How to Plan One Billboard Campaign Across Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and Kansas City

Can one vendor cover Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and Kansas City?

Yes. Whistler Billboards owns and operates billboards in the Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and Kansas City metros, so one contract can cover a regional billboard campaign across all three. You get one point of contact, one set of creative specs, coordinated flight dates, and proof of performance in one format. You still need to plan each market on its own terms.

That last part is where most regional plans go wrong. The three cities sit on connected highways, but their billboard inventory is built very differently. A plan that treats them as one big market usually overspends in one city and underdelivers in another.

Key takeaways

• One owner-operator with boards in all three metros means one contract, one contact, and one reporting format.



• Split budget by business opportunity first, then set a minimum board count per market, then adjust for local rates.



• Kansas City rates run higher, so an even dollar split buys less weight there.



• Oklahoma City inventory leans much more digital than Tulsa or Kansas City. Plan your format mix city by city.



• Consolidating vendors should save you work. It should never cost you the placements you actually need.

What does one vendor save you on a regional billboard campaign?

The biggest savings are time and consistency. You stop reconciling three sets of terms, spec sheets, and report formats.

• One contract. One set of terms, one billing cycle, and one renewal date instead of three.



• One point of contact. Changes go through one person who sees all three markets.



• One set of creative specs. Your designer works from a single spec sheet, so every size meets the same requirements.



• Coordinated flight dates. A flight is the period your ad runs. One vendor can line up start and end dates across all three cities.



• Unified proof of performance. Posting photos and play reports arrive in the same format for every market, which makes side-by-side review simple.

If you're not sure what a good report should contain, our guide to proof of performance for billboards walks through it.

There's a quieter benefit, too. Audience numbers are only comparable when they're built the same way. Whistler Billboards location sheets list the traffic count source and year behind each face. When all three markets come from one vendor, you're comparing Tulsa, Oklahoma City, and Kansas City on the same basis instead of mixing methods from different sellers.

Which out-of-home companies have boards in the Tulsa market?

Whistler Billboards is Oklahoma's largest privately held billboard company and is headquartered in Tulsa. It has 373 billboard faces on 210 structures across eight counties in the Tulsa market. Nationally recognized chains also operate in Tulsa, so ask every vendor for a face list by county and corridor before you compare quotes.

You'll often see this called the Tulsa DMA, or designated market area. It's the group of counties that share the same local media, and it reaches well past city limits.

For Whistler Billboards, that footprint covers Tulsa, Rogers, Wagoner, Washington, Creek, Mayes, Okmulgee, and Delaware counties. The Tulsa billboard inventory page breaks it down by corridor and community.

How are the three markets built differently?

Each city has a different format mix, and that mix should shape your plan. The numbers below come from Whistler Billboards inventory records. In all three markets, the 14 by 48 foot bulletin is the most common size.

Tulsa is deep and mostly static

Tulsa is the largest of the three by board count. Most faces are static bulletins, with super faces, tri-vision boards, and about 54 digital faces mixed in. Tri-vision boards use rotating slats to show three messages on one face.

Coverage runs heavy in the suburbs. Broken Arrow alone has 74 faces, and Owasso has 35. That depth lets you build coverage around specific locations.

Oklahoma City leans digital

Oklahoma City has 127 faces on 63 structures, and about 41 percent of them are digital. Those digital faces sit at major interchanges across the metro, such as I-35 and I-40, I-44 and I-40, I-240 and I-35, and I-44 and I-235.

The market also has 26 super faces, an oversized billboard format that stands out from standard bulletins. Coverage reaches beyond the core into Norman, Edmond, and Shawnee. The Oklahoma City billboard page shows the locations.

Kansas City is static and covers both states

Kansas City has 103 faces on 53 structures. That includes 90 bulletins, 11 digital faces, and 2 super faces. Boards sit on both the Missouri and Kansas sides, from Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas to Jackson, Cass, and Clay counties in Missouri.

Kansas City inventory also extends north to St. Joseph. See the Kansas City billboard locations for the full spread.

How do the highways connect Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and Kansas City?

Interstate 44 is the spine. It links Oklahoma City and Tulsa via the Turner Turnpike, which the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority describes as running between the two cities. From Tulsa, I-44 continues northeast as the Will Rogers Turnpike toward Missouri.

In Missouri, Interstate 49 runs north into the south side of the Kansas City metro. The Missouri Department of Transportation notes that I-49 was built by upgrading U.S. 71 north of Joplin through the Harrisonville area into Cass and Jackson counties.

Whistler Billboards has corridor boards along that route:

• Super faces on I-44 near Chandler, between Oklahoma City and Tulsa



• Dozens of faces on I-44 and the Will Rogers Turnpike around Tulsa



• Bulletins on I-49 through Grandview, Belton, Peculiar, and Harrisonville on the south side of Kansas City

Decision rule. Buy corridor boards when your customers travel between metros, such as regional service providers, franchises, or travel and hospitality brands. If your customers live and shop inside each metro, put that money into in-market boards near your locations instead.

How should you split budget across three markets?

Don't split your budget evenly. Use a three-step approach we call Weight, Floor, Price. Weight each market by business opportunity, set a minimum board count for each one, then adjust for local rates. This keeps your strongest market funded without leaving the others too thin to work.

1. Weight by opportunity. Start with what each market is worth to you. Use locations, sales, lead volume, or growth targets. A brand with eight stores in Tulsa and two in Kansas City shouldn't fund them the same.



2. Set a floor. Decide the minimum number of boards each market needs to do its job. A good starting rule is at least one well-placed face near every location's main approach route. If the budget can't reach that floor, drop the market for this flight rather than spread thin.



3. Adjust for price. Rates differ by city. Whistler Billboards publishes typical ranges of about $25 to $100 per day, per board in Tulsa and Oklahoma City, and about $67 to $167 per day, per board in Kansas City.

