Creative Realities is evolving quickly as opportunities emerge across North America’s digital signage and retail media landscapes. The most recent, exciting addition to the company journey is the acquisition of Cineplex Digital Media. Our CEO, Rick Mills, recently sat down with Antonia Hamberger from invidis to share his perspective on why this transaction ticked all the strategic boxes:
By bringing Canada’s largest mall retail media network into the Creative Realities family, we’re expanding our network to include more than 750 screens across 95 shopping destinations. Cineplex Digital Media has a long history operating digital solutions in retail, restaurants, entertainment venues, financial services, and more.
The expanded footprint gives us a presence in thousands of new endpoints and deepens connection points within shopping environments where shopper attention is high and advertiser demand continues to grow. This broader network also enhances opportunities for data-driven retail media, enabling advertisers to engage audiences across more contexts while providing retailers with options to unlock incremental revenue from screens they already own.
Our acquisition strategy is rooted in long-term value creation. We have maintained an active buy-side program for years, with a clear preference for acquisitions that meaningfully expand the company’s footprint in the enterprise digital signage space.
The logic is straightforward. As a public company, the effort and cost to complete a transaction is similar whether the target is a small business or a much larger one, so we prioritize acquisitions that bring significant revenue and scale. That scale is also essential in a digital signage industry where the ability to support large, distributed networks is increasingly a competitive differentiator.
Equally important is strategic fit. Our company is built to serve enterprise customers with hundreds or thousands of locations, so we typically avoid businesses centered around small, fragmented customer bases. Instead, we look for acquisitions that strengthen its presence in high-growth verticals like QSR, convenience, and retail, while also expanding geographic reach. This disciplined approach reflects our focus on “smart money,” investing in acquisitions that align with the company’s infrastructure, technology stack, and ability to scale services efficiently.
The acquisition reflects a broader trend shaping our industry today. Retailers and media partners are increasingly looking for partners who can deliver integrated signage, data, and media capabilities across retail environments. Creative Realities remains focused on helping brands and retailers scale their digital signage networks effectively while exploring new ways to drive value from owned screens and media networks.
Listen to the full recent video with insights from Creative Realities CEO Rick Mills on what this acquisition means and how we are thinking about the future of retail media and customer engagement.