The MileAds story

It started with cleaning up our own backyard.

MileAds is not a media company that bought a location in Valleyview. It is a Valleyview property owner who tore down a rotting highway sign, built a board in its place, runs it himself, and answers his own phone.

Matt Shepard on the platform of the old Horizon Inn sign, changing its letterboard message — Saying goodbye to the old Horizon Inn sign.

The corner nobody was proud of

When Matt Shepard and a partner took over the Klondike Gateway Mobile Home Community, the property came with the old Horizon Inn sign: a rotting highway landmark at the gateway to town. Tearing it down was not a business decision. It just needed doing. But it left a question standing where the sign used to be: what should a town's front corner actually say?

The old Horizon Inn sign being lifted out by a crane, and the new steel pole raised in its place — Out with the old sign, up with the new pole.

From an idea, to a plan, to a reality

Valleyview's 2018 Economic Development Strategy pointed at the same gap: the Highway 43 and 49 junction sees the region's traffic, and none of it was being spoken to. In December 2018 Matt launched the company, then called The Really Good Advertising Company, and financed a dual-screen, 20 by 10 feet digital board for the corner. It went live in October 2019, and local businesses, trades, and event organizers started using it almost immediately.

The board displaying a free community message thanking Alberta's truckers for staying on the road — A free community message on the board during the pandemic.

Standing with Valleyview when things got hard

Then COVID hit, and advertising budgets disappeared overnight. The board did not go dark. It ran free community messages instead: support for local businesses, evacuation notices, RCMP alerts, thank-yous to the truckers who kept the province moving. Revenue could wait. Being useful to the town could not. That call still defines how the board is run.

The rebrand: Really Good Advertising Co. becomes MileAds Media Solutions, new name same goals — New name, same goals.

From Really Good Advertising to MileAds Media Solutions

In 2024 Matt became the sole owner and renamed the venture MileAds Media Solutions. The name says what the board is: a mile marker for travelers, and a lead generator for the local businesses on it. Same corner, same owner, sharper mission.

Local first

The owner lives here and has a stake in the town growing. When your business does better, so does the corner it advertises on.

Straightforward and human

Published prices, no call centers, no account managers between you and the person who runs the screens.

Community in the loop

The board carries community messages when the town needs it, the way it did through COVID. That is part of the deal of owning the corner.

What this means for your business

You are not renting space from a national network that has never driven Highway 43. You are working with the person who owns the board, knows the corridor, and has a reason to want your campaign to work.

That means honest advice about what fits, a design built for a driver going 100 km/h, and an ad that goes live usually within 24 hours. Whether you run a shop, a hotel, an oilfield service, or you are hiring, the board puts you in front of the traffic that already passes your door.

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On the corner since: 2019
Owner-operated: One person, start to finish
Community messages run free: When the town needs them

Matt Shep Shepard, owner and operator of MileAds Media Solutions

Meet Matt "Shep" Shepard

Before billboards, Matt served as an Army combat medic, worked as a firefighter, and spent years in oilfield safety. He is an ultrarunner and race director, and he speaks on resilience through The Mountain Method.

You can count on Matt to make it happen. Call 780-552-3685 and you get me, not a queue.

See the location the story is about

Talk to Matt about the board

One owner, two screens, and a straight answer.

Get a quote 780-552-3685