Agency Crawl

I couldn’t wait to check out the agency crawl. The limo bus was waiting for us to all arrive and then off we went to our first stop, Sign-Age. Smiling faces greeted us as we jumped off the bus and the tour started right away. We learned that Sign-Age not only wraps cars, but it also creates signs for universities, hospitals, and all types of businesses. Sign-Age manufactures signs out of different types of interesting textured materials, including recyclable products.

Wrapping a Car at Sign-Age

The smell of printing lightly scented the air as we stopped by an area where vehicles are wrapped. Rest assured, designing wraps is no easy feat. Not only do designers have to customize the wraps to the cars’ dimensions, but they also have to then perform installations perfectly. Patience is key here. The team at Sign-Age is great! I’m so glad to have experienced a tour of their facility, which is designed to display their plethora of products.

Next stop, Clear Channel Outdoor, which is just down the street from Sign-Age. Our ride was short, but despite this, the chatter of networking started again. We got to know our neighbors and laughed a little before we arrived at our next stop. Have you ever stood next to a billboard? Well, we did and they’re enormous! We learned that years ago each board was hand painted. Can you imagine that? Projectors would blow up a design and painters would start the process. Changing one’s mind in the last minute was costly.

Billboards are Big in Person

Now the designs are printed on flexible material and a 14’ x48’ billboard is folded up to about a 20×20 square for transporting but the real billboard growth is taking place in digital. Where signs can be updated or completely changed in minutes rather than days.

In professional terms, ‘billboards’ are also called ‘bulletins’. We learned that bulletins are priced by the number of eyes that see them and by their positioning relative to the road. Those who have billboards on their properties are quite lucky and can collect monthly checks for pretty much the rest of their lives.

Yep, it was truly a fascinating learning experience and tour that Clear Channel Outdoor provided. Our final stop was for networking with our AMA group where  we all kicked back and shared our favorite moments of the tour with one another.  Then, the limo took us back across the Bay to our cars where we began looking forward to our next event.

A Nice Touch!

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About the Author

Anna Lynch

Anna is the Director of Special Events for AMA Tampa Bay and loves to plan all types of events and network with other marketing professionals. Having spent over 7 years in marketing, she has experience in market research, project management, and media planning.