| The lack of
measurable audience metrics for out-of-home advertising, is
considered by many to be a major obstacle to the industry.
Based on
the assumption that we can't manage what we can't measure...it
is proposed that if advertisers were provided with an accurate
and credible audience measuring mechanism for Out-of-home media
(something akin to the television or radio ratings survey
system), advertisers (and their agents) may be more predisposed
to invest in Out-of-home media. Indeed in a recent
Online Survey, over 100 advertisers and agents suggested
that they believed that 'the right audience measurement tools'
would foster an industry-wide ad revenue growth of between ten
and fifteen percent!
The
Out-of-home People-meter Project is offered as a possible,
economically-sustainable option to consider for this purpose.
Brief
Summary of The Out-of-home People-meter Method::
Step
1 ::
Out-of-home sites (external, internal, fixed and mobile plant) are
equipped with what is called a 'TOP Gun'...a simple miniature,
low-powered, low-cost RF transmitter (using similar technology
to a remote control for garage doors, etc). These TOP Guns can
be configured to cast a 'broadcast field', closely approximating
the 'viewable field' of the media they're attached to (e.g. the
TOP Gun attached to a Supersite might cast a broadcast field of
150m in one direction down a highway, where the TOP Gun on a
Taxi-back might only throw a broadcast field of 10 to 15m in a
110 degree arc directly behind the taxi that is carrying it,
etc.) Each TOP Gun continually transmits only two 'bytes' of
information...the first containing the unique ID Key number of the site/plant it
represents and the second contains an ongoing universal time-code (date and time).
Step
2 :: Survey participants are provided with a wearable receiver (a TOP
Watch) that not only records any Line-of-sight proximity
encounters with a Top Gun, but also constantly monitors the
exact location of the survey participant via GPS (Global
Positioning Satellite) data. The combined data from the
TOP Watch, accurately records and verifies any legitimate
opportunity* for a survey participant to 'view the Out-of-home
advertising materials' they encounter. Collectively, this data
will be correlated with the demographic statistics of the survey
participants and accurate 'reach and frequency' demographics are
extrapolated for the region/territory being surveyed.
(Statistically, this is the same process that is employed by the
television and radio industries in the establishment of
'people-meter' and audience rating surveys.)
[*
Clearly, this process doesn't measure whether the survey
participant actually 'viewed' the advertising media --- that's
what the 'Qualitative measurement' in Step 3 (below) is for.
All Step 2 of the process does, is accurately record whether
the survey participant had a 'legitimate opportunity to view
the advertising media'. We should point out that the
industry-accepted 'television rating surveys' don't record
whether someone actually 'viewed' an advertisement either.
They too (like the proposed TOP Watch Ratings) only estimate
the size and demographics of the potential audience that has a
legitimate opportunity to view the advertisement...based on
the observed and measurable behaviour of a small but
well-defined sample of the total population. At least the TOP
Watch system requires actual 'line-of-sight'...meaning for
example, that if a large truck were to obscure the view of a
Supersite from a survey participant travelling down the
highway (or to define it more accurately, if a large truck
were to obscure the transmission of a TOP Gun attached to a
Supersite from being detected by a TOP Watch worn by a survey
participant travelling down the highway), then a 'hit' would
NOT be recorded. Only legitimate 'line-of-site' proximity
detections are recorded. In this way, the TOP Watch system is
a conservative and realistic measurement of 'actual'
opportunities to view the advertising media.]
Step
3 :: At
least once during each survey period, each survey participant is
required to indicate on a 'qualitative scale' how well they
recall viewing the Out-of-home media that they 'recently' had an
opportunity to view and potentially what 'action' (if any) the
survey participant intends to take in relation to those recently
accessed sites. This provides an additional layer of
'qualitative data' that is effectively missing from published
television and radio surveys and arms advertisers with useable
intelligence on the type, location, creative and frequency
aspects of successful Out-of-home media.
Conclusion
:: By integrating the T.O.P. process into the existing
R.O.A.M. and Cody's 'Road Reader' and GPS methods, the
costs of implementing such a process could be surprisingly low,
though the combined support of all stakeholders would be
required if the process is to succeed in providing worthwhile,
standardised audience metrics data for the entire Out-of-home
Advertising industry. There is also the potential to perfect the
technology in this market and export our findings
internationally which could further reduce the costs
involved...(after all, this IS a global problem.)
We
should also point out, that much of the technology to provide
this service, though theoretically available, has only been
assembled in virtual models by the author and proper
field testing and trials would need to be undertaken before
'Proof of Method' could be verified and decisions on hardware
and software could be finalised. For this purpose, La Trobe
University could be considered an independent agent.
These
notes and the attached Discussion Papers are the results of the
research of Geoff Mills, CEO of AIMS and
AUS3 Marketing, a former General Manager of Commercial
Production for the Nine Television Network who is currently a
consultant lecturer in Marketing and Technology at La Trobe University in
Brisbane.
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