Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief
Last week at the DPAA Canada Summit, Vertical Impression announced the winners of the 2025 Attention Excellence Awards, the out-of-home industry’s first creative recognition program based entirely on what actually captures attention, not what looks impressive to a judging panel.
The results? Four campaigns that didn’t just turn heads — they measurably held attention in real-world environments across North America.
Every measurement came from Canadian elevator network where audiences encountered OOH creative in focused, uninterrupted moments. Thousands of authentic interactions across diverse demographics, all contributing to a comprehensive understanding of creative performance that’s never existed before.
Top 10-Second Creative
City of Toronto for Community Environment Days
Sometimes the best creative comes from clients who truly get it — and the City of Toronto has been working with us for years to refine their messaging based on real attention data. The results speak for themselves.
Top 15-Second Creative
Talon, Rogers Sports & Media, Hearts & Science for Sportsnet’s NHL
When client, planning, and buying teams break down silos and work together (plus collaborate with us), magic happens. This campaign delivered excellence across their entire portfolio.
Top Canadian Campaign
CBC and Initiative for CBC News
Their ads were more fast-paced than the news cycle itself — and that’s exactly what made them impossible to ignore.
Top North American Campaign
Knix for Sport Your Period
This one gave us chills. A fearless Canadian founder who didn’t wait for permission, turned elevator screens into platforms of truth, and reminded us all that attention is earned, not given.
Each winner was determined purely by attention metrics — which creative actually performed best at capturing and holding genuine audience attention, measured in real-time as people encountered these campaigns in the real world.
Nicolette Leonardis, President + Co-Founder of Vertical Impression told us “We know that optimizing campaigns with attention data leads to stronger business outcomes. 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 attention in seconds 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.”
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