News

The Uplifting Variety.

Grand Strand organization puts job seekers on billboards for month-long hiring campaign

October 12, 2020: Excerpted from a post by WMBF News

October is “Hire Me Month” for SOS Care, an organization that works with people with special needs.

This year, SOS Care has several job seekers ready to enter the workforce.

Cleaning in maintenance, dietary and housekeeping are several areas where Ezra Tribble has been able to build some experience as part of the Hire Me campaign with SOS Care.

“I go into it to do the mop, spraying the tables, that kind of stuff,” said Tribble.

Tribble has spent the past few months interning at C3 coffee bar in Conway.

Prior to that, he interned at Conway Medical Center, where he helped clean in several different departments.

Now, he feels like he’s ready for a job, and so does his SOS Care Employment Coach Kristin Schlichting.

“They really enjoy going to work, and I think that’s the most important thing with our participants is that they really, really benefit by pleasing others,” said Schlichting.

SOS Care dedicates October to raising awareness for its job seekers with its Hire Me campaign. According to a statistic from SOS Care, only a third of people with disabilities in South Carolina worked last year, and 2,900 of those people made less than a dollar an hour.

Tribble has become one of the faces of this year’s Hire Me month. Coastal Outdoor has posted him on several of its billboards.

“I like to do a smiling face,” said Tribble. “The smiling face would be for the hire me.”

Tribble’s best friend Larry Lane graduated from CCU last year and has his own billboard.

Through the CCU program, Lane got experience at Outback and Walk-Ons.

“I sweep the floors, set up the tables and cleaning,” said Lane.

Tribble and Lane are hoping all of that experience, and the billboard ads will help to land them a job during Hire Me month.

“Just because people have a disability does not mean that they are not able and capable,” said SOS Care Marketing Director Stacey Lyon. “They have the skills to be successful, and it’s important for us as a community to incorporate them into our neighborhoods.”

Tribble and Lane have completed the Hire Me training with SOS Care and are ready to enter the workforce.

Billboards line the highway to honor Officer Jacob Hancher

October 6, 2020: Excerpted from a post by ABC 15 News

Coastal Outdoor Advertising is using its billboards to send their condolences in the wake of the death of Myrtle Beach Officer Jacob Hancher.

The advertising companies have special billboards running at the following locations:

Hwy 17 bypass 1.39 miles s/o Harrelson Blvd
Hwy 17 bypass .5 mile n/o 48th Ave
Hwy 17 business .73 miles s/o Harrelson Blvd
Hwy 17 Business .15 miles n/o 79th Ave
Hwy 17 Bypass .46 miles n/o 21st Ave
Hwy 17 Bypass at 10th Ave
21st Ave N .71 miles w/o Hwy 17 Bypass
21st Ave N .71 miles w/o Hwy 17 Bypass

Officer Hancher was killed in a shooting, which happened around 10 p.m. Saturday in Myrtle Beach, according to Amy Prock, the Chief of Police for the Myrtle Beach Police Department.

Shoutouts to Meadow, Do It Outdoors, Coastal

April 28, 2020: Excerpted from a post by BillboardInsider.com

Coastal Outdoor’s Ashley Amoroso says: Coastal Outdoor is taking a different approach to the ubiquitous COVID-19 messaging you’ve already seen. Our initial inspiration was to play with the word “home”. When you are a child, a teenager, or even in your 20’s, it’s never cool to “stay home”. Due to the pandemic, the majority of the population has now been asked or ordered to stay indoors. We decided to flip that restriction into an asset and turn a very uncool thing into something cool… with a little help from the “old school”.

Some thoughts that came to mind… graffiti, D.J. Jazzy Jeff, Jenny “from the block”, bright colors, city scapes, a sort of 90s dayglow aesthetic, and finally a call to action: “Be a Homeboy/Girl.” In other words, by staying home you can save lives, which is a VERY COOL thing to do. As we continued to brainstorm for additional plays on the word “home”, it occurred to us that this pandemic literally changed the meaning of the word “homebody.” Formally a noun, “a person who is perceived as unadventurous”, it has now become a verb; being a homebody is simply the right thing to do.