At the midpoint of those ranges, a Kansas City board costs nearly twice as much per day as one in Oklahoma City or Tulsa. So if you split the budget evenly, Kansas City gets far fewer boards for the same dollars.

Exact rates depend on traffic, visibility, format, and flight length. Ask for a market-by-market quote, not one blended number.

How do you mix digital and static by market?

Let each city's inventory guide the mix. Oklahoma City has enough digital to carry a digital-heavy plan. Tulsa and Kansas City are mostly static, so plans there usually lean on bulletins with digital used selectively.

A static board shows your ad full time. A digital board shares the screen. Whistler Billboards digital faces generally run your ad as one of eight spots in a rotation, 8 seconds each. That leads to a simple split.

• Use static for your core message. Brand name, main offer, and directions to your location belong on full-time faces.



• Use digital for messages that change. Seasonal offers, event dates, and market-specific promos are easier to swap on a screen than on printed vinyl.



• Don't force a format. If Kansas City has the right static board, take it. Don't hold out for digital to match Oklahoma City.

What should your creative plan include?

Plan a family of files, not one design. One master file is not enough for a three-market buy, because super faces, 10 by 30 boards, and digital screens each need their own version.

The proportions don't match. A super face is far taller relative to its width than a 14 by 48 bulletin. Digital screens need RGB pixel files, while vinyl prints need CMYK. Kansas City inventory also includes 14 faces at 10 feet 6 inches by 36 feet, each needing its own layout. Check every size against the billboard design specs before design starts.

Keep the brand consistent and let the details flex. Franchise systems already work this way, pairing a shared look with local offers, as covered in our post on billboards and franchise marketing. Use the same logo, colors, and core line in every city, then change the location or offer by market.

What do operators see go wrong on multi-market flights?

Most problems on a three-market buy aren't about the boards. They're about the files behind them.

• Late artwork delays static starts. Late artwork is the most common reason a static board starts late. Vinyl has to be printed and shipped before a crew can post it, and that clock doesn't start until proofs are approved.



• A late file can cost you paid days. Billing usually starts on the scheduled start date. When the delay is on the buyer's side, the board can sit blank while the flight runs.



• The one-file shortcut. Sending one master design and asking the vendor to make it fit every size leads to cropped logos and unreadable copy. Build each size on purpose.

How do you measure a three-market campaign?

Measure each market on its own, then compare. A blended result hides which city is working. Set up the same tracking in all three before launch.

What to set up before launch

• Proof of performance by market. Confirm every face posted or played as booked, city by city.



• A unique response path per market. Use a separate short web address or tracking phone number for each city.



• Location data in your analytics. Compare website visits from each metro before and during the flight.



• Location-level business data. Track calls, direction requests, and visits for each store or office in that market.



• A clean baseline. Pull at least a few weeks of pre-flight data for each city.

How impressions are estimated

Impressions are estimates, not counts of people who looked. The Out of Home Advertising Association of America (OAAA) points to Geopath ratings as the standard for out-of-home audience measurement. The Geopath methodology overview describes models built from road network data, trip patterns, population data, and mobile device movement data.

Other audience figures start from road traffic counts. Both methods are useful. The mistake is comparing a Geopath number from one vendor with a traffic-count number from another and calling one market stronger. Ask which method each number uses.

When should you not consolidate?

Consolidation should save work. It should never cost you placement. If one vendor doesn't have a board on the corridor your customers actually drive, buying a weaker board just to keep one contract is a bad trade.

Before you sign, map every proposed face against your locations and your customers' routes. If a key gap shows up, buy that placement where it exists.

What should be on your regional buyer checklist?

Run through this list before you approve a three-market plan.

• Confirm the vendor owns inventory in all three metros, and get a face list for each one.



• Weight each market by opportunity, set a board floor, then price each city separately.



• Choose digital or static city by city, based on the inventory each city actually has.



• Map every face against your locations and your customers' routes.



• Decide whether corridor boards between metros fit your customers' travel.



• Brief your designer on every board size in the plan.



• Lock artwork deadlines with room to spare before each static start date.



• Set up a separate response path and baseline for each city.



• Ask how each audience figure was calculated.

Frequently asked questions

Is there one billboard vendor that covers Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and Kansas City?

Yes. Whistler Billboards owns and operates billboards in the Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and Kansas City metros. One contract can cover all three, with one point of contact, one set of creative specs, coordinated flight dates, and proof of performance in one format.

Which out-of-home companies have billboards in the Tulsa market?

Whistler Billboards has 373 billboard faces on 210 structures across eight counties in the Tulsa market, and it is headquartered in Tulsa. Nationally recognized chains also operate there, so ask each vendor for a face list by county and corridor before comparing quotes.

Should I split my billboard budget evenly across three markets?

No. Weight each market by business opportunity, set a minimum board count for each one, then adjust for local rates. Kansas City rates run higher than Tulsa and Oklahoma City, so an even dollar split buys fewer boards there.

Should a regional billboard campaign use digital or static boards?

Use both, and decide city by city. Oklahoma City inventory is about 41 percent digital, while Tulsa and Kansas City are mostly static. Put your core message on full-time static faces and use digital for offers that change.

Can I use one design file for every market?

No. Super faces, 10 by 30 boards, and digital screens each need their own version because their proportions and file types differ. Check every size in your plan against the vendor's design specs before design starts.

How do I measure results in each city?

Track each market on its own. Use a separate web address or phone number per city, compare analytics by location before and during the flight, and review proof of performance for every market. Blended results hide which city is working.

https://www.whistlerbillboards.com/billboard-mastery/how-to-plan-billboard-campaign-across-markets/?fsp_sid=941