Fourth Wall spinoff partners with Viacom to create TTC ad network

Toronto-based Fourth Wall Media has scored a major coup in winning a contract to install a system-wide network of advertising screens in the Toronto Transit Commission’s (TTC) subway trains and stations. The company is currently considering bids from major broadcasters and equipment vendors to provide equipment and content for the network, and has formed a spin-off company to operate it, OneSTOP. Financing for the venture has been secured, and it only remains now to see which companies would be interested in paying to sponsor branded content on the network’s screens, and to provide the screens themselves. A chief OneSTOP backer is Viacom Outdoor, which recently won a seven-year advertising contract with the TTC, including provisions for the new advertising network. The company won out over 14 other companies with its bid that included a guaranteed cash revenue return to the TTC of $93.2 million from Jan. 1, 2005 to Dec. 31, 2011. The OneSTOP network will have space for TTC messaging, and Viacom has made a guaranteed commitment to pay TTC the greater of 10% of OneSTOP’s revenues or $775,000 over the seven-year contract. There is no minimum guaranteed payment over the first two years of the initiative due to the high capital costs associated with the supply and delivery of the system. The OneSTOP network will consist of four 17" screens in 500 TTC cars, as well as screens on station platforms that will display constantly updated transit news, news and entertainment content and advertising. Fourth Wall president Mike Girgis says his company will likely be the beneficiary of new creative contracts as OneSTOP uses it as its preferred shop. But, he notes, the relationship won’t be exclusive. "Other agencies are going to have creative done and we’re not in the business to try to be the gatekeepers of all production. There are lots of agencies out there that are very capable of putting a Flash ad together or compressing a TV spot and providing it for us to run on the network. So, at most One Stop will probably be Fourth Wall’s largest client." News updates, emergency items such as Amber Alerts, and TTC information will be constantly loaded into the screens by way of a powerful Wi-Fi network installed in each station. Girgis says advertisements and other more static content will be loaded into the system at the end of a train’s run. Girgis says there is a powerful incentive for broadcasters, advertisers and screen manufacturers to want to partner with OneSTOP and Viacom. "The big pitch here is that there’s 850,000 people a day riding the subway. And, they’re on there for 17 minutes each. So, for the next seven years, they could either be looking at your decal, or at someone else’s." The network is a big coup for Fourth Wall, which has attracted some attention for its work with interactive kiosks and temporary networks at events and conferences, including for the CBC and for the nextMEDIA new media festival. The OneSTOP network was Fourth Wall’s idea, Girgis says, though it wouldn’t have come to fruition without Viacom’s participation. Asked how the small company has beaten larger systems integrators and carriers to the punch, Girgis says: "I think all of the Bells and the TELUSs want to get into the TTC. There’s no question. Where I think we’ve made some good judgement calls and good decisions is where we didn’t go knocking on the TTC’s door. We went and partnered with Viacom Outdoor, who had the contract and said, ‘Look, we’ve got a great idea and we think we can add value to the next time that you guys are going after the RFP.’ And, that’s the way that it was structured. This RFP was an overall advertising contract and then new initiatives were attached to it. We couldn’t just go directly to the TTC and say, ‘Hey, here’s what we want to do.’ It had to fall under the main advertising contract. It was win-win for both us and Viacom Outdoor. They didn’t have a system like this in place or in development or even being planned. And, we didn’t have a relationship with the TTC. They did. So, together we worked on the concept."

Fourth Wall spinoff partners with Viacom to create TTC ad network

Broadcast | October 6, 2004

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