America is always expanding, and with that growth comes new opportunities to build billboards. In this Billboard Mastery podcast we’re going to explore the fast-expanding markets known as “exurban” and “supercommuter” and how to spot these hot advertising markets in advance.
Episode 111: The Potential In Exurban And Supercommuter Markets Transcript
America is all about growth, and that growth has fueled the billboard industry since it began, tracing its roots back at least to the founding of America. Billboards inform the public of things going on down the road, but the road is always expanding with new businesses and new population, and that always gives way for opportunity to build new signs. This is Frank Rolfe with the Billboard Mastery Podcast. We're going to be talking about the growth right now in exurban and super commuter markets and how to take advantage of that opportunity. First, let's go over the definition of what those are exactly. In the heart of a city, you have the urban core. And we all know what that is. That's the area typically with the high rise buildings, the high density, tons of traffic. That's the urban core. In most parts of America, that urban core was exhausted for billboard locations probably 50 years ago. It's very hard to find in an extremely dense jungle of streets and high rise buildings, pieces of land zoned for billboards that can still be seen and not blocked by other structures. And then just beyond the urban core, you have suburban neighborhoods.
These suburban neighborhoods are fairly close into town, but yet far enough away that you can commute to work. But when you go home, you've got more of a country feel, lower density, less traffic. Suburbs are typically very, very affluent, and a lot of advertisers like to appeal to people who live in the suburbs. So it's never been a hard sell to rent billboards in suburban locations. But once again, a lot of suburban locations have been exhausted over the last several decades by billboard companies trying to expand their reach so they push farther out of the urban into the suburban. But now you have two new things going on. There's a ring of markets around the suburban called the exurban. Now, what is an exurban market? An exurban market serves and caters to people willing to drive a little farther out than the suburbs to get lower real estate cost on their house, much lower density, often better schools, lower crime, much of the things that most Americans want. And to get there, they have to drive even farther away from their work. Those exurban markets, however, have not really been picked to pieces by billboard companies because many of them are relatively new.
They've sprung up in recent times. Maybe there was a big subdivision as a test that some big builder built out there beyond the suburb to see what would happen, and it had traction. And then more people built competing subdivisions and they put in a strip shopping center, and next thing you know, hotel pops up, restaurants pop up, all these different advertisers, all who need traffic to get to their business. But there's no billboards. There's no billboards because no one's working the market. The streets still go out there, but there's no one who has really got in there to try and reach those with new signs. The land zoned okay for them, the spacing is there for them. There's not a lot of visual clutter to compete with, but it's simply lack of inertia by large companies who said, now we've got plenty of signs in the urban areas and in the suburban areas, and we don't want to go out there in the exurban areas. And so it's a great place for pioneers trying to build new signs out in many of those exurban markets. And don't forget, there's plenty of road frontage because you have to drive a pretty good distance from the suburb to get to the exurb.
So there's no shortage of potential target properties. But then you have a whole new thing beyond the exurban, which are called the super commuter. Now, what is a super commuter? What's that all about? These are people who are willing to drive significantly farther than the average American to get an even lower home price, even lower density, perhaps an even better skill, and certainly much lower crime. Now, super commuter drivers will often easily drive out an hour, sometimes an hour and a half, from where they work. So they sign on to a commute every day of two to three hours a day in commute. But the benefit for what they get is a much higher quality of life. And of course, they get to appreciate that every evening when they get home, and then all day Saturday and Sunday. And to them, that's a very fair trade. Many of these super commuter markets remain virtually untouched by billboards because no one's really gone out there and worked those markets. And once again, like exurban, there's plenty of land to be had, stuff that's properly zoned with good road frontage, almost no visual clutter at all, perhaps beyond power lines in the occasional tree.
And yet there's willing advertisers out that direction because you still need services for those people living in those super commuter neighborhoods. Now, the expansion in America is ongoing. If you look at the map, a lot of the urban markets that we look at today were at one time considered the suburban, and the suburban was just raw land. America is always growing like that, pretty much across the board. In all 50 states, the growth is endless and vast, and it's very important. As a billboard owner or trying to buy and build billboards, you'd be aware of the movements of population. And yet a lot of people have lost track of these latest developments, the development of the exurbine and the super commuter market. And that's sad because they're missing the mark. They're missing a lot of opportunity. I myself, back when I was building signs, for example, out in far East Texas, I was riding that wave. It's been around for a long time. You could go just beyond where everyone had their signs and you could find abundant new locations and build there and wait for society to grow out to you. I remember I once had a sign that I was renting for only about $250 a month, just enough money to cover the lot rent and the electricity, and the insurance.
Because I felt that I would be in the end proven to be a genius because the population would grow out that way. And I was completely correct that signed rents went from a 250 up to over a thousand up into the mid teens. Was I a visionary? Was I a genius? No, I was just following good common sense. I knew that people would keep commuting farther away because all of us always want to have a very high quality of life. And to get the lowest home prices and the lowest population density means driving a little farther out. The good news is it's all about driving. They don't have any mass transportation taking you on a train or a bus from an exurban or super commuter neighborhood into the core of the city. It's all about automobiles, automobile traffic, people looking out their windows while they're driving. That's the core of the market. And that's what you can attain in those exurban and super commuter markets. And don't expect any kind of slowdown in that growth because many studies are showing more Americans are actually being attracted to this concept than reluctant to do it.
Also, the advent of new things in automobiles make these longer commutes possible. I'm not talking just the self driving features that some cars have today. Those are not perfected. You can't go to sleep in the backseat. You start to touch the wheel every so many seconds. Some of those don't even work when you get far enough outside of the city's core. But I'm talking about things like satellite radio in your car so you can listen to the news without interruption and without any commercial breaks. Or some people, or they shouldn't do it, will listen to various television or movies that they pre recorded on their electric device. Many Americans love to listen to podcasts. You can do that while you're driving. So there's many different ways to make the drive more fun. As a result, people today who drive longer distances probably have a lot greater entertainment options than they did in the olden days. Just kiking your cell phone and calling your friends while you're driving on speakerphone, that's easy enough. In some states you have to do it hands free, so make sure it is on speakerphone or Bluetooth. But nevertheless, these are all things that make drivers more willing to make those longer commutes.
To them, they seem shorter than they did in the old days. And if they ever do perfect the self driving automobile, well then stand back. People will probably be willing to commute much farther out even then. And don't forget the fact that jobs are often moving out of the urban core into the suburban areas. There are certain parts of America we will find large amounts of employment in areas far, far away from the urban core. Because those employers realized over time that, hey, why are we all fighting to get into downtown? Let's just go ahead and locate our business a little bit farther out. Every time a business does that, it changes the entire parallax of where the exurban and super commuter markets fly. The bottom line is America is always changing. It's always growing, it's always developing. Smart people looking to build billboard locations understand this and they harness the power. This is Frank Rolfe, the Billboard Mastery Podcast. Hope you enjoyed this. Talk to you again soon.