Odegard, David

Dave Odegard has over 60 years of experience in the OOH industry.  He started at Naegele Outdoor after graduating from the University of Minnesota, rising to the post of National Sales Manager.  In 1974 he moved to New York and held executive positions at the Institute of Outdoor Advertising, promoting out-of-home to agencies.  He founded a poster company which he sold to Naegele Outdoor.  He purchased City Sign Service, changed the name to Odegard Outdoor, grew the company, and sold it to Lamar Advertising in 1998.  He stayed on at Lamar as a general manager and subsequently a top biller in the company’s Kansas City office.  Billboard Insider talked to the 83-year-old Odegard this week.

How did you enter the out-of-home industry?

I graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in Advertising.  Naegele Outdoor was looking for a campaign coordinator and I was hired.

Barb and Dave Odegard
What’s one of your favorite out-of-home success stories.

All my sales are distinctive but I remember my first 25 showing to Chrysler Plymouth – I not only made the sale but also got a lease for a rooftop billboard

What’s the key to staying on top of your game at 83?
I  love to close a sale and build a relationship.

I hear you were a world-class hurdler.

I was an All-American Hurdler in 1960 and was ranked 12th in the world by Track & Field magazine.

Dave Odegard Celebrates 60 Years in Out of Home

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- Founder of Odegard Outdoor, later sold his billboards to Lamar. David currently is still helping his community get their message out via Lamar billboards.

Dave served many years as an officer of the Junior Billboard Association. (Formally ESOAA)

David Odegard was a billboard company owner who's billboards stretched from Kansas City to Indiana. I was fortunate to benefit from David's wisdom as a young man starting my business. Every time I saw David Odegard he was wearing a suit jacket and tie. David took Out of Home marketing seriously. His billboard plant was near perfectly maintained and had the image we all wanted.

I remember traveling to Kansas City for an ESOAA meeting and seeing the Odegard Company literature about being the Local favorites! David and his crew had dressed in "mob attire" and had their photo for the flyer taken in a convertible. Many of us wanted to be just like David!  Odegard Outdoor was a class act.

Not only was David serious about his craft, but he was very generous and helpful to those of us starting our journey. David mailed a letter to me on Odegard company stationary that proposed the multiples he would pay to buy my billboards. I had asked if he would so that my banker would understand the value of my upstart company. The bank was impressed and his letter may have been the weight that tipped the scales to secure my small line of credit years ago. David Odegard is why the OOH industry is a wonderful business to be involved in.