How did you, get your start into the out of home business?

It was my father, Ben Plain, who got me into the out of home business. He was working for an independent operator here in Chattanooga procuring land leases, and one thing led to another and I started my first company, Creative Outdoor Advertising, in 1998. From there, I was able to grow the company in several smaller markets around the Chattanooga and North Georgia areas and eventually sold that company in 2006 to Fairway Outdoor and Lamar Advertising. Semi-retirement wasn’t a good look for me, so in 2010 I started my second out of home company and the one we have today, Plainview Outdoor Advertising.

Tell us about your plant?

Plainview currently operates in four different cities stretching from Knoxville down to North Georgia, with the majority of our assets residing in and around Chattanooga. We are primarily a digital out of home company, operating 33 digital faces and 4 static faces. The reason we’ve invested so heavily in the digital side of OOH is because we believe digital is the future of our industry. We aren’t looking to have the most locations in a market, just the best.

Whose digital signs do you use and what have you learned?

Plainview’s parent company, The Plainview Group, also owns and operates Plainview LED, a digital signage company whose products range from indoor to outdoor, small format all the way to spectacular and stadium signage and have sold signs in 10 different states spanning from Washington state to Philadelphia all the way down to the gulf coast. With their specialty being in digital billboards, it was easy to make the decision to use Plainview LED for all 33 of our digital billboards. They offer a phenomenal product and even better service with a 10-year warranty on all billboard series signs.

How has COVID-19 impacted your company?

We, like most every other company in America, have been impacted by the pandemic we are currently in. We’ve been fortunate in that we were able to bounce back fairly quickly and our fourth quarter was a record quarter for our company. So, needless to say, we are very excited about the future here at Plainview and are looking forward to an excellent 2021.