Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief
Vertical Impression and DPAA have announced the 2025 Attention Excellence Awards, an out-of-home industry’s creative recognition program based entirely on attention measurement data.
The awards will be presented at the DPAA Canada Summit on June 11 at Scotiabank in Toronto.
The awards mark a historic shift toward data-driven creative evaluation in the OOH industry.
“Where creativity meets data, and where the only bias is towards brilliance,” said Barry Frey, President & CEO DPAA. “These awards represent a fundamental evolution in how our industry recognizes and celebrates creative excellence.”
The Attention Excellence Awards utilize Vertical Impression’s patented real-time attention measurement technology deployed across their Canadian elevator network to capture privacy-compliant, genuine audience engagement with DOOH creative from all campaigns. Unlike traditional methods that rely on demographic projections or post-campaign surveys, this approach measures the precise moment when creative captures attention in the real world, not a lab, with winners determined purely by these attention metrics.
“For too long, our industry has operated on educated guesses about what works,” said Nicolette Leonardis, President + Co-Founder of Vertical Impression. “We’re providing something that’s never been done at scale before, guaranteed attention for every campaign.”
The Attention Excellence Awards will recognize outstanding creative performance across four distinct categories:
- Top 10-Second Creative — The creative that captured the most attention in a 10-second format
- Top 15-Second Creative — The creative that captured the most attention in a 15-second format
- Top Canadian Campaign — The campaign that captured the most attention in Canada
- Top North American Campaign — The campaign that captured the most attention across the North American market
The organsers say that the awards establish attention-based measurement as a new standard for evaluating OOH creative excellence, moving the industry beyond what looks good to what delivers results.
“We know that optimizing campaigns with attention data leads to stronger business outcomes.” said Nicolette. “Since 2014, we’ve been pioneering AI-powered attention measurement across what has grown to become North America’s largest residential elevator network. With the expansion of our tech stack in 2024, programmatic buyers can now access real, performance-based attention metrics that enable optimization based on actual audience engagement rather than assumptions. This gives marketers and agencies the ability to see what’s capturing attention, optimize campaigns in real-time based on attention data, and allocate budgets more effectively to drive measurable outcomes.”
Vertical Impression transforms elevator rides into powerful brand experiences through strategic placement and advanced analytics. Their network connects brands with premium audiences where they live, work, and spend, delivering both attention and impact.
“DPAA’s Canada Summit is always a big hit,” said Barry Frey, President & CEO of DPAA. “Every year the Canadian advertising community connects, engages and learns about the latest innovations in the industry at this key industry event. We look forward to another great gathering hosted at Cineplex Media’s iconic Scotiabank Theater.”
Sponsors for the event include Adapt Media, Broadsign, Captivate, Cineplex Media, GymTV, Pattison, Perion, Reveal Mobile, Rogers Media, UB Media, Vertical Impression, Vistar.
Registration can be found here.
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