Transit & Out-of-Home Advertising in Montreal
Transit & Out-of-Home Advertising in Montreal
Montreal's a different animal than the rest of the country when it comes to out-of-home. It's got its own transit operator setup, its own culture around festivals and events, and honestly one of the best cities in Canada for a wrapped vehicle to actually turn heads. Here's the full breakdown of what's available — and where wrapped fits, including a story I still can't believe was my actual job for a week.
STM (Métro & buses) — the traditional out-of-home baseline
Montreal's transit advertising doesn't run through Pattison like most of the rest of the country. It's Astral (Bell Media's out-of-home division), operating through Transgesco — the STM's own advertising subsidiary — to sell and manage ad space across the métro and bus network. Transit shelters are actually managed separately, through Quebecor Media Out of Home. So Montreal's transit stack has more moving parts than a typical Canadian city, but the reach backs it up: well over a million rides a day on the métro and bus network combined.
Formats: bus wraps, static murals, digital murals, métro station domination packages, and digital walls at high-traffic hubs like Central Station, Berri-UQAM, and McGill.
The tradeoff is the same one every city has with fixed transit: you're buying set routes and set stations. Your ad shows up where the STM goes, not necessarily where your audience actually is. Great for broad reach and legitimacy — not built for precision targeting around a launch, an event, or a specific neighborhood.
Taxi wraps
Taxi wraps are a real, established format in Montreal — a wrapped vehicle circulating through the city, tied to dispatch and airport routes. It works, and it's been around for a while. The limitation is the same one it always is: fleet control and flexibility are in the hands of the taxi company, not the brand, and route options are narrower than what you get with a broader gig fleet.
LED / digital mobile billboard trucks
A truck with a massive digital screen circling Bell Centre before a Canadiens game or parked near a Just For Laughs crowd downtown is impossible to ignore. It's a great format for a short, loud burst tied to a specific moment. But that's exactly what it is — a burst. You're renting a truck for a day or a weekend, not building sustained presence across the city, and cost per day is high relative to how long the impression actually lasts.
Pedicabs / vélo-taxis
Pedicabs are a real category in Montreal too, especially around Old Montreal, the Old Port, and festival season downtown. They're slow-moving, low-key, and get right up close to pedestrians in a way cars can't — a nice fit for experiential or event-tied activations rather than mass reach. Not a citywide play on their own, but a strong complement layered onto a bigger campaign when you want physical presence right in the middle of foot traffic during a festival or event weekend.
Vehicle wraps — gig economy fleets
This is our core lane. Instead of one truck or a fixed transit route, you get a fleet of Uber, DoorDash, Skip, and other gig vehicles wrapped and driving through the city all day, every day, as part of drivers' actual jobs. That means:
- Real coverage. Not one route — dozens of drivers covering downtown, the Plateau, Mile End, Griffintown, and the suburbs, all at once.
- Constant movement. These cars aren't parked. They're on Crescent Street and in the Old Port at night, and in residential neighborhoods in the morning.
- Flexibility. We can build a SWARM around a concert, a festival, a Habs game, or a launch, or run a steady city-wide campaign for months. Try doing that with a métro ad.
- Attribution. MAID passback means we can retarget people who were physically near the campaign. STM, taxi wraps, and pedicabs can't touch that.
Vehicle wraps — specialty & exotic vehicles
This is where Montreal specifically earns its reputation as one of our favorite cities to run a campaign in. On top of the standard gig fleet, we can wrap specialty and exotic vehicles for brands that want to make an actual statement, not just add to the visual noise.
The best example is one I got to be part of personally. Hot Wheels wanted something bigger than a booth for Canadian Grand Prix weekend, so we wrapped two Porsche 911s head to toe in Hot Wheels livery and ran them together for four days straight — Crescent Street, Peel Street, out to the circuit perimeter, and on race day, a full route built around the event itself: hotel corridor in the morning, the surge toward the circuit, downtown during the race, then an after-party loop through Old Montreal. I flew out and drove one of them myself.
I was not ready for the reaction. People stopping mid-sidewalk, banging on the window, full-on posing next to the car — by the end of the weekend, we figured somewhere close to 10,000 people had stopped to take a photo. That's the kind of reaction you genuinely can't buy with a billboard, and it's exactly the kind of moment a standard fleet wrap can't create on its own. F1 weekend in Montreal, in particular, is an environment built for this — dense crowds, a city that's already leaning into the spectacle, and an audience that wants to be photographed next to whatever's turning heads.
Where wrapped fits in Montreal's out-of-home mix
We're not trying to replace the STM or knock LED trucks. A smart out-of-home media plan in this city probably uses more than one format. STM gets you scale and credibility. LED trucks get you a big, loud moment. Taxi wraps and pedicabs each cover a specific niche. What we bring is the thing none of those can do on their own: a mobile out-of-home network that moves through the entire city every day, scales up into a specialty-vehicle showcase when the moment calls for it, and gives you the data to prove it worked.
