They glow, they move and they’re multiplying! They’re night projection opps!

Toronto-based OptiAdmedia recently tripled its fleet of mobile projection billboards for a total of four in Toronto, two in Vancouver, one in Edmonton and one in Calgary. OptiAdmedia strategist Michael Dellios tells MiC the expansion makes the agency the largest in the country and allows it to operate in almost any market.

One taker is the Globe and Mail‘s ‘Life begins April 23’ teaser campaign, which is using OptiAdmedia’s night projections at locations around Toronto (with four mobile units) and Vancouver (with two). The new Ontario Tourism campaign, on the other hand, takes the tech to hard-to-reach local markets where sophisticated OOH executions aren’t so prevalent.

‘We’re hitting about eight different markets in a matter of five weeks – that’s Toronto, Barrie, Peterborough, Kitchener, Windsor, London, Ottawa, all the way to Sudbury and Timmins,’ says Dellios. ‘That program’s great because it really does emphasize multimedia billboards in markets that don’t normally have it.’

OptiAdmedia lays claim to the development of night projection billboards, but they’re also facing some competition from other sellers of the motion pic technology. Vancouver-based Media Merchants (formerly known as Gunning Ads) has three locations per night for projection billboards in that city. Those illuminations were on the list of buys for the recent Mini campaign, projecting for the BMW brand in mid-February and at the end of March.

The Merchants’ next campaign, promoting BC’s annual Cloverdale Rodeo, will be the first involving full-motion night projections – eight-second video clips of bull riding projected all over the city’s Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley. The company is now working on reeling in an unconfirmed major bevco for its night projection service.

Vancouver-based Vision Media, previously featured in MiC for its streetwash advertising solution, has also gotten into the illumination game.