Work with the APEX team to unlock your category for 2026.
APEX is releasing a limited number of category-exclusive intelligence allocations for 2026. One brand per category. Once your vertical is locked, the door closes for the year.
2026
Category-Exclusive Intelligence
Unlocked by the APEX team. One brand per category.
The APEX team scopes, qualifies, and locks the category-exclusive intel for your vertical. Categories are awarded on a first-qualified basis — competitive set defined, exclusivity locked at the budget conversation.
✓Industry Benchmark — your brand vs. anonymized category attention, with format and regional drivers behind every gap.
✓Creative Comparison — every creative in your category, anonymized, ranked head-to-head, with pros/cons and recommendations.
✓Creative Monitoring — programmatic tracking of every creative in your category, refreshed weekly. Launches, pulls, extensions, refreshes — auto-detected and fed into your intel.
✓Category exclusivity — competitive set defined and locked at qualification. No competitor in your vertical gets the intel for the year.
✓APEX team partnership — direct working relationship with the strategy arm that delivers the intel and the recommendations.
✓The next-move recommendation — every move the data tells us to make, before your competitors see it.
Once your vertical is locked, the door closes for the year.
Why competitive creative intelligence
Decode the category. Take the upper hand.
You can read your own dashboard all day. The number that actually moves your strategy is the one your competitor's creative is putting up — and that's the number nobody publishes. One brand per category gets it. With the next move attached.
The blind spot
Your competitors' creative is the data you can't get.
Their attention scores. Their format mix. Their regional bets. Their flight cadence. None of it is published, none of it is in any benchmark you can buy. You guess at it from the street — and your competitors guess right back.
The intel
The category at scale — in aggregate, anonymized.
Every creative in your vertical aggregated, scored on verified attention, gap-mapped against yours. Anonymized under standard exclusivity NDA — you see the patterns, the moves, the misses. Never the brand names behind them. The category, decoded.
The upper hand
Every gap comes with the next move attached.
This isn't a benchmark report you frame on the wall. Every diagnosed gap — format mix, regional weighting, creative length, first-frame hook — comes with the specific move to close it. Reweight the flight. Tighten the hook. Test the variant. Shift the region. The category sees the data. You see the next move — before they do.
Network at Scale
Where the intel comes from. Where the optimizations land.
The attention framework runs on top of a 4,900+ property, 10,700+ screen network across Canada and the United States — residential, office, retail, entertainment, point-of-care, government, and more. The category-exclusive intel and the optimization signal are grounded in real-world delivery at scale.
The Proof · Five Layers ANONYMIZED · CATEGORY SCALE
The proof, layer by layer.
All five layers are real, pulled from a recently completed engagement. Brand A is the brand the intel was delivered to. Competitors A–C are the three other brands running creative in the same category window. Creative thumbnails are shown so you can see what's actually in market — brand names and per-asset performance data are not tied together; only relative rankings appear against specific creatives, under the standard exclusivity NDA.
01 Outcomes Attribution
Attention is the input. Foot traffic is the output.
▾
The framework doesn't stop at attention seconds. Foot Traffic Attribution (FTA) connects measured exposure on the screen to actual location visits after — device-level, anonymized, and tied back to the specific assets that drove them. Attention earns its keep when the visits land.
Foot-fall conversion rate
6%
6 of every 100 exposed individuals walked in. Verified device-to-visit, anonymized, and tied to the specific assets that drove them — the metric that turns attention seconds into outcomes.
Foot traffic lift
28.94%
overall campaign lift
Detections
2,219,904
total device detections
Reach
266,094
unique individuals
Frequency
8.34
avg. exposures per person
Est. visits
15,966
from foot-fall model
Cost per visit
$0.51
rate card / est. visits
Property-level foot traffic lift
Lift measured per asset · anonymized · the 28.94% portfolio number is real per-property, not an average
Property A
+140.2%
Property B
+87.7%
Property C
+34.7%
Property D
+26.4%
Property E
+19.4%
Property F
+16.1%
Property G
+12.0%
Property H
+10.1%
Property I
+7.7%
Property J
+6.7%
Property K
+3.0%
Visits by day of week
When attention turned into store visits
Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
Visits by hour
Afternoon-evening cluster · 4–7pm peak
Why FTA closes the loop
Attention seconds are the leading indicator. Foot traffic is the proof. A 28.94% lift across the campaign — $0.51 cost per visit at rate-card — is what attention buys you when the framework ties it back to a real-world outcome. APEX clients see this for their category. Their competitors can't.
