Torstar has extended its relationship with Captivate, now offering advertising on the digital out-of-home network’s screens as a complement to its growing roster of video offerings.

Through the reseller agreement, the Torstar sales team is essentially acting as an extension of Captivate’s own internal sales team, selling ads on Captivate’s full GTA inventory, which encompasses 1,146 screens in 160 buildings with total weekly available ad impressions of 55 million.

“Our own video inventory has strong viewability and completion rates, on par with industry standards,” says Brandon Grosvenor, Torstar’s chief revenue officer. “Expanding that level of
performance and brand-safety for our clients’ video is important to us and we saw that Captivate could be an excellent extension to what we have on our sites.”

The partnership was initially meant to bring Toronto Star headlines to the feed of news on Captivate screens, some of which are located in The Well, a mixed-used development that the newspaper moved its offices to over the summer. But that would be extended into a reseller relationship that could provide Torstar advertising clients with brand-safe, cross-platform digital video campaigns.

“The Star’s strong local and nationwide reach positions them as the ideal partner to provide exceptional attention in Toronto through integrated campaigns with their products, with an eye to exploring opportunities in Captivate’s other major markets,” says Barbara Huggett, Captivate’s general manager. “Our discussions with The Star have been proactive and thoughtful; they clearly prioritize enhancing the user experience and client performance.”

Captivate’s North American place-based digital-out-of-home video network includes 20,800 screens.