Last year, 2019, was a good year for the Outdoor Measurement Council, with more users signing up to use the Road research tool.
The Outdoor Measurement Council’s Roadside Outdoor Audience Data research, one of the most sophisticated research tools available in South Africa, takes the guessing game out of media planning.
Now in its fifth year of existence, Road’s founding members – JCDecaux, Primedia, Outdoor Network and Ad Outpost – have ensured that the OMC continues to provide the industry with robust and reliable research to measure roadside out of home inventory. Brand IQ joined the OMC in July 2018, bringing our members up to five.
In February 2019, the OMC launched its annual update to the industry with the first three-year rolling sample of 45 000 respondents, the largest sample of all research in South Africa.
We also hosted James Whitmore, managing director of Route, the UK’s outdoor media company. As a result of this engagement, the OMC implemented a new membership costing structure that became effective from 1 July this year.
It’s very favourable for small to medium-sized media owners and allows them to join the OMC and pay according to the number of panels they would like to have loaded onto the Quantum software.
The change was well received, and three new members joined in September: Tractor Outdoor, Mamela Media and The Guyz Media.
These three add 430 roadside panels to the total number of panels we have on the Quantum software. We envisage having another three to four media owners joining the OMC before the end of year with their inventory being available as of January 2020.
Meanwhile, the Road research continues to gain traction. Many briefs to the media owners now clearly state that preference will be given to those media owners who can supply Road research results for their panels.
Media agencies should be setting budgets and realistic media parameters for all clients who use out of home in their media mix. We welcomed new Quantum software users last year, two of them media specialists who understand the importance of our research.
So to conclude, a successful and positive year for the OMC: three new members with more to come, new media agencies and media specialists using the Quantum software and the prospect of continuing to grow both our membership and user base into the foreseeable future.
Should you be interested in finding out more about becoming a member of the OMC, or media agencies who do OOH planning and would like to see the research and the Quantum software, please contact us and we will be more than happy to engage with you.