It's not about who's the "best" format. It's about picking the right tool — or combination of tools — for what you're actually trying to do. For city-wide, high-frequency, measurable mobility media in Montreal, with the option to go all the way up to something like two wrapped Porsches at a Grand Prix — that's us.
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Transit & Out-of-Home Advertising in Calgary
If you're a brand trying to get noticed in this city, you've got options. More than most people realize. Calgary's out-of-home advertising landscape isn't just CTrain posters — it's CTrain, buses, LED trucks, pedicabs, and wrapped gig vehicles all fighting for the same eyeballs. Here's how the transit and OOH options actually stack up.
Calgary Transit (CTrain, buses, MAX) — the traditional out-of-home baseline
This is the OG. Pattison Outdoor runs the advertising across Calgary Transit — the CTrain's Red and Blue Lines, the regular bus network, and the MAX bus rapid transit routes. Add in the +15 Skyway, Calgary's massive elevated pedestrian walkway network downtown, and Pattison's got a serious footprint here between transit vehicles, stations, and skywalk screens. It's the backbone of traditional out-of-home advertising in this city.
The tradeoff is the same one every city has with fixed transit: you're buying set routes and set stations. Your ad shows up where Calgary Transit goes, not necessarily where your audience actually is. Great for broad reach and legitimacy — not built for precision targeting around a launch, an event, or a specific neighborhood.
LED / digital mobile billboard trucks
These are the attention grabbers, but like Vancouver, Calgary has restrictions here — the screens generally can't be lit up while the truck's actually driving. They're built for parking near a venue or event and running the display while stationary, not for cruising the city with the screen on. So a truck parked outside the Scotiabank Saddledome or camped near a Stampede event can still be impossible to ignore. But that's the model — a stationary burst tied to a specific moment, not sustained citywide movement. Cost per day is high, and once the truck packs up, so does the impression.
Pedicabs
Pedicabs are a real category here too, threading through the Beltline, Eau Claire, and downtown during events, festivals, and busy weekend nights — Stampede especially. They're slow-moving, low-key, and get right up close to pedestrians in a way cars can't, which makes them a nice fit for experiential or event-tied campaigns rather than mass reach. Not a citywide play on its own, but a good complement to a bigger campaign when you want a physical presence right in the middle of foot traffic.
Vehicle wraps (gig economy fleets)
This is our lane. Instead of one truck or a fixed route, you get a fleet of Uber, DoorDash, Skip, and other gig vehicles wrapped and driving through the city all day, every day, as part of their actual jobs. That means:
- Real coverage. Not one route — dozens of drivers covering downtown, Kensington, Inglewood, the suburbs, all at once.
- Constant movement. These cars aren't parked. They're in the Beltline and Eau Claire at night and residential streets in the morning.
- Flexibility. We can build a SWARM around a concert, a Stampede event, or a launch, or run a steady city-wide campaign for months. Try doing that with a CTrain ad.
- Attribution. MAID passback means we can retarget people who were physically near the campaign. Calgary Transit, LED trucks, and pedicabs can't touch that.
Where Wrapped fits in Calgary's out-of-home mix
We're not trying to replace Calgary Transit or knock LED trucks. Honestly, a smart out-of-home media plan probably uses more than one of these. Calgary Transit gets you scale and credibility. LED trucks get you a big moment. What we bring is the thing neither of those can: a mobile out-of-home network that moves through the entire city, all day, with the flexibility to go where your audience actually is and the data to prove it worked.
It's not about who's the "best" format. It's about picking the right tool for what you're actually trying to do. For city-wide, high-frequency, measurable mobility media in Calgary — that's us.
Transit Advertising in Toronto
If you're a brand trying to get noticed in this city, you've got options. More than most people realize. Toronto's transit advertising landscape isn't just buses and subway posters anymore... it's buses, cabs, LED trucks, and wrapped gig vehicles all fighting for the same eyeballs. Here's how they actually stack up.
TTC (buses, streetcars, subway)
This is the OG. Pattison Outdoor runs pretty much all of it... buses, streetcars, subway stations, the works. And there's a reason it's stood the test of time: TTC ridership is massive, and a streetcar rolling down King Street with a full wrap is still one of the most recognizable ad formats in the city.
The tradeoff is flexibility. You're buying fixed routes and fixed placements. Your ad shows up where the TTC goes, not where your audience actually is. Great for broad reach and legitimacy... not built for precision targeting around a launch, an event, or a specific neighborhood.
Taxi wraps
Taxi advertising has been around for a while too, and it's closer to what we do... a wrapped vehicle moving through the city. The difference is fleet control and flexibility. Taxi companies run fixed routes tied to dispatch and airport runs, and the creative/placement options are usually more limited. It works, but it's a narrower version of the mobility media idea.
