Montreal-based Newad [1] has announced that it will invest $8 million in the next three years with the launch of a new generation of digital boards that company management says will consolidate its position as leader in indoor advertising in Canada, as well as pursue its growth plan.
This innovative technology will be launched in the upcoming weeks when 550 units will be installed in Newad’s Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Edmonton, and Calgary RestoBars network.
[2]Among the venues that will be hosting these new digital boards are: Brassaii [3] (Toronto), La Queue de Cheval [4] (Montreal), Chicago Chophouse [5] (Calgary), Century Grill [6] (Edmonton) and Republic (Vancouver) – all known for their premium reputation and trendsetting clientele.
In addition, Newad will install 3,500 additional digital boards over the next 36 months – allotting $2 million to Toronto, $1.5 million each to Montreal and Vancouver; and $1 million each to Edmonton and Calgary. While most boards will be in the washrooms of resto-bars, Newad intends to also incorporate boards into its Campus and Sports network locations.
The 22” screens’ management software will be by Scala [7]. M’Pact Inc. [8], Montreal. is providing the hardware, with installation by Newad’s own crews. A unique feature of the vertical screens is that they will have sound activated by motion, ie, when someone passes the screen, sound will come on but will not run continuously. Content is expected to be about 85% advertising, interspersed with Newad’s own production on such topics as fashion, music events and art, often produced in conjunction with Newad’s NIGHTLIFE.CA [9] magazine. The screens will be high resolution, high performance screens but will not offer 3D or interactivity, although ads can include QR codes for mobile interaction.
“Newad is notorious for its dynamism and constant innovation, and this initiative will allow us to further embody these qualities in new ways,” says Michael Reha, president and CEO of Newad. “In addition to enhancing our national distribution capacity, we will continue to develop creative solutions that aide advertisers in reaching their Young & Affluent target, a market for which we’ve developed an unmatched expertise.”
Marc Giguère, executive vice-president & COO of indoor advertising, says: “Within a few weeks, this expansion will allow us to deliver 1.1 million impressions through our digital boards every week and to offer our clients the most effective way to maximize the impact of their campaigns.
“With cutting-edge technology, we are offering communication solutions that allow us to act immediately and support campaigns in real-time through a state-of-the-art internal ad-serving system. Thus, advertisers can tailor their communications more precisely with content varying by city, establishment, date, or hour. In so doing, they will optimize their campaigns in an unprecedented way, especially since our network is 100% gender-segmented and also supports television and web formats.”
Philippe Marchessault, Newad’s executive vice-president of operations, development, and innovation, indoor advertising, says that the digital boards, with their high-resolution LCD screens and full stereo sound, will broadcast 15-to-60-second-long audio/video loops almost instantaneously. The boards can be programmed with RSS feeds or HTML to integrate new information or update campaigns. All will be centrally controlled by Newad.
Newad reaches Canada’s Young & Affluent through four targeted platforms: Indoor, with 20,000 digital and – until now – mainly classic (ie. traditional) boards in over 2,500 establishments and 35.5 million impressions delivered per week; Experiential Marketing, with the production of 250 promotional events a year; Publishing, with hundreds of digital productions each year as well as the NIGHTLIFE.CA magazine and website reaching 200,000 Montrealers every month; and the web, including the design and production of websites, microsites and mobile applications.
In addition to its Montreal headquarters, it has offices in Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary and Moncton. Newad is a member of the Canadian Out-of-Home Measurement Bureau [10].