02 Optimization Loop
Your video assets, working harder.
▾
The play: the video you already produced for digital, broadcast, or social — send it to OOH. Same asset, plug-and-play onto the network, no incremental creative cost. The attention framework measures it frame-by-frame, finds the moments that hold, and feeds the signal back into your next flight. The lift comes for free — and a recent Publicis client engagement proves it works.
Plug-and-play onto OOH
$0
incremental creative cost
Pre-optimization attention
4.29s
video assets, OOH
Post-optimization attention
4.65s
+0.36s · network lift
Search correlation
r=0.56
attention vs. brand search
Attention Trends · video introduced into OOH flight
Weekly variance vs. campaign · same creative, no incremental spend
Attention vs. campaign (%)
Search interest
Videos Introduced
Pre-OOHWeek 2Week 3Videos introducedWeek 5Week 6
📈 Free lift in action. A Publicis client's video creative — already produced for other channels — was sent into OOH on the same flight. Attention shifted from 4.29s pre-OOH to 4.65s after — a +0.36s improvement. Google search interest for the brand showed a positive correlation (r=0.56) across 6 weeks. White-labeled from a recent Publicis client engagement. Same play applies to any video asset already in market.
Frame-by-frame attention heatmap
Attention per 0.5s frame · CTAs marked · lows flagged for the next cut
Frame attention
CTA frames
Low
PEAK
CTA
CTA
CTA
LOW
LOW
0s2s4s6s8s10s12s14.5s
Peak100at 0.5s
Low93at 12s
Avg96
Frames30
What the heatmap tells us. Peak engagement at 0.5s — the hook works. CTAs land in a strong window (3–4s). Attention dips at 12s and 14.5s — those frames are where the next cut tightens. Same asset, smarter sequencing, more attention at no creative cost.
03
Creative Monitoring
Your competitors' creative — tracked programmatically.
Which competitor is running what — when, where, and for how long.
PROGRAMMATIC · ANONYMIZED
6-MONTH WINDOW
9 FLIGHTS TRACKED
REFRESHED WEEKLY
▾
In-market flight calendar · 6-month window
Every creative in your category, by brand, by date · auto-detected and refreshed weekly
Brand A
Comp A
Comp B
Comp C
Brand
Nov '25DecJan '26FebMarApr
Brand A
Hero v1 · 10s
Hero v2 · 10s
15s variant pilotNEW
Comp A
Hero · 15s · video
Refresh · 15s · video
Comp B
Static A
Static B
New staticNEW
Comp C
Hero · 10s · static
What the calendar tells you
Competitor A just refreshed and extended.Competitor B dropped a brand-new static.Competitor C has been dark for 9 weeks — a category gap. Last 90 days, the category cycled 18 creatives — Competitor A: 11, Competitor B: 4, Competitor C: 3. Refresh velocity and creative volume per brand, not just whether they ran. None of this required performance data. All of it is the kind of move that, before now, you'd only learn at the next industry conference.
In market right now
As of Apr 29, 2026 · auto-snapshot
Brand A · Hero v2 + 15s variant pilot
2 in flight
Competitor A · Refreshed hero · 15s video
1 in flight
Competitor B · New static refresh
NEW
Competitor C · No creative in flight
dark · 9 wk
Recent in-market activity
Last 30 days · auto-detected
LAUNCH
Competitor B dropped a new static creative — early signal of a campaign refresh.
Apr 24
LAUNCH
Brand A 15s variant entered flight in priority regions.
Apr 17
PULL
Competitor C ended hero flight — going dark across the category.
Apr 9
EXTEND
Competitor A extended their refreshed hero flight by +6 weeks.
Mar 30
REFRESH
Brand A rotated hero v1 → v2 across the network.
Mar 14
Why monitoring matters
You don't need to wait for performance data to know what your competitors are saying. The monitoring layer feeds you every flight change on a weekly cadence — launches, pulls, extensions, refreshes — anonymized but actionable. When a competitor goes dark, you see the gap. When one drops a new theme, you see it before it scales. The other two layers tell you how creative is performing. This one tells you what's in market in the first place — and that's often the decision you need first.
