Transforming OOH through the OMC

Updated software, a new methodology and a clear ROAD 2.0 map on the way ahead has boosted the OMC’s offerings and capabilities.

The past two years have been a period of massive transformation for the Outdoor Measurement Council (OMC). With our ROAD currency updated to our new audience data ROAD 2.0 and our new methodology and software partner MGE Data, the OMC have certainly hit the fast forward button.

The changes have been worth the wait and stress for both our members and the industry at large. An industry measurement is significant, but making such a tremendous change in your partners after a mere seven years – compounded by the fact that this took place shortly after the pandemic lockdowns, has been nothing short of remarkable.

With the assistance of Kuper Research, the changeover has been monitored judiciously to ensure that every frame that was uploaded on the earlier software has been successfully and correctly migrated to the new MGE Data software systems, inventory management system (IMS) and inventory delivery system (IDS).

The changeover has not been that of ‘more of the same’. Our new research is very different in that the new results are the product of far more sophisticated methodology layers than our previous data.

ROAD 2.0 is one of the first in the South African market to offer attention-based audience results. What does this mean to advertisers? We all know that not all media types offer the same environments, and they are certainly not equal, either.

By using high-quality, uncluttered, contextually-relevant environments and high-impact ad spaces – rather than a traditional reach-and-frequency approach – it is now possible to work out the potential attention achieved for campaigns running on roadside OOH billboards for a specific length of time, with a specific budget.

Attention can predict the audience’s brand choice a lot more effectively compared to the historical viewability data. This would be something that the advertiser could research utilising our ROAD 2.0 data.

Revitalising the research landscape

It goes without saying that this is groundbreaking in our industry and brings a whole new layer of understanding to our media research landscape. Hopefully, it will assist in obtaining more realistic ROI for media spends.

Our move to our new partners MGE Data will also assist media owners, agencies and clients with their DOOH and pDOOH planning. Our new software includes digital algorithms and there are plans in the pipeline for an add on opportunity to get specific data requirements for pDOOH planning.

This will remove ever-present human error concerns and assist with digital multiplier standardisation for all members when dealing with the likes of Broadsign and Hivestack.

While this all may sound like confusing jargon, it clearly reflects our development. Before, we were proud to offer the standard media metrics of reach, average frequency, opportunities to see (OTS), gross rating points (GRPs), cost per thousands (CPTs) and Impacts for specific OOH billboard faces or a specific campaign.

Our previous software calculated static and digital frames all as static frames, and a manual excel spreadsheet was used to calculate the digital results; however, not all elements were included in the this spreadsheet.

The following table shows results for a digital campaign over a 10-week period against a specific target market based on the previous ROAD data and software.

Campaign results from ROAD

Source: ROAD

With the incredible speed that OOH itself has moved and continues to move, it has been important for us to ensure that our research can keep up with the requirements of our members.

Our move to ROAD 2.0 would naturally bring with it changes to the currency to allow us to get the new Visibility Adjusted Contact data (VACs) which is more granular than the previous OTS. What does this mean and how does it play out? The industry is used to being quoted and getting OTS figures.  This would be the largest potential impacts/impressions that your ad campaign would achieve; in this case, on a billboard (referred to as a frame).

Each frame is plotted according to its co-ordinates and orientation to the road. The system automatically generates a ‘Cone of Visibility’, based on the maximum distance from which the frame is visible and the furthest angle from which it can be seen. Any permanent obstacles (such as buildings and the width of the street) are considered in resizing the Cone to a realistic one, within which the frame can be seen.

The step down from an OTS is a ROTS (Realistic Opportunity To See). ROTS take into account that not everybody passing a