Gail Chiasson, North American Editor
Captivate Network, which positions itself as North America’s #1 location-based video media network, has added seven executives to its Toronto office to support the network’s rapid growth in office building elevators across Canada.
Joining Captivate are Barb Huggett, vice-president, advertising sales; Xin Gu, vice-president, business development – real estate; Bill Lammers, national sales director; Ted Stanford, national sales director, Western Canada; Greg Cipryk, sales executive; Nicole Thomas, sales planner and Paulina Ignacak, editor.
The new additions more than double Captivate’s Canadian staff, which also includes Jon Bolton, national sales director; Rob Munday, national sales director; Lianne Raymond, senior editor; Mike Dougherty, marketing manager and Shireen Murakami, manager, support services.
Marc Kidd, Captivate’s CEO, says, “The addition of these seven executives significantly strengthens our team at a time when we are experiencing tremendous growth and interest throughout Canada, mirroring what our U.S. counterparts are seeing in the States. Commercial real estate property managers increasingly are recognizing the value of our screens as an engaging service that delivers timely news and actionable information, while advertisers see our network as a very effective way to reach business professionals.”
Captivate is finalizing agreements to add several buildings to the Canadian network, with an official announcement coming sometime before the end of the year.
Huggett is a 25-year media veteran who returns to Captivate after a stint as senior national account executive at Dynamic Outdoor. Previously, she served four years as Captivate’s director of national sales and business development.
Gu brings more than 14 years in deal structuring experience from the financial services industry. She joins Captivate from GLG where she developed and managed commercial relationships with Fortune 100 companies as business development manager, new markets.
Lammers brings to Captivate 20-plus years of sales experience including an extensive background in out-of-home ad sales, most recently as account manager at Pattison Outdoor.
Stanford has more than a decade of media sales experience at a senior level, developing and managing advertising and marketing campaigns for both agencies and direct clients while at Welsh Sales Solutions, Zoom Media and Canwest.
Cipryk joins Captivate from Post Media, where he was account executive.
Thomas most recently was national inside sales executive – digital for QMI Sales, and before that spent five years at Astral Media as national sales coordinator and programmer.
Ignacak is a journalist and social media specialist who has worked for 37th Avenue and Lakeshore General Hospital Foundation, among others.
Captivate screens are located in more than 1,800 premier office buildings across North America’s top urban markets. The company has experienced 220% viewership growth over the past five years, delivering 12 million unique monthly viewers. Founded in 1997, Captivate is owned by Generation Partners and Gannett.
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