With all its skyscrapers and towers, Dubai is the ideal location for DooH displays in elevators. Elevision has built a successful business model on this.
It all started in 2011, with a business vision from founder and CEO Niall Sallam. “The inspiration came in Canada when he experienced a DooH elevator network there,” his brother Eamon Sallam says, Elevision co-founder and Chief Operating Officer. Today, 13 years later, Elevision is Dubai’s leading network operator of digital advertising in elevators.
DooH in elevators has its own laws, but Elevision uses these laws skillfully. “Our USP is the target demographic,” says Sallam. Elevision focuses on premium customers in residential and commercial buildings.
Dubai, with its many skyscrapers, is the perfect place for this. The tens of storeys tall buildings ensure that customers stay in elevators for a relatively long time, and the higher the buildings, the more affluent the clientele. The clear division between residential and commercial buildings also allows for precise target group segmentation.
Precise data evaluation is crucial for Elevision’s network. “We have developed a robust data measurement model,” the co-founder empahsizes. To achieve this, Elevision collaborates with three data service providers.
Half a million viewers
The business now also has the necessary scale, with over 1,700 elevator screens reaching almost half a million viewers daily.
On average, each campaign delivers 1.5 exposures per day to each unique viewer in targeted locations, based on a 4-minute loop frequency. Sallam explains: “So if an advertiser was to target our full elevator network with 515,000 unique viewers, they would deliver approximately 750,000 impressions per day.”
The tallest building in Elevision’s inventory is Princess Tower, a 101-storey residential tower that is the third tallest in Dubai and 36th tallest in the world. The company operates 8 elevator screens here.
Partnering with developers
From a technical standpoint, elevator DooH is challenging because the system has to cope with a lot of dust and needs reliable data transmission. Elevision addresses this with a wireless system that ensures constant connectivity without interfering with the building’s data network.
Once the technology is mastered, installation is the next step. Expanding the network and convincing building owners to participate is one of the main tasks. “Building acquisition is an art in itself,” says Eamon Sallam. Elevision partners with leading real estate developers in Dubai, including Emaar, DIFC, JBR, and Nakheel.
For Elevision, partnering with building owners is crucial. By giving them access to the screens, Elevision allows these owners to use the screens as a news platform for their own announcements and information.
London is the next step
With its successful concept, Elevision is expanding beyond the UAE. This summer, the company is launching 110 screens in 63 buildings in London.
London is another metropolis with tall buildings that support the elevator Dooh business model. Sallam notes that while London’s buildings generally have fewer floors, “the elevators in Dubai are much faster.” The slower elevators in London therefore ensure sufficient screen time for the business model to work.
Despite the expansion, Elevision continues to see great potential in the UAE market. “In terms of market penetration, we could easily quadruple our work here,” the COO emphasizes.
First programmatic campaign in the Middle East
DooH is rapidly growing in Dubai, with out-of-home advertising increasing by around 25 percent and digital-out-of-home experiencing steep growth curves. “Most of the big advertisers are turning to DooH,” says Sallam.
On average, the UAE market is slightly behind in programmatic and measurement, but Elevision aims to change that. “We ran the first programmatic campaign in the Middle East,” Sallam says proudly. This is one of the reasons why Elevision has been working with the Broadsign solution since 2019.
Elevision’s growth trajectory also extends beyond elevators, continuing to rise in various digital advertising domains. Elevision has also built up a large-format DooH network. It comprises over 100 screens, and the company is currently in the process of implementing another network in the commercial sector – again for premium target groups.
