Daktronics Installs Adversity Outdoor Advertising’s First Digital Billboard Display

Daktronics Inc. (Brookings, SD) recently provided a Valo® digital billboard display to Adversity Outdoor Advertising. Adversity Outdoor’s first digital billboard is located along I-526 Mark Clark Expressway, in Daniel Island, SC, a suburb outside Charleston.
More than two years ago, co-owners Dan Gowdown and Hank Hanna, who also own and operate Daniel Island Rentals, saw billboard-revenue potential in the Daniel Island property along the expressway. No outdoor billboards stood within miles of the lot, plus approximately 70,000 vehicles pass directly by the location daily.
Once they landed the property, Gowdown and Hanna began their digital-billboard permit battle with Berkeley County. After two years, Adversity Outdoor prevailed this past September, and, with the help of Daktronics, a digital billboard was installed.
“I think our thought process is that you have all these outdoor companies out there who are trying to go digital — unfortunately, there are plenty of municipalities and governments pitted against them for the wrong reasons,” said Gowdown. “We honestly feel we have 16 billboards in this one digital billboard face. Once municipalities begin to realize that digital billboards are safe and can be effectively controlled, they begin to understand their validity.”
Also, help is just down the road. A Daktronics representative lives within minutes of the billboard.
Gowdown and Hanna aren’t your typical outdoor advertisers. Both are in their early 30s and operate a substantial real-estate business in the Charleston area.
Daktronics, which installed its first digital billboard display in 2001, has installed more than 1,200 digital billboards in less than a decade.