Companies are grappling with a new reality: The world has changed, new variants of the pandemic are upon us, change is happening faster, and customers – people – are at the centre of it all.
Over the years we’ve seen a dramatic rise in new PaaS systems – fintech being at the forefront. While it has seen tremendous growth both local and globally, MarTech, AdTech and several other tech measurement platforms have been criticised. Many cite AdTech for its inaccuracy particularly for direct audience reach while mobility research, being at the core of defect data discussions, is targeted too as a result of its basic inability to be measured correctly.
The digital topics locally are the same that we see globally – a lot of programmatic displays – with static, needing to be explored further in as far as inaccurate reach is concerned. Planning for media does not need to be a tedious task since we’ve caught on to the global landscape of AdTech platforms with unique APIs that could be integrated with many other client platforms.
The basic privilege of planning with adequate data at your immediate disposal should be a norm across all agencies and sellers. Clean, substantial data organised in-house (depending on capacity) or well-structured from third party vendors, should be at the helm of every marketer or media owners at large. This enables better delivery, accountability and transparency across all platforms.
We might argue the global positioning of the AdTech landscape. One thing we’ll end up agreeing upon is the vast options delivered across AdTech vendors. Bilbórd, for example, provides insights based on the location of the screen, the audience that is likely to see the specific ad spot, and the proximity to a particular point of interest using Computer Vision at that particular moment in time.
Out of home planning
Now, this speaks to how OOH planning changes particularly in how it’s been carried out over years, picking sites randomly based on perceived value and intuition while a move towards analytical analysis is a much needed change.
The fear of Delta-plus variant of Covid-19 is hindering client’s Q4 preparations. Many advertisers aren’t ready to commit to holiday campaigns as yet. Marketers need substantial data to prove the efficacy of the much-doubted campaigns over the holidays. To achieve this, agencies together with sellers need an intense all-round ad-diagnosis which would include:
- A thorough audience measurement
- A route comparison to reduce cherry-picking sites.
- Mobility reporting to enhance a right targeting approach
- Screen monitoring to gather data and report on a campaign
The quicker we integrate technology with clients’ businesses, the more valuable input data we have available to inform our advertising placement decisions. This is why companies like Bilbordapp.com are best suited to deliver on this. A great example of the power of a tool like this is the billboard monitoring by Bilbórd. This is an on-street reality of a screen using computer vision to analyse audience data accordingly, on-street audience measurement enables a precise or contextual analysis – and how to better target people based on feedback received in real time.
Data is a much-needed resource to influence decision making in any organisation across all departments. The time is now to invest in AI machinery that ultimately provides a level of convenience in the way we engage people and how we influence them to do things.
Omphemetse Mokwena is partner at BilbordApp Ltd. ‘bil,bôrd is an audience measurement solution for the out of home advertising industry, presenting audience data in six categories based on computer vision technology.
