• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, December 11, 2007

The Wall Street Journal Office Media Network has extended its reach into elevators in corporate office buildings in Chicago, the first step in an expansion that brings it into direct competition with Captivate Network, owned by Gannett.

The new elevator video screens feature a variety of news, business and lifestyle content from The Wall Street Journal, including stock tickers and weather reports. Each main content area is displayed for 15 seconds. Advertisers can place banner-type ads around the editorial content, near the edges of the screen, or take out actual ad "spots" between editorial content segments. Ads can be targeted by dayparts that correspond to high-traffic periods when professionals enter and leave the buildings.

The Office Network, launched in June 2006, operates 47-inch-wide video screens in the lobbies and common areas of over 140 office buildings around the country. Its new 14-inch LCD elevator screens are currently operational in office buildings in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle.

By comparison, Captivate operates almost 8,000 10- and 12-inch LCD screens in elevators in 22 top DMAs, including landmarks like the Empire State Building. It is poised to expand its network to buildings with a total 480 million square feet of office space in the near future. Audience exposure is measured with foot traffic counts in building lobbies and building tenant information.

A study of the WSJ Office Network by Arbitron found considerable reach and recall for the place-based video network. In buildings with the WSJ video displays, 93% of 1,100 business professionals surveyed recall seeing them. In addition, 88% of this cohort said they find the news and information useful, with 68% saying they found its advertising relevant to them.

Cumulative viewership was 3.3 minutes per day. Seventy-five percent of survey respondents who noticed the WSJ screens said their content had some impact on corporate decisions.