Listen to this articleBelow is our recent interview with Rod Collins, CEO at Bulldog Mobile Billboards:
Q:Rod, can you tell us something more about your company history?
A: After 15 years in the hotel industry, I was laid off by Hotels.com as they moved headquarters from Dallas to London. During my due diligence (I was looking for the right franchise to purchase) I found the scrolling billboard truck industry. I took my Hotels.com severance check and had a logo designed, web site built and put a down payment on an $89,000 advertising truck. After checking out three builders in Nashville, Ft. Lauderdale and Miami, I was sure I was starting up the right business with the right truck. Little did I know how much I had to learn! The good news was that as the driver, truck washer, sales person and CEO, I learned how to do everything on those first few trucks. That experience serves me well to this day. Currently, Bulldog Mobile Billboards operates glass walled display trucks, billboard trucks and LED trucks stationed in Dallas, Northern New Jersey and Los Angeles. We have executed well over 1,000 advertising truck campaigns over the last 13 years.
Q: How did you get where you are?
A: My hotel background has provided great experience for this venture. Not only is the hotel business hard work, but you need to be a jack of all trades when operating on a lean budget. The marketing and sales work I did helped me with advertising truck sales and the general hospitality background is great for developing an eye for each campaign and for taking care of customers.
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Q: What kinds of services?
A: In addition to the three advertising truck types mentioned, I recently ordered a new Ford Transit extra tall and long van to have built into the first Bulldog Experiential and Sampling Truck, or BESTie. The van will have a slide out system to feature our client’s product line (cell phones to shoes) with an additional sampling window designed to bring in the masses who always want something for free. Not only are we maintaining a current fleet (all our billboard and LED trucks are 2018 models) but we are creating the BESTie to further our fleet with agencies and brands alike.
Q: What are the benefits?
A: The key benefits from our fleet are clearly the truck choices and flexibility. No one offers the combination of Billboard Trucks, Glass Walled Display Trucks and LED (digital) Advertising Trucks – available nationwide like Bulldog Mobile Billboards. As the BESTie is introduced to the market, I hope to continue to add to the fleet. We keep our production costs low and send these vehicles out to the markets our customers dictate. Because we are out and about, our advertising cannot be blocked like radio, TV, newspaper and internet marketing. We do, however, work closely with digital/social media efforts to multiply the effects of our advertisers’ campaigns.
Q: What makes you stand out?
A: Our fleet is unique and either new or well maintained. Four of our seven trucks are new and I just ordered two more 2019’s. When it comes to marketing, we keep our customer’s brand images clean and sharp. It is important to me to keep my reputation that now generates 75% of my business coming from repeat customers. We work hard, our advertising trucks represent our clients well, and our drivers care about each campaign.
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Q: What are the future plans?
A: As I continue to grow Bulldog Mobile Billboards, the critical activity for me personally is to keep my pulse on the business environment and maintain the right advertising truck mix. Even though the BESTie is exciting, if the LED trucks prove to have more potential, for example, I need to point my investments in that direction. From a personnel perspective, we continue to make sure our team members understand that providing remarkable advertising truck campaigns is a combination of the product and the people behind the wheel. We are a results driven company!
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