Finally, all of these stay-at-home messages got us thinking: “Who needs to be protected the most?” Our grandmas and grandpas, great aunts & uncles, all of our beloved elderly, especially those with underlying health conditions. Immediately, the little embroidered pillows that Grandma used to stitch came to mind. They were ever present on Grandma’s reading chair and lovingly adorned the guest bed. So in our final message, we stitched “Home is Where the Smart is.”

These ads are currently posted across our digital network up and down the Grand Strand. It is our hope that we will be able to increase awareness and encourage everyone to help stop the spread of COVID-19. While we look forward to happier and safer days, Coastal Outdoor is proud of and grateful for our medium’s ability to communicate and have an impact during such an unprecedented time.

Coastal Outdoor, Coastal Carolina LIFE Program and Dinosaurs

October 3, 2019: Post by BillboardInsider.com

Insider is always looking for examples of how our industry works with their communities in innovative ways. We noticed an article on the WPDE TV news site featuring a Coastal Carolina student, Nicolas Rosa, and an internship he recently started with Coastal Outdoor. You can read the full article through this link, but we went ahead and contacted Pudge Roberts at Coastal Outdoor for more details.

Pudge, can you tell us about the LIFE Program at CCU and how Coastal Outdoor is involved?

The LIFE program at CCU is a 4 year program for young adults who have mild to moderate intellectual and/or developmental disabilities. Internships are a part of this program. Brian Keys, Nick’s employment coordinator, approached Coastal about Nick potentially working here for the semester. After meeting Nick, we felt it would be a great experience for him & for us to join our team as an intern. He is interested in Graphic Design and obviously loves dinosaurs.

When did Nick start his internship, how long will he work with the Company and what types of things will he do as a part of his internship.

Nick just started his internship on Wednesday, 9/25/19. He will be with us through December. He is currently working directly with Ashley Amoroso, our Director of Strategic Planning who leads the creative department as well as our company’s process & procedures. Our award winning design team, Devanie McCartney & Kelly Jacobs are teaching Nick hands on Photoshop & Illustrator skills. Nick is learning about Coastal Outdoor’s creative process. He has learned how to create proofs and follow the appropriate approval protocol. We are still learning all of Nick’s capabilities and hope to expand on his already brilliant illustration skills as well as teach him other aspects of office life such as clocking in, clocking out, filing and even spending some time with the sales & operations teams. Our main focus is to help his design skills flourish & grow because that is Nick’s passion. For us to be able to afford Nick the opportunity to learn first-hand from Devanie & Kelly, 2 professional & experienced artists in a workforce setting is an honor for us.

We understand that Nicolas, using a dinosaur theme, got some face time on about 20 of Coastal’s boards? Can you tell us about that project?

Nick’s first assignment was “What does the LIFE program mean to you?” He was asked to start off with writing a paragraph of an analysis about his 4 year journey at CCU and what he has learned through the LIFE program, how it has helped him, where he has struggled and what goals he hopes to accomplish after graduation. In his write up, he said “My goal is to illustrate paleontology kids’ books.” This prompted Ashley & the team to not only show the world (or at the very least, Myrtle Beach,) what wonderful goals Nick has but also to recognize the LIFE program and the great work they do. Nick’s billboard artwork posted on 18 of our 27 digital billboards, giving him over 1,675,097 impression counts to date. His artwork was up for only 24 hours before receiving local news coverage. Due to social media coverage, we even heard from a nonprofit organization in New Jersey, asking about the LIFE program as they were interested in implementing the program themselves. We plan to feature more of Nick’s quotes & illustrations over the next several weeks and we also plan for him to help our team create self & holiday promotions.

I am proud that we can contribute to the LIFE program in such a meaningful way and I hope that the experience & skills Nick learns with us will help him in his life journey as well as understand the power of out of home advertising and how it contributes to the community.