Thursday, September 20, 2007

Neo Advertising expands Canadian digital signage network

Neo Advertising, a Swiss digital signage company, announced yesterday that they will be expanding their digital screen network in Canada.

According to the official press release, "Neo Advertising, which is already the leading operator of advertising digital signage networks in Canada, is confirming the roll-out of 300 new digital screens in shopping centers across the country. These are high definition (LCD-HD), 46-inch screens, skillfully positioned in groups of two, within food courts. On one of the screen, consumers have access to the latest news - current events - sports - weather - health issues - while on the other, they are encourage to take a look at the 15-minute loop of advertisements"

Since the company already has a nice market position in Europe (with several offices and over 2,000 screens in Germany, Belgium and Spain) the network's expansion in Canada might even be a first step towards branching out into the US.

According to the release, "Neo Advertising now wants to enhance the value of -and even increase- media spending in shopping malls." What better place to reach the ultimate media spending value which malls can offer than in good Ol' America?

The prospect of having a bigger European-based insight into the digital signage world might also help US networks too. In any emerging industry, different operators will develop different techniques reflecting their audience and experiences. There will thus probably be a lot of developments that American firms can adopt from their European counterparts and vice versa.

Will the Canadian population react to (or even notice) the increased number of signs? Neo certainly seems to think so, and bills their expansion as the, "Most Powerful Digital Signage Network in Canada". The signs offer news in addition to the advertising, so they have a better chance of going over than if they were purely ad-driven (remember, it's better to give a little back to ad viewers). But other than that, the network doesn't seem noteworthy aside from the fact that Neo is on its way to becoming a true global operator.

Tags: digital signage, out-of-home advertising

2 comments:

Bill Gerba said...

I wonder what would happen if Neo did try to expand into the US mall market. AdSpace just did a nice deal and raised $20M, presumably in preparation with a significant expansion of their (currently) 140-ish screen mall concourse network.

And of course we've all heard about the ongoing saga of the Simon/Publicis OnSpot Mall Network, which makes you wonder if ad-supported mall systems are such a good idea in the first place...

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