04
Creative Comparison
Every creative in your category. Ranked head-to-head.*
Brand A's lead creative scored against the three competitor creatives running concurrently in the same category window. Creative thumbnails are shown — pros, cons, and verified attention rolled up at the category level. The exact recommendation to climb the leaderboard.
* Thumbnails are shown so you can see the work. Competitor brand names and per-asset attention-second values are not displayed — only the relative rank is tied to a specific creative. Standard exclusivity NDA.
✓15s runway lets attention build past the 2.5s active threshold
✓Strong first-frame hook drives sustained viewing
✓Clear product-moment beat at 8s
✕Heavy concentration in 1 region — vulnerability
FLIGHT · OCT 6 → DEC 22 · 8 WK
2YOUBA10s · VIDEO
Brand A · Hero
Lead creative · #2 in category
5.20s avg attention#2
✓Strong narrative arc, tested across 14 creative variants
✓Consistent property placement drives frequency
✕98% concentrated in 10s — leaving 18% attention on the table
✕No EN-language variant in priority regions
FLIGHT · SEP 8 → DEC 29 · 16 WK
3B10s · STATIC
Competitor B
Challenger · regional
4.83s avg attention#3
✓Strong category recognition in served regions
✓Tight visual hierarchy — clear at any glance
✕Static — caps attention runway under 5s
✕Limited geographic reach
FLIGHT · NOV 3 → FEB 28 · 17 WK
4C10s · STATIC
Competitor C
Niche · single-region
4.51s avg attention#4
✓Distinct visual identity vs. category
✕Below category-average attention
✕Single-region — minimal national signal
✕No motion variant in flight
FLIGHT · JAN 12 → APR 6 · 12 WK
#2→#1
The Move
Three creative + flight changes. Zero additional spend. Same category window.
🎯
How Brand A moves from #2 to #1.
Category-exclusive recommendation · Next move
Three moves close the 0.22s gap to Competitor A:
Tighten the first-frame hook on the lead creative — Competitor A is winning the first 1.5s.
Add a 15s variant to the next flight, weighted ~30% — the network earns ~18% more attention on 15s.
Test an EN variant in priority regions to close the language and regional gap.
None of these moves are visible to Competitor A. All of them are actionable now.
+ First-frame hook test+ 15s variant · 30% weight+ EN variant · priority regions
05
Industry Benchmark
Your brand vs. the category.
12 months of category attention data. Brand A's creative aggregated against every competitor running in the category — anonymized at the brand level — with the format and regional drivers explaining every move.
CATEGORY INTEL · ANONYMIZED
DEC 2024 – DEC 2025
50,600 OBSERVATIONS
41 CREATIVES IN SET
▾
Brand A · Avg Attention
5.20s
12,400 obs · 14 creatives
Category
5.40s
38,200 obs · 27 creatives
Gap
−3.8%
−0.20s · format-driven
Closeable in
1 flight
via format reweight
Attention over time · weekly rolling avg
Category-aggregated attention seconds, Dec 2024 – Dec 2025
Brand A
Category baseline
Format mix · Brand A vs. Category
% of impressions by spot length
10s spots
15s spots
Brand A98 / 2
10s · 98%
·
Category78 / 22
10s · 78%
15s · 22%
10s spots earn
4.35s avg attention
+18%
15s spots earn
5.15s avg attention
Format diagnosis · told three ways
The −3.8% gap isn't a creative problem. It's a flight composition problem. Brand A runs 98% of its impressions on 10s spots. The category runs a 78/22 split. 15s spots earn ~18% more attention on the network. The math is the gap.
📈
What reweighting unlocks · projected attention lift
ACTIONABLE · NEXT FLIGHT
TodayBrand A · 98/2
5.20s
baseline
Reweight to70/30 mix
5.42s · projected
+0.22s
CategoryToday's avg
5.40s
target
The move: shift the next flight to a 70/30 length mix. Same creative. Closes the −3.8% gap. Puts Brand A above the category average — without spending another dollar.
Regional performance · Brand A vs. Category
Avg attention seconds by region · % share of Brand A's impressions
Brand A
Category
BC
5.40s · Brand A
5.30s · Category
+1.9%
5% imp.
AB
5.45s · Brand A
5.30s · Category
+2.8%
4% imp.
ON
5.10s · Brand A
5.45s · Category
-6.4%
62% imp.
