• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, June 17, 2009

This week saw more activity in the digital out-of-home marketplace, with a new deal between Captivate Network and Thomson Reuters bringing both news content and advertising to Captivate's network of digital displays in office buildings.

The deal expands Captivate's business information offerings, giving it a leg up in its competition with The Wall Street Journal's WSJ Office Network.

In the new arrangement, Captivate editors will adapt Thomson Reuters stories to fit Captivate's digital screen format, delivering various kinds of Thomson Reuters content (including, but not limited to, business news) to its network of 8,900 screens in office buildings in 24 big U.S. and Canadian cities.

Altogether, Captivate claims to reach an audience of about 3 million business professionals daily.

The bulk of its screens are located in elevators in big office buildings, but it also operates large flat-screen displays in office building lobbies and has recently been dabbling in experiential marketing.

Thomson Reuters' ads began running on Captivate several months ago; now they are being lined up to appear simultaneously alongside Thomson Reuters' news.

In addition, the Captivate displays direct interested viewers to the Captivate Web site, where they can get more information via links to the complete Thomson Reuters articles. This is especially useful for editorial content, like business information, that's frequently updated throughout the day.

Using digital out-of-home displays to drive traffic to Web sites also gives advertisers a more precise measurement of audience interest and engagement.

Captivate is not the only digital out-of-home network making moves this week. On Thursday, Outcast (formerly Fuelcast) and PumpTopTV announced they were joining forces to offer advertisers a combined network reaching 20 million viewers per month via their network of digital displays in gas stations. The joint venture agreement brings together a total of 12,600 digital screens in 15 top DMAs, which the companies claim reach an audience equivalent to a top-5 prime-time TV show. While its reach is national, the new joint venture also touted its ability to execute precise local ad campaigns with targeting based on geographic and demographic factors; it can also deliver ads dynamically based on changes in weather and traffic conditions -- in effect creating ad hoc commuter dayparts.

Matthew Stoudt, the CEO of Outcast, remarked: "This partnership represents a major step forward in marketplace consolidation and streamlines the media buying process, a request we consistently hear from marketers and media buyers alike."

Outcast is itself a relatively new company, created by the merger of Fuelcast, a gas-station network that operates displays in gas pumps, and Bhootan, a digital network serving gas station convenience stores.