Moroccan-Born Entrepreneur Builds Canadian Ad Network Before Québecor Acquisition
After arriving in Canada in 1998, Ismael Alaoui built a career at major companies before becoming an entrepreneur. His idea: install advertising screens at gas stations. The venture eventually brought him to Québecor, one of Canada’s media giants.
Turn a few minutes spent at the gas pump into advertising space: that was the idea on which Ismael Alaoui, a Montreal-based entrepreneur of Moroccan origin, built part of his success. With his partners, he developed Pompe Media, a company specializing in digital screens installed at gas stations and convenience stores. The project grew to such an extent that it eventually joined the NEO network, whose advertising operations were acquired by Québecor in October 2024.
Yet nothing seemed to point this Moroccan, who arrived in Quebec in 1998, toward a career in out-of-home advertising. After studying at HEC Montréal and the Université de Sherbrooke, where he earned an Executive MBA, among other qualifications, he gained experience at several multinationals. Pitney Bowes, Pages Jaunes, ADP and Canon entrusted him with sales and marketing responsibilities. He would later put that experience to work in his own company, as noted in a biographical profile published in 2019 by Maghreb Canada Express.
Pompe Media’s business model is relatively simple: run ads on screens placed directly on fuel pumps. During the few minutes it takes to fill up, motorists become an audience available to advertisers. The company also develops installations in dépanneurs, the small convenience stores found throughout Canada.
In December 2019, Média Groupe, owner of the NEO network, acquired a 50% stake in Pompe Media. At the time, the company had around a hundred screens on pumps at twelve Quebec gas stations, as well as installations in around fifty dépanneurs. The partnership gave it the means to pursue expansion across Canada.
From Quebec gas stations to media giant Québecor
Expansion took shape. A few years later, Pompe Media had a presence in more than a hundred gas stations and nearly two hundred dépanneurs in Quebec. It also began rolling out its network in Ontario. In a post by Grenier aux nouvelles, Ismael Alaoui said he wanted to continue this growth across the rest of the country. His ambition was to take the technology from a provincial market to truly nationwide coverage.
In January 2023, he took another step in his career, becoming vice-president of sales for Quebec at NEO while remaining president of Pompe Media. The advertising network then had 3,750 display locations across shopping malls, gas stations, gyms and mobile solutions.
The turning point came on October 2, 2024. Québecor officially acquired NEO’s out-of-home advertising operations. The deal gave the Canadian group more than 17,000 advertising faces across the country, a figure that includes both its existing network and the operations it acquired.
At the time of the sale, Ronald Tapiero, then NEO’s president and Ismael Alaoui’s partner in Pompe Media, publicly praised Alaoui’s role in developing advertising screens at gas stations. He thanked his partner and the entrepreneurs who helped launch the network in Canada.
Since the deal, Ismael Alaoui has continued working as a business consultant. Through Groupe Conseil IA, he works in areas including business development, technology and business relations between Canada and Morocco. He has also shared his experience with students at HEC Montréal and Collège Sainte-Anne.
