Patrick Cresson is a New Orleanian through and through. His work, both in and out of the office, is dedicated to improving the city for residents and attracting new business.
“I live in New Orleans, I am from Greater New Orleans, and I currently reside in Lakeview right here in New Orleans,” Cresson said. “I want to retire in New Orleans. And I believe firmly, it’s our responsibility as business leaders to try to make the city better, and it’s corny as hell, but it’s true.”
A friend who knew he was looking for work closer to home, suggested he look into the media company, OutFront. He was attracted by the lack of travel, but what hooked Cresson was how this job would ingrain him in the New Orleans community.
At the time the company had been operating successfully in New Orleans for seven years. “This job spans every single business as a potential client, which is my favorite thing about the business.” Including city government, OutFront has integrated into the greater business community in New Orleans in every aspect.
Starting in late 2017, he has worked under the title of sales director, but he is also responsible for real estate, sales, and the overall growth of the market. It’s a national, publicly-traded, multibillion dollar company that is based out of New York, but, in many ways, is run as fifty-plus individual businesses inside of the larger business. “We have 1000 plus local clients, that span from small public shops all the way up to the largest health systems like Ochsner, so, seemingly simple to very sophisticated type buyers,” Cresson said.
It was that diversity of clientele that attracted him. “Historically, I’ve only sold in healthcare and specifically like ophthalmology, ophthalmology,” Cresson said. “So it’s the same conversation over and over, versus, when you’re dealing with billboards, and really advertising in general, everyone is a potential client.”
In its most simple iteration, OutFront Media is a billboard company. An out-of-home media company, they create myriad out-of-home assets, the primary being billboards, but also transit walls, kiosks, and more.
OutFront gets brand awareness out into the community in a way that’s meaningful and impactful. They are one of the last truly growing forms of mass media that can’t be turned off or fast forwarded. Cresson was drawn to the industry because of the local entrenchment and stayed for the infinite growth potential. There are very few jobs, he says, that check both of those boxes.
When asked what motivates his involvement in so many local nonprofits and organizations looking to improve the city and safeguard its future, Cressons says his primary motivation is “just trying to make the city a little bit better than I found it.”
Ever involved in the community, Cresson has a hard time turning down opportunities. One that taught him more than he expected was an adjunct professorship at the University of New Orleans Marketing School. He not only learned more about the subject material than previous, but was greatly impressed by the students themselves. “I was expecting a class full of the backs of laptops looking at me and hearing clicking noise the whole time,” Cresson said. “And it actually could not have been further from the truth. It was very personally engaging. It gave me hope for the younger generation that I think gets a really bad rap for being unengaged and just tied to their phone.”
Cresson hopes that people will come to see the Crescent city as more than a place of tourism. He touts the city’s tech sector as punching above the city’s weight, and the specific opportunities in coastal restoration in New Orleans’s role as a port city. He wants outsiders to know that New Orleans can throw a great party, but it’s also a great place to raise your kids and grow your business. Cresson’s life outside of work is devoted to coaching his kids in baseball, “Again, it kind of goes back to that teacher leadership. I mean, I just enjoy that role.”
Cresson came to OutFront with little knowledge of the industry, but he learned that the core was the ability to relate to people, to understand their needs, what their objectives are, and just not superficially. In his time at OutFront, they have experienced exponential growth, increasing their market by 50% resulting in Cresson, as well as two of his representatives, winning the President’s Club award for their company this year.
Looking back on his career thus far, Cresson expresses a deep sense of gratitude for the mentors, and true friendships, at each place he’s had the fortune to work. This is a motivating force for his own active involvement in leadership roles in the greater New Orleans community, he wants to pay the good fortune and opportunities he’s received forward to the next generation.