Marks, Ralph, S

1922-2011

THANK YOU to Outdoor Advertising Magazine for publishing this article in the January / February 1994 issue

Ralph S. Marks,

founder, Marsco Outdoor Advertising

'It is a mistake to think of
every person as being first like
yourself. See things as they are,
not as you are. Evaluate deals
realistically, not through your
"wish" windshield. Bend over
backward to serve but stop
short of falling. Times and
technology change. Human
nature and gravity are constant."

I founded my outdoor advertising company In 1951, and sold it to a larger company in 1992. During the years from 1951 to 1980, you could have most likely built a bigger company than mine, as 1 ran my small company single-handedly with no permanent salaried employees. Perhaps you might have had more financial backing or been better at leasing location properties or sales than 1.

I will admit to not being very clever or business like, but I was semi-successful! (running anything forty-one years in all kinds of economies is not easy!) Since 1980, here in Houston, there has been legislation that no more billboards could be erected, and no new companies could be formed unless that company bought out an existing company. Hopefully, it's not that way in your area, but Houston and its periphery has a tough political stand against billboards with its present officials. Major coincidences shaped my successes and pitfalls. First, a fortunate coincidence happened to me just after I started out. In the fifties, there were about six outdoor advertising companies in Houston that formed an association which I joined. The association gave me a monthly window to what was happening in the industry. It provided a problem-solving think-tank and a legal power base that I could not have afforded alone.

One situation where this helped was that prior to 1980, 1 would receive an occasional call from some promoter who would threaten to build a billboard in front of mine and block my billboard's readability unless I paid him a don't-block lease. It was comforting to know how others handled a similar coercing threat As time passed and the Outdoor Advertising Association here grew I was saved from pitfalls I would never have seen coming or heard about if 1 were only one isolated company. Try to join one where you are or create an organization Is my best advice to help you hit the peaks and avoid the pitfalls. Prior to 1980, landowners could threaten to raise lease-rental when renewal time came, or else tell you to take your billboard off. The landowner was assured he could "auction" it to another company. We had a kind of gentlemen's agreement among members that another association member would not be a party to that. Still, there were several “freelance,” non-association companies

who specialized in taking advantage of this situation. They welcomed the chance to pay a higher lease to gain a foothold at a really good location. Some middle men tried to buy up soon-to-need- renewing leases and broker them to another company or get a percentage from the landowner of the Increase in the lease they obtained for him. These practices came to an end when it was ruled that if one company moved its billboard off, another could not replace that billboard. So, with the stopping of new building of boards meaning no more increase in number, it had a kind of deviated benefit. It made the never-increasing number, perhaps the slightly dwindling number, more valuable to clients. We became a little less competitive when we were no longer vying for new locations, and frankly, 1 was less envious when I did not see the big monied companies passing me up in new construction numbers.

I would like to put in a good word for regular advertising agencies. They certainly earn  small commissions off the top when they lease billboards for an advertiser. Agencies were always reliable contract buffers between an unknown advertising client and my dependence on assured income to offset my "outgo." There is the risk of a client unable to pay as you know.

When I sold my company, at the Association's last meeting for me, I voiced my appreciation of them anti their help. And they thanked me for the political help I had given them.

My political involvement also happened by coincidence. Just before an election in 1972, a man called me up and wanted to run for city council on my billboards here. To make a long story short, he lost the race the two times he tried. For the next and third political race, his widow called me. This widow of the dynamic but unsuccessful candidate, won her controller race. And next time she ran, she was elected mayor of Houston. She ran for reelection and won that race too. It had begun with her late husband's use of my billboards. During her second term as mayor, she cooled off on billboards, but House Bill 1330 was passed, and demanded a five-person committee be set up requiring one person in outdoor advertising to be selected by the mayor. The mayor selected me for that panel out of ten outdoor companies. That is a coincidence which changed me from a non-political person into one suddenly forced to be political, espousing billboards in the face of signs' many detractors, and changing me here from unknown to well-known. So that was the help that the association thanked me for. 1 had been vice-president of the association and had spoken in their behalf in city council, to the media, and anti-billboard committees in which 1 found myself.

Without dwelling on the "politics" of billboards which is, after all, in the title of this article, I gave two pretty good rebuttals to the violently anti-billboard people, which you might use some day in your area. One anti-billboard leader down from Washington, D.C. to give a slide presentation against having to pay compensation to remove billboards stated, "You arc selling something you don't own ... a view which belongs to everyone." Then he asked, "any questions . . . anybody . . . Mr. Marks?" I called the renowned beautification advocate from Washington by name and asked him over the microphone, "Do you feel that merely viewing something through your car's windshield somehow entitles you to an ownership of what you see?"

At another time in a speech, 1 quoted from the Bible a chapter and verse which speaks in favor of billboards. You might use that somewhere someday too, unless you’re saying, oh, there's no political battle here in my area, in which case, you can skip the quote, but it had the attention of the city council: HABAKKUK chapter 2, verse 2, "Write it so a person going by at a RUN may read it.” 1 also reminded the anti-billboard persons on the committee where 1 found myself, that there was a billboard on the moon left there in 1969 showing we had come from earth and landed.

I remembered to insert a "disclaimer" at the bottom of messages of clients when their personal opinion they paid me to put up was too personal and possibly libelous. Still during my years of marketing billboards, a few lawsuits loomed large, even with the disclaimer.

1 could tell you much more about the "politics and peaks" in outdoor, but I hope you hit the peaks and few pitfalls. Being in outdoor advertising was a wonderful life.

Outdoor advertising at its best is exalting and doesn't seem to be work. It can seem like clipping coupons, or being on a scholarship, as the advertisers will usually stay with you for quite a while. My few pitfalls hinged on coincidence which should not happen to you. Similar to your going into a dark room. I've tried to tell you where the furniture is that you might bark your shins on.

But here in Houston, billboards are held hostage to hurricanes from about June to November. 1 didn't have an official crew to take away panels with 48 hour warning to reduce wind resistance. I held them up by a kind of hopeful osmosis. The legislative restrictions grew more stringent, and 1 was in the middle of fighting them. It took me some while to feel comfortable on the anti-billboard committees and maintain a persona of confidence and assuredness when council persons and officials in the sign administration debated with me. There is talk here of Metro bus lanes adjacent to the sides of freeways. There is action being taken in planting trees, and more scenic districts established, all detrimental to billboard viewing when we are not allowed to move them nor raise them higher. More and more persons here, I hope not where you are, call billboards “visual pollution," while 1 call them "artistic monologues."

My technology began to lag behind modern methods of painting and reproduction. After forty- one years, I had nothing to prove and was that much older than when I started. You must be younger! So I was delighted when a big company, who could add my billboards to their plant and remodel them, made overtures to buy my company. It was a case of buyer and seller feeling reciprocally good about the mutual deal when I sold in late 1992. The buyer prefers not to be named, and 1 didn't even name my company here.

If your area is different from the atmosphere here in Houston, you should grow and expand, and good luck. It you are a long-standing company of great profit, wonderful. Of course, I'll always keep an eye on what's happening, but from an observer's distance, without the pit-falls. peaks and politics due to coincidences which befell me.

https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/houston-tx/ralph-marks-4834160