The Innovation Pointe campus in Stillwater, Oklahoma is an innovation district that provides the resources to make businesses successful. It all began in 2016 when Central Electric Cooperative, an electric distribution cooperative that serves more than 20,000 meters in seven central Oklahoma counties, constructed a new headquarters with the vision of drawing more renewable energy companies this new business park.
The cooperative envisioned signage for the campus that would make a statement and give the co-op flexibility in messaging, so they turned to MetroSign Corporation of Oklahoma City.
“[Central Electric Cooperative] had a good idea of what they were looking for to create a bold statement about the campus,” said Bill Fair, senior account executive at MetroSign. “We suggested some modifications and specified Watchfire Signs to manufacture the message boards because we find their signs to be the most reliable in the region’s hot summers. Watchfire’s five-year product warranty and MetroSign’s five-year labor warranty sealed the deal.”
The new double-sided sign is a huge 43-foot-tall-by-13-foot-wide monolithic structure on a base of rock veneer. The Innovation Pointe logo is a combination of reverse channel letters and flat cut-out aluminum letters that run alongside the high resolution, full-color message centers.
“As an electric co-op that’s owned by our members, we try to provide members as much information as possible,” said Larry Mattox, director of communications at Central Electric Cooperative. ““We really wanted quality signs and built that into the specs. Watchfire met our tough requirements.
“Our new Watchfire message centers really fit our proactive style of communicating.”
Central Electric Cooperative broadcasts a wide variety of messages on the new signs, including safety promotions, community events, and help wanted information.
“Three-quarters of our members live within a twenty-five-mile radius of Innovation Pointe, and our location on a major route into Stillwater provides these messages with a lot of exposure to our members,” said Mattox.
The 24-1/3-foot-tall 16mm Watchfire signs deliver 4.8 million exposures per year and have allowed the co-op to trim their advertising budget. In fact, since turning on the new sign in the fall of 2017, Central has been able to cut back on some newspaper advertising.
Surprisingly the new sign has also become a popular landmark for residents to take selfies in front of for posting on social media. For Veteran’s Day, Central asked its members to send in photos of family veterans to feature on the signage, then ran consecutive messages featuring the vets.
“We had vets sitting and watching the slideshow, taking selfies in front of the sign and posting on social media,” said Mattox. “It’s been a great community builder.”
