Case Study: Adams Outdoor Advertising

Adams Outdoor Advertising (AOA), based in Atlanta, GA, is one of the country’s leading outdoor advertising display companies. With offices in 16 Eastern U.S. markets, AOA’s clients include national advertisers, who purchase campaigns across all 16 markets as well as regional clients, who advertise within a single market.

Challenge
With the creative staff’s talent dispersed across multiple cities, AOA’s National Creative Director came to Digital Active to develop a system to share the creative ideas between the offices. The initial intranet was developed to share not only billboard designs, but also stock images and other graphic elements. As the success of the initial system was realized, other departments including Administration, Human Resources, Real Estate, and Sales all approached Digital Active with their challenges in collaborating between offices.

Solution
Digital Active initially developed a password-protected method to share information between the AOA’s creative staff. This system became the basis of the intranet. Creative staff utilzed a unique login, and the system tracked which users updated which files. As the return on investment became apparent, the system that initially had 12 users was expanded to include other departments and now includes over 500 AOA employees. The list of collaborative tools in the AOA intranet has increased to 16 modules, including:

Intranet Administration Photobank Calendar Employee Handbook Artbank Admin Risk Management H.R. Policy Manual Corporate Directory

Regional Sales Tool Human Resources Creative Director Regional Sales Discussion Forums Real Estate Management Rate/Allotments/Contracts Client/Agency File Transfer Artbank

Success
The effects of their corporate intranet was immediate.

Efficiencies in production increased. Costs for stock images have dramatically reduced. Printing costs and waste have been significantly reduced. Clients now enjoy the combined talents of the whole organization. National Sales have increased with attributes to the Regional Sales Tool. Corporate Support Staff has been streamlined.

"Our Regional Sales Tool is the best thing we've done in 5 years. It has changed the way we do business." Gale Bonnell Adams Outdoor Advertising National Accounts Manager

Now, every AOA employee has a user profile on the system and collaborates within their department(s) and the Head Office in Atlanta. The efficiencies created by the ActiveOffice tools has helped AOA expand operations, shown by recent allocations in new markets.