Hilite Outdoor’s Cartop #DOOH Network

Tristan Cotterill

Hilite Outdoor has officially launched the first cartop Digital Out of Home network in Canada. Founded by Solomon Misghina, CEO, and Eamon Leonard, COO, veterans of the digital out of home and data science fields, the Hilite network has launched in Toronto, to be followed closely by launches in Vancouver and Montreal.

As with similar ‘networks’, the idea is that digital smart screens sit atop Uber, Lyft, Amazon Flex, DoorDash, SkipTheDishes, and InstaCart vehicles allowing Hilites to deliver impactful, geotargeted, hi-def street level campaigns in densely-populated urban areas.

Hilite’s inventory is available through direct buys (info@hiliteoutdoor.com), as well as on the Hivestack DSP. One of Hivestack’s major partners, Kevin McDonald, CEO of Kinetic Canada, speaks about the value of Hilite’s granular geotargeting and unprecedented reach and told us “I think as long as advertisers have the opportunity to activate creative in a very localized sense, then I think it’s a welcome change. One of the things that is a little different, is rather than targeting people riding in the car like other players in the car digital business, Hilite makes its impressions with people walking along the street. You can reach a higher audience outside of the car than in the car. Since consumers are bombarded with a lot of messages in downtown Toronto, Hilite is going to benefit in rural and suburban areas. Many of those smaller jurisdictions are still served by services like Uber, Lyft and Skipthedishes, so when someone rideshares or orders meal delivery, ad recall will likely be higher, because those areas aren’t as concentrated with ads and OOH placements.”

Another feature that distinguishes Hilite from some of its competitors is near-real time measurement of impressions. By partnering with StreetMetrics Hilite gives clients actual third-party impressions calculated from mobile device IDs in proximity to their signs, not estimates from outdated studies or inaccurate methodologies. Whether a campaign is delivered in sunny weather, or on a rainy day, or even during a pandemic, clients always get what they pay for.

StreetMetrics CEO and Founder Drew Jackson said “Hilite Outdoor understands the power that digital brings to out of home ads. Digital out of home is growing at a rapid pace – programmatic delivery through street-level screens in motion makes it even more powerful. However, until recently, the measurement tech needed to verify this power was missing. Now, with a purpose-built solution from StreetMetrics, moving digital media companies like Hilite can finally validate the impact of their media. Hilite has embraced the digital out of home revolution, and we’re here to support them with industry leading measurement to ensure that the performance of every ad play is properly gauged.”

Founded in 2019, Hilite Outdoor is Canada’s first cartop DOOH network. With its suite of analytics tools, Hilite brings together the measurement and attribution of online advertising with the reach of DOOH, and takes it a step further by delivering impactful campaigns to urban and suburban neighbourhoods where stationary DOOH can’t reach.


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