Aces of Trades: Jay Nauman is fourth-generation owner of local outdoor advertising company

LANCASTER — Anyone driving around the Fairfield County area has no doubt seen Jay Nauman's work. He owns Nauman Outdoor Advertising and his company has put up numerous billboards in the region.

"We strictly deal with billboards," he said. "We do the static billboards, then the digital billboards as well."

Nauman is the fourth generation family member to own the business. His great-grandfather Rolland Nauman started the company in 1930.

"Billboards are always in your face," Nauman said of the effectiveness of them. "You can't change the channel. You can't tune them out. You can't flip the station. They're always there. They're always out there on the road, so they're hard to turn off."

But since drivers and their passengers are usually riding by a billboard quickly, Nauman said advertisers must be conscience of the message they put on them.

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"You've got about three or four seconds to grab their attention," he said. "For me, billboards are a lot about name recognition. There should be a decent graphic and maybe some call to action and your logo. Make them fun. Have people talking about them."

Nauman said catchy graphics and colors are a couple keys to getting eyeballs on a billboard.

"We try to stay in the big, bold contrasting colors and stay away from a lot of like pastels and stuff like that," he said. "We want something to pop."

Nauman's bigger local clients include Park National Bank, Kumler Collision, Fairfield Medical Center and Fairfield Federal Savings and Loan. He said some clients have been with the company as far back as to when his grandfather, Ralph, owned it.

Nauman also has national clients, but he said about 85% of his business is local. The company's territory extends to Athens, Circleville and just north of Carroll.

Nauman said changing billboards from one message to another is much easier now than in the past.

Billboards used to be made from paper glued onto the frame. But today's billboard faces are simply one large piece of vinyl that basically snaps into the frame. Depending on the contract with the client, a billboard can stay up for as long as three years or as short as 30 days.

Nauman designs some billboards himself, while other clients provide their own designs. The billboard is then produced on what looks like a giant ink-jet printer.

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When on the road himself, Nauman said he usually looks at every billboard he passes.

"As a designer I like to see what other people are doing as well," he said. "You can gather some ideas. Especially in the the city I really like to see the billboards and see what people are doing and what they're saying."

Away from work, Nauman is a pinball enthusiast.

"I've got a lot of pinball machines and I enjoy playing them and I enjoy working on them and collecting them," he said.

Nauman also enjoys golf.

jbarron@gannett.com

740-304-9296

Twitter: @JeffDBarron

This article originally appeared on Lancaster Eagle-Gazette: Jay Nauman is fourth-generation owner of outdoor advertising company