• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, September 18, 2014

Captivate Network, the “in-office” video network known primarily for serving ads targeted at business pros riding up and down high-rise elevators, is extending its reach and following office workers wherever they go. In a deal with location-based mobile ad-targeting firm xAd, Captivate will now offer advertiser the ability to cross-target office workers in elevators, other fixed-screen office locations, and on their hand-held mobile devices.

“It reinforces the evolution from buying screens to activating audience interaction via digital place-based media,” Ray Rotolo, COO of Dentsu Aegis Network’s Posterscope USA, said in a statement, adding: “The integration of mobile also allows advertisers to start to provide performance metrics that can be used to incorporate digital place-based media into attribution models.”

Posterscope was one of the big media shops that helped beta test the cross-targeting buy, and the concept is consistent with the shop’s new positioning as the “agency of things” -- a concept Rotolo has been working on since taking the helm of Posterscope after former chief Connie Garrido stepped down earlier this year.

In effect, the new Captivate offering embodies exactly what Posterscope’s Rotolo believes out-of-home media agencies are evolving to: shops that develop strategies, plan, buy and execute campaigns across all the possible screens and experiences consumers -- or in this case, office workers -- might encounter in the real world. The opportunities for that, Rotolo told MediaDailyNews previously, will only expand with the “Internet of things,” hence his repositioning of Posterscope as the “agency of things.”

Meanwhile, Captivate says interest from other media shops has piqued since the “soft launch” of its new mobile offering, and CMO Dan Levi says it’s just beginning to develop research that will help agencies and brands figure out how to optimize their reach -- and messaging -- across the screens used by office workers.

“This allows an advertiser to target people in our buildings when the advertiser’s campaign is running, but unfortunately there’s no way to target people while they’re literally in front of our screens,” he explains, adding: “We know from Nielsen’s measurement that 92% of elevator riders in Captivate buildings watch our screens, and since we’re talking about office buildings we know that the majority of viewers are in our buildings every day (since they work there). So we know there’s an incredibly strong likelihood of the mobile ads being delivered to those who have seen or will see the advertiser’s ad on Captivate screens.”

While the cross-platform buy doesn’t yet have the ability to “attribute first view” exposure to either the Captivate elevator screens or the workers’ mobile devices, Levi says those relationships will become more evident over time as Captivate begins analyzing data “on mobile engagement, click-through rates, etc.