        Via approximately 155,000 advertising display faces, Clear Channel Outdoor has a presence in 46 U.S. markets, including 19 of the top-20 markets, reaching approximately 56% of adults in the United States.

·        On a daily basis, Clear Channel Outdoor reached over 59% of the African American market, 76% of the Hispanic market  and 78% of the Asian market.

·        Clear Channel Spectacolor is the premiere operator of more than 70 outdoor advertising displays in the Times Square area of New York City.

·        Clear Channel Outdoor reaches 56% of the adults 18+ residing in the United States.