LED / digital mobile billboard trucks
These are the attention grabbers. A truck with a massive digital screen parked outside a stadium or circling a festival is impossible to ignore, and it's great for a short, loud burst tied to a specific moment. But that's exactly what it is... a burst. You're renting a truck for a day or a weekend, not building sustained presence across the city. Cost per day is high, and once the truck's gone, so is the impression.
Vehicle wraps (gig economy fleets)
This is our lane. Instead of one truck or a fixed route, you get a fleet of Uber, DoorDash, Skip, and other gig vehicles wrapped and driving through the city all day, every day, as part of their actual jobs. That means:
- Real coverage. Not one route... dozens of drivers covering downtown, the neighborhoods, the suburbs, all at once.
- Constant movement. These cars aren't parked. They're in entertainment districts at night and residential streets in the morning.
- Flexibility. We can build a SWARM around a concert or a launch, or run a steady city-wide campaign for months. Try doing that with a subway ad.
- Attribution. MAID passback means we can retarget people who were physically near the campaign. TTC and taxi wraps can't touch that.
Where Wrapped fits
We're not trying to replace the TTC or knock LED trucks. Honestly, a smart media plan probably uses more than one of these. TTC gets you scale and credibility. LED trucks get you a big moment. What we bring is the thing neither of those can: a mobile network that moves through the entire city, all day, with the flexibility to go where your audience actually is and the data to prove it worked.
It's not about who's the "best" format. It's about picking the right tool for what you're actually trying to do. For city-wide, high-frequency, measurable mobility media... that's us.
Transit Advertising in Vancouver
If you're a brand trying to get noticed in this city, you've got options. More than most people realize. Vancouver's transit advertising landscape isn't just buses and SkyTrain posters — it's buses, LED trucks, pedicabs, and wrapped gig vehicles all fighting for the same eyeballs. Here's how they actually stack up.
TransLink (buses, SkyTrain, SeaBus)
This is the OG. Pattison Outdoor took over as TransLink's main ad provider in August 2025 — buses, SkyTrain, SeaBus, and the West Coast Express, the works. Before that it was Lamar for years, so this is still a fairly fresh setup, but the inventory itself is as strong as ever. Vancouver's the only major North American city without a freeway system, which means arterials and transit corridors carry a ton of the traffic that would otherwise be on a highway — and a SkyTrain wrap or a bus rolling down Broadway gets serious, sustained exposure because of it.
The tradeoff is the same one every city has with fixed transit: you're buying set routes and set stations. Your ad shows up where TransLink goes, not necessarily where your audience actually is. Great for broad reach and legitimacy — not built for precision targeting around a launch, an event, or a specific neighborhood.
LED / digital mobile billboard trucks
These are the attention grabbers, but Vancouver's bylaws are stricter here than a lot of cities. The screens generally can't be lit up while the truck is actually driving — they're built for parking near a venue or event and running the display while stationary, not for cruising the city with the screen on. So a truck parked outside Rogers Arena or camped near a festival in Yaletown can still be impossible to ignore. But that's the model — a stationary burst tied to a specific moment, not sustained citywide movement. Cost per day is high, and once the truck packs up, so does the impression.
Pedicabs
This one's more niche, but it's a real category here — pedicabs threading through Gastown, the West End, and downtown during events, festivals, and busy weekend nights. They're slow-moving, low-key, and get right up close to pedestrians in a way cars can't, which makes them a nice fit for experiential or event-tied campaigns rather than mass reach. Not a citywide play on its own, but a good complement to a bigger campaign when you want a physical presence right in the middle of foot traffic.
Vehicle wraps (gig economy fleets)
This is our lane. Instead of one truck or a fixed route, you get a fleet of Uber, DoorDash, Skip, and other gig vehicles wrapped and driving through the city all day, every day, as part of their actual jobs. That means:
- Real coverage. Not one route — dozens of drivers covering downtown, Kitsilano, Mount Pleasant, the North Shore, all at once.
- Constant movement. These cars aren't parked. They're in Gastown and Yaletown at night and residential streets in the morning.
- Flexibility. We can build a SWARM around a concert or a launch, or run a steady city-wide campaign for months. Try doing that with a SkyTrain ad.
- Attribution. MAID passback means we can retarget people who were physically near the campaign. TransLink, LED trucks, and pedicabs can't touch that.
Where Wrapped fits
We're not trying to replace TransLink or knock LED trucks. Honestly, a smart media plan probably uses more than one of these. TransLink gets you scale and credibility. LED trucks get you a big moment. What we bring is the thing neither of those can: a mobile network that moves through the entire city, all day, with the flexibility to go where your audience actually is and the data to prove it worked.
It's not about who's the "best" format. It's about picking the right tool for what you're actually trying to do. For city-wide, high-frequency, measurable mobility media in Vancouver — that's us.