Hotcrowd Advertising
Hotcrowd Advertising Inc.
From placeholder to platform — KrysisLabs built Hotcrowd's billboard booking engine, screen management system, and advertiser dashboard from zero.
The Starting Point
A big vision with nothing but a placeholder to show for it
When Hotcrowd came to KrysisLabs, they had a founder with serious industry experience, a clear mission to democratise outdoor advertising in Canada, and a basic placeholder site that communicated none of it. The business had launched in London, Ontario in January 2024 with a single digital screen — and was ready to build the platform that would take it national. KrysisLabs was brought in to build everything.
The Challenge
Three products in one — for three very different users
Hotcrowd isn't a simple brochure site. It serves three fundamentally different user types simultaneously — businesses who want to book billboard and digital ad space, storefront owners who want to monetise their windows by hosting screens, and billboard owners who want to list and manage their inventory. Each of these users has different needs, different goals, and different journeys. Building a platform that serves all three clearly, without confusion, was the central design challenge.
Marketing Website
A conversion-first website that explains a complex product simply
We started with the marketing website — the public face of Hotcrowd that had to do the heavy lifting of explaining three distinct services to three distinct audiences, all in one visit. We built out the full homepage, a dedicated about page capturing the founder's story and mission, and individual service pages for Digital Advertising Management, Digital Screen Management, and the In-store Signage Ad-Vantage programme. Every page was designed to move visitors toward a clear action — book, list, or contact.
Booking Engine
A self-serve billboard booking flow built for speed
The core of the Hotcrowd product is the ability for any business to find and book billboard or digital screen ad space without going through an agency. We built a streamlined booking flow that lets advertisers browse available locations, select dates and formats, and complete a booking end-to-end — fast, simple, and fully self-serve. Multiple payment options were integrated to reduce drop-off and accommodate the range of business sizes Hotcrowd serves.
Dashboard
An advertiser dashboard that gives clients full visibility
Beyond booking, advertisers needed a place to manage their campaigns, monitor performance, and handle their account. We built a full advertiser dashboard — a login-protected portal where clients can view active and upcoming bookings, manage their ad creatives, track spend, and access their account history. The dashboard was designed to be clean and functional, reflecting Hotcrowd's commitment to making advertising management genuinely simple.
Screen Management
A digital screen management system for hosts and owners
For storefront owners and billboard hosts, we built a separate management interface that lets them oversee the screens on their property — monitoring ad schedules, tracking revenue, and managing their listings. This was a critical piece of the Hotcrowd model: the platform only works if hosts have a reliable, easy-to-use system to manage what runs on their screens. We built that system from scratch, purpose-built for the way Hotcrowd operates.
The Result
A placeholder became a platform. Now Hotcrowd is expanding into Toronto.
Hotcrowd launched with a fully operational platform that supports every side of their business — advertisers, hosts, and billboard owners. The marketing site is converting visitors into bookings. The dashboard is giving clients the control they need. The screen management system is letting hosts earn passively without friction. Since launch, Hotcrowd has grown its advertiser base across Canada and is now pre-booking five new locations in Toronto. That's what we built toward.
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