QC
5.05s · Brand A
5.40s · Category
-6.5%
28% imp.
Atlantic
5.20s · Brand A
5.32s · Category
-2.3%
1% imp.
Regional diagnosis
Brand A leads in 2 regions, trails in 2. The regions where Brand A trails carry ~90% of its impression weight. Tag each region by intent — defend, grow, or test — and the diagnosis sharpens: the reallocation move sits in the defended regions where attention is dragging weight. Growth markets get tracked against their own curve, not the category average. The data flags the pattern; you bring the intent.
🎯
Competitor whitespace
Where the category is light — and Brand A is winning.
BC, AB, and Atlantic together carry only ~10% of Brand A's impression weight — but Brand A's attention performance leads the category in all three. These are competitor-light territories where Brand A's creative already wins. Reweighting the next flight 5–10% toward these regions opens defensible ground without spending against entrenched competitors in ON and QC.
BC
+1.9% vs. cat
5% impression weight
WHITESPACE
AB
+2.8% vs. cat
4% impression weight
WHITESPACE
Atlantic
−2.3% vs. cat
1% impression weight
UNDERSERVED
The play: reallocate 5–10 points of impression weight from ON/QC to BC + AB. Same creative. Stronger network attention. Defensible ground where the category isn't crowded.
Three layers · Recap
Three layers. One unfair advantage.
APEX delivers three modules of category-exclusive intelligence. Each answers a different question. Together: every move your competitors are making, and the move you make next.
01
Industry Benchmark
How are you performing?
Your brand vs. the anonymized category over time. Format and regional drivers behind every gap. Attention scoring at the category level.
02
Creative Comparison
How does your creative rank?
Every creative running in your category right now, ranked head-to-head. Pros, cons, and the next move attached. Thumbnails shown, brand-to-data linkage withheld.
03
Creative Monitoring
What's running, when, where?
Programmatic tracking of every competitor creative in your category. Launches, pulls, extensions, refreshes — auto-detected and refreshed weekly.
The first two tell you how it's doing.
The third tells you what's there in the first place.
FAQ
A few quick answers.
Are there minimum spends required?
We selected these clients knowing their historical spend with us, along with potential for budget throughout the year. Although there is technically no minimum spend, we would like to see $100K across all campaigns.
Do I have to be live in Q2 to qualify?
No. You only need to express interest in Q2 2026. The intel can be delivered at any point in 2026 — Q2 interest just locks your category so a competitor can't take the slot.
What does "category exclusive" actually mean?
For your defined vertical, the VI team will not deliver this competitive creative intel to any other brand in that category for the duration of the year. The competitive set is mapped at qualification — you'll see and approve the exact list of brands the exclusivity applies to.
How are competitor brands shown?
Creative thumbnails are shown so you can see what's actually in market. What you don't see: competitor brand names tied to specific assets, or per-asset attention-second values. Only the relative rankings are linked to specific creatives. You see the work, you see how you rank, you don't get the exact numbers behind anyone else's asset. Same protection applies to your category when you're the one being analyzed — that's the exclusivity NDA in action.
What if my competitors aren't running on your network?
VI's network is at scale, and in the categories APEX serves we already see meaningful competitive activity inside the network — that's how the category gets selected for the program in the first place. Where coverage is partial, we extend the head-to-head ranking using broader OOH measurement across the venues your category does run on, so the diagnosis still holds. Coverage is mapped and confirmed on the qualification call before your slot locks — if the competitive set isn't there, we tell you.
How fresh is the monitoring data?
Creative monitoring is programmatic and refreshed weekly. Flight changes — launches, pulls, extensions, refreshes — are detected and fed into your intel layer on a weekly cadence. Attention scoring (Layers 01 and 02) updates weekly as well, as enough verified-view data accumulates to be statistically meaningful.
What happens after I express interest?
We'll schedule a working session with the APEX team. The conversation walks through budget allocations to qualify your category — alongside category boundaries, competitor set, and regional priorities. Q2 expression starts the qualification; the APEX budget conversation locks it.
What if a competitor has already locked our category?
We'll tell you on the qualification call. If your category is taken for 2026, we'll discuss a 2027 priority hold or — depending on the case — a non-exclusive intelligence engagement. We won't string you along.
Thank you
You read all the way to the bottom.
Now go read the category.
Decoded. Locked. Yours when you say so. See you on the qualification call.
