Business: Key-Ads Inc., founded 1955. Owner of more than 700 billboards in 21 counties.
Owner: Nicholas L Keyes, sons Nick Jr., Stephen and Joseph.
Address: 50 E. Third Street, Dayton.
Employees: 12.
Revenues: Not disclosed, but has experienced 25 percent growth in past year.
The advertising market divides and subdivides with each new technology from DVRs to satellite radios, but one of the oldest of them all — the billboard — is evolving into the digital world at Key-Ads Inc. in downtown Dayton.
The firm, owned and operated by Nicholas L. Keyes and his three sons, attracts looks by the tens of thousands from anyone driving past the company’s more than 700 of its billboards in 21 counties along Ohio’s western border from Butler County to Lucas County, including Piqua, Middletown, Springfield, Cincinnati, Columbus and Lima.
The company, now in its third generation of family ownership, figures it has about one-third of the Dayton region's billboard market, sharing it with Lamar Advertising Co., the nation's largest, and CBS Outdoor. They've been in their new headquarters in downtown Dayton about a year and are growing, having just hired a full-time artist.
But the work of the company that's getting the most attention — and is seeing growth — are digital billboards like the one on the north side of U.S. 35 near Steve Whalen Boulevard. Key digital billboards have been built in Miami Twp. and Moraine and one is being built in Toledo. Beavercreek will see its first digital billboard in a month at U.S. 35 and Factory Road.
Within a year, Key-Ads plans to have a two-sided digital sign on the roof of their 50 E. Third St. headquarters. Digital billboards are among the fastest growing segments of the “out of home” advertising industry. Outdoor advertising posted revenues of $6.7 billion in 2012, an increase of 4.2 percent compared to the previous year, according to the Outdoor Advertising Association of America. The industry group said it’s had 11 consecutive growth quarters.
“Digital is the way the industry is going,” said Richard Lebovitz of Digital Signage Connection, a website devoted to the digital signage industry. Digital billboards played a role in the hunt for suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing, he added, and have proved effective for public alerts and emergencies of all kinds.
Key-Ads billboards are directly connected to the AMBER Alert system, Nicholas Keyes said. They company is eager to post community information, too.
“We are a family business and will continue to be,” he said. “We want the communities to be as proud of the digital signs as we are.”
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