Forgotten Island · September 2026 · OOH performance test
Prove out-of-home drives the right people to the right showtime.
A small, isolated test built for a performance-driven client. Run digital elevator screens across 8 residential buildings in Calgary & Edmonton — each cluster sitting metres from a mid-size cinema (Cineplex Eau Claire and Landmark City Centre) — during the Forgotten Island opening window. Then prove — with foot traffic data — that exposed audiences walked into those theaters, on the days the film was playing, at showtime windows. No new contracts needed — allocates within existing DOOH programmatic-guaranteed spend. Just place, time, and signal.
~$5K
Allocated within DOOH PG spend
2 · 8
Theaters · screen locations
14d
Live before release weekend
Sep '26
Forgotten Island launch
01
The bet
What we're proving
Pick 2 theaters with spread-out showtime grids (not the 16-screen megaplexes), and run digital elevator screens across 8 residential locations in their catchments. Run live for the 7–14 days leading into the September release weekend. Then show — with foot-traffic data tied to each theater's exact location and Forgotten Island's exact showtime windows — that exposure moved feet into seats. No new buys, no production. Just allocate spend within DOOH programmatic-guaranteed and let the signal speak.
WHY THIS TITLE
Forgotten Island
Animated, KPop Demon Hunters–style aesthetic that translates beautifully to short-form digital screen creative. Modest showtime grid in September keeps the foot-traffic signal clean and attributable.
WHY THIS FORMAT
Digital elevator screens
Programmatic-served digital placements in residential elevators. 15–30 second creative loops, captive viewing, daypart-controlled. Trafficked through existing DOOH PG deals — no new contracts, no production cycle.
WHY THIS APPROACH
Performance, not awareness
The client's plan is performance-driven. So is this test. Two markets. Tight measurement window. Closed-loop attribution to specific theater foot traffic on specific showtime days. No "lift study" hand-waving.
02
Why this format wins
Proven · third-party measured
Entertain, don't interrupt
Most OOH shouts at people for a fraction of a second as they walk by. An elevator wrap is the opposite — a 30–60 second captive ride where the audience is in a confined space with the brand on every wall, looking around, exploring, taking pictures. Riders don't perceive it as an ad. They perceive it as environmental art that's part of the building. That's why attention scores aren't even close.
ATTENTION · MEASURED
Multi-second attention, not glances
Industry OOH benchmarks measure attention in fractions of a second. Digital elevator screens in our prior campaigns measured multi-second attention through third-party attention measurement — and the most engaged audience cohorts clocked +30–48% above campaign and network benchmarks. Forgotten Island's animated creative is built for exactly that kind of held attention.
FRAME-BY-FRAME
Every panel earns its own attention
Static OOH gets a single glance. A digital elevator screen plays a frame-by-frame loop with attention measured second-by-second across the spot. Animated titles like Forgotten Island translate beautifully to short-form creative: every frame can carry a different beat of the trailer, and each one earns its own attention score.
CLOSED-LOOP
Attention → foot traffic → showtime
Attention is the leading indicator. Foot traffic at the right theater on the right day is the actual proof of action. We measure both — third-party attention scoring for quality, foot traffic for behavioural lift. That's the closed loop a performance-driven client needs.
Selection ran against VI's Canadian residential inventory (1,200 ready properties) cross-referenced with mid-size cinemas (≤10 screens) that play wide releases. The two highest signal-to-noise pairs: Cineplex Eau Claire Market (Calgary, 6 screens · 55 VI buildings within 2km) and Landmark Cinemas Edmonton City Centre (9 screens · 43 VI buildings within 2km). Two western Canadian DMAs, no residential overlap, mid-size showtime grids. Toronto downtown was excluded — every dense cluster sits next to a 14–16 screen megaplex where attribution noise would kill the signal.
Calgary GCA and Edmonton GEA have zero residential overlap — independent control groups doubles the proof power
Mid-size showtime grids
6 and 9 screens — Forgotten Island will likely play 3–4 showings/day, not 12. Each showtime carries a clean foot-traffic spike
Tight residential adjacency
Edmonton: 4 buildings within 0.20 km of the theater. Calgary: 4 within 0.85 km. Path-to-theater is short and walkable
98-building selection pool
55 buildings in Calgary catchment + 43 in Edmonton = full flexibility on creative-fit, screen specs, building cooperation
04
How we measure
No new contracts · DOOH PG allocation
Step 1 · Baseline
Pull foot-traffic baseline at the two chosen theaters for the 14 days before the campaign goes live. We need a clean "before" picture of who shows up to each location and when.
Step 2 · Go live
Creative trafficked into existing DOOH programmatic-guaranteed deals 7–14 days before the Sept release weekend. No new contracts, no production cycle, no incremental insertion order.
Step 3 · Match to showtimes
Forgotten Island has a spread-out showtime grid at the chosen theaters in September. Foot-traffic data gets bucketed against those exact time windows — Forgotten Island showings vs. all other films in the same theater as a built-in control.
Step 4 · Tie back to exposure
Residents within the catchment of exposed digital screens vs. residents in comparable un-exposed catchments. Did the exposed cohort show up at the theater during Forgotten Island showtimes at a higher rate? That's the proof point.
No new buys, no new contracts: the test runs as a spend allocation within the existing DOOH programmatic-guaranteed plan. Creative is digital, daypart-controlled, and live in days — not weeks of production. Place + time is the signal. Lightweight build, clean attribution.
05
Investment
~$5KDOOH PG allocation + measurement
Allocated within existing DOOH programmatic-guaranteed spend — no incremental contract. Two theaters, eight residential screen catchments, digital creative trafficking, foot-traffic measurement, third-party attention scoring, closed-loop report. Everything in scope. If the result lands, the methodology scales to a full multi-market plan at any budget tier — and Universal walks into the next FY plan with a real performance number for OOH.
Confirm Forgotten Island as the test title and the September Canadian release window.
02 · KEY
Allocate ~$5K within the PG line
Carve out ~$5K of the existing DOOH programmatic-guaranteed spend for the test flight. No new buy, no new contract — just a line-item allocation against the PG plan already in market.
03
Sept showtime grid + sign-off on picks
Confirmation on the locked Calgary + Edmonton pair (Section 03) and the September showtime grid for Forgotten Island, so we can finalize flight dates against actual showings.
04
Key art + creative spec
Higher-res key art for the digital creative cut-down. Trailer is already public on YouTube — we'll work from that and conform to the DOOH PG creative specs.