Astral’s Digital Network™ offers flexible, instant displays that allow advertisers to express their creativity by modifying or changing concepts at will, regardless of time of day or geographic location. The technology also allows the display of urgent community or road safety advisories.

“Digital advertising reflects the way our world is now – instantaneous, dynamic, flexible and in real-time, and it allows marketers to achieve even greater performance through innovative targeted campaigns,” said Luc Sabbatini, President, Astral Out-of-Home. “With more faces in our network which spans the country’s biggest markets, Astral Out-of-Home is at the forefront of change in the industry with the first and only national outdoor digital network.”

The spectacular digital signs feature LED (light-emitting diode) lighting, an advanced display technology, capable of reproducing millions of colours in high resolution, ensuring outstanding readability, day or night. The digital boards display six static advertising messages rotating in 10 second intervals. The Digital Network is programmed on-demand and managed remotely from Astral’s state-of-the-art control and broadcast centre located in Montreal.

“Astral’s Digital Network is an excellent platform to communicate a targeted and pertinent message to our customers,” said Nadine Hoduc, Senior Director, Québec Marketing, Loblaw Companies Limited. “We leveraged the flexibility of the Digital Network to develop a highly creative campaign by displaying, automatically and in real-time, colourful visuals of fresh produce linked to diverse weather conditions. The campaign absolutely delighted our customers while generating great brand recognition.”

The new digital faces are expected to be fully operational by January 2011.  The Toronto network will now count 13 digital faces, all strategically placed along major roads and highways in the Greater Toronto Area, including the Gardiner Expressway.

Digital technology is a significant environmentally-friendly improvement over conventional billboard signs. Digital boards eliminate the need for ink, glue, paper and vinyl, as well as the energy and CO2 emissions that would be required to produce these materials. In addition, Astral Out-of-Home powers all of its Toronto advertising faces and transit shelters with green energy from renewable sources, including low-impact wind farms, solar energy and hydro facilities.

“Astral has grown significantly over the past two years adding diversification to our media product offering, and extending our reach across Canada,” said Ian Greenberg, President and Chief Executive Officer at Astral. “Our new identity reflects the attributes of our unique culture, focused on providing innovative and tailored advertising solutions to clients, and on delivering rich and exciting content to consumers through a variety of platforms all across the country. Most importantly, it recognizes our exceptional people without whom none of this would be possible.”

Astral’s new brand image represents the company’s diverse assets, decentralized yet disciplined business model and the knowledge, passion and imagination its employees bring to the marketplace. The vibrant colour palette and creative shape of the new logo are designed to convey human warmth and emotion, within a defined and responsive structure that is grounded and resilient.

“A new brand image is a powerful tool to communicate a company’s story and key differentiators in a way that encourages employee, partner and consumer engagement,” said Alain Bergeron, Vice-President, Corporate Communications and Chief Marketing Officer. “We wanted to showcase the personalization and flexibility in our market solutions, and convey a much better understanding of Astral – our people, media properties and the dynamic services and products we provide.”

Astral commissioned Toronto-based Juniper Park, a creative agency specialized in branding strategy, design and advertising, to collaborate with Astral in a 12 month, research-based brand assessment and redesign process.

The new Astral brand identity will be rolled out across the company’s family of properties, including specialty and pay television, radio, out-of-home advertising, and digital.

Astral is one of Canada’s largest media companies. It operates over 100 of the country’s most popular pay and specialty television, radio, out-of-home advertising and digital media properties. Astral plays a central role in community life across the country by offering diverse, rich and vibrant programming that meets the tastes and needs of consumers and advertisers. To learn more about Astral, visit astral.com.