Onestop Media Group

History

The story of Onestop Media begins in 1998, when three nerdy students at Ryerson University in Toronto, ON met while attending class for Radio Television Arts. Michael Girgis, Ian Gadsby and Jeff Findlay were second year students at the University and grouped together for a television production project. The partnership spawned many projects over the pursuant 3 years at Ryerson including the formal launch of SPIRITlive, and many other creative endeavours.

In 2001, the group was joined by then 4th-year Ryerson student Erin Fulton, and York University business major Jake Neiman to produce a final thesis project: The 2001 TARA Awards. Neiman was freed from classes during a labour strike at York University, giving him free time to meet the group, and become a vital part of the partnership. The project was produced under the banner of Fourth Wall Media, and the first limited partnership was created at that time between the 5 founders. The production was not only an incubator for emerging web, wireless and convergent media production, but a chance for the creative, technical and business talents of the founders to gel and create what would eventually be a 10-year business partnership.

After graduating from University, the group immediately incorporated Fourth Wall Media Inc, and began working in the field of interactive marketing services. Their first offices were located in the Goodwill head offices at 10 George Street in Toronto. Their first clients included Andy Barrie, The New Yorker (now Panasonic) Theatre and the CBC. In 2002, new offices were leased at 50 Richmond Street East, and Dmitri Melamed joined the founders first as an intern, and then as a partner.

Fourth Wall Media continued operations as a full-service interactive agency specializing in touch-screen kiosks and web-based promotions. Clients included Hilton Hotels, BMW, Alliance Atlantis and many others. In 2003, the Banff Television foundation asked Fourth Wall to create a new, interactive approach to conferences. Debuted at the first nextMEDIA conference in Charlottetown, the Fourth Wall Interactive conference network proved influential in the eventual path of the company. The network was a combination of pre-conference email correspondence, on-site touch-screen kiosks for delegate messaging and scheduling, and a new product for information exchange on the emerging technology of large format LCD screens. Dubbed the “Media Matrix”, the product became the prototype product for all of Onestop’s future digital signage efforts. While rudimentary in function compared to today’s advanced platforms, the technology became the centerpiece of the conference and quickly established itself as a game-changing product for Fourth Wall.

The success of the 2nd-generation product at D, and other subsequent test deployments of the technology quickly convinced the team that Digital Signage could be a winning technology in the story of the young start-up company. In early 2004, Fourth Wall approached the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), through then static advertising incumbent, CBS Outdoor (then named Viacom Outdoor) with a new concept of digital signage as an information network, that was 100% supported by ad dollars. The concept was called the “Toronto Onestop”.

In the summer of 2004, the TTC awarded the rights to a pilot and eventual contract to Fourth Wall, that then spun off the digital signage subsidiary, Onestop Media Group to handle the Toronto Transit Commission and all future digital signage contracts. In 2005 the TTC Onestop network launched in Bloor Station on the Southbound platform. The first installation marked the beginning of Onestop’s first media network, and the first service debut of their hardware and software platform.

Over the next six years, the company grew, moving their head office to 266 King Street West in Toronto, where they are presently located. Networks grew and the influence and revenues of the company, making them, by audience one of Canada’s largest Digital Out of Home media companies. In 2008, Onestop launched their national digital mall network in Ivanhoe Cambridge retail properties. This network marked the beginning of Onestop’s partnership with Pattison Outdoor Advertising, as a joint venture was created to maximize on Pattison’s national sales forces and Onestop’s technology and digital operations.

In 2007, Onestop was a founding member of CODACAN, the Canadian Out-of-Home Digital Association. Michael Girgis served as the industry advocacy group’s founding chair, as the group helps to define measurement, promote awareness and define best-practices in the emerging media space of Digital Out-of-Home.

On February 28, 2011, Onestop’s founding partners sold their equity stake in the company to Pattison Outdoor, making Onestop a wholly owned division of Pattison Outdoor. The division, now involved all National digital operations of Pattison’s properties has under its responsibilities Canada’s largest and most diverse portfolio of Digital Networks.