Company:  Southern Billboards and McIntyre Outdoor Advertising

Markets: Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina

Headquarters: 103 Gillette Drive, Franklin, TN 37069

Phone: 615.807.0703

Southern Billboards and McIntyre Outdoor, with Jim McIntyre the CEO of both entities, have a significant footprint of billboard structures throughout the South. Jim has been involved with Southern since 2009 and McIntyre Outdoor since 1990.  The companies are operator associates in the IBOUSA.

Insider interviewed Jim McIntyre.

Jim, can you share with us about your background in the billboard business?

My career began as a UT Knoxville graduate with a degree in Marketing and Transportation.  I had hoped to go to work with Delta Airlines or perhaps one of the big railroad or trucking companies but the economy was in recession. Unable to find work, I answered a help wanted ad in the local newspaper. Suddenly I was in the billboard business with Creative Displays and my education really began. I learned sales, then sales management and became a sales trainer teaching in many Creative Displays markets.  We were purchased by Lamar in 1987, and I eventually became a GM in San Antonio with Rollins Outdoor and later with Reagan Outdoor.

You are running two different entities.  What’s the story behind those two companies?

I moved to Nashville in 1990 and started McIntyre Outdoor.  We sold most of our Nashville inventory in May of 2016 to Outfront Media, holding on to 10 faces that I still operate.

Southern Billboards was acquired in 2009 by me, Jerry Bowen and Barry Cramer.  Barry is the GM and COO of Southern. Currently we have about 170 faces in mostly small markets in the southeast.

You have structures in seven states.  Tell us about your inventory and how you target locations?

Southern has been an unusual challenge to operate a footprint in 7 states.  We have been able to sell effectively with sales offices in Florida and Tennessee.   Operations is done entirely with a group of really good subcontractors in every state. We no longer operate in Florida, but have picked up some 25 locations in Kentucky.

Do you have any digital inventory?

We currently are forming plans for digital conversions in several markets. We recently developed a new location in downtown Nashville adjacent to the new TopGolf attraction.