Since our founding in 2004, OBM has been committed to pursuing a community-oriented model of outdoor media that integrates art, community content, and advertising. OBM has grown by helping to design a better business model for the public, allowing cities to participate directly through public-private partnerships that create recurring revenue to fund community investment and support for the arts, and by recognizing that our work needs to enhance rather than detract from the character of the cities in which we work.
Many of our projects seek to unite signature architecture and art, and OBM regularly partners with leading contemporary artists, architects, and institutions to develop projects that challenge the formal and aesthetic conventions of signage. OBM is the preferred partner of cities seeking to develop durable and recurring revenue streams on city assets, operating signage on and about convention centers, performing arts complexes, parking structures, and in the right-of-way with our smart city kiosk platform, IKE.
We work closely with cities in the creation and reformation of signage code and other land use regulations and are the leading operator of signage in special use “Districts,” including the Atlanta Arts and Entertainment District, Denver Theatre District, in Washington, DC, Boston, and many more.
Many OBM projects involve working directly with art institutions and increasingly with contemporary artists. OBM has developed a unique funding mechanism to commission public art and has maintained a longstanding commitment to leveraging our platform to share artists’ work and ideas in an extraordinarily accessible and egalitarian way.
Past efforts include:
Click below to learn more about our latest initiative #OBMARTS.
Local businesses and non-profits are the lifeblood of cities, contributing to the unique sense of place, community fabric, and economic health of our downtowns. During the COVID-19 crisis, we developed the #OBMSUPPORTSLOCAL initiative, donating significant airtime to local and independent businesses, as well as non-profits. This initiative continues today and has expanded --in addition to donating airtime to local non-profits, #OBMSUPPORTSLOCAL serves as a rallying cry for all of our community engagement efforts.
When the unprecedented pandemic took hold of our nation, OBM quickly created and deployed multilingual COVID-19 public service announcements on behalf of our city partners. Content included information about resources, public safety reminders, and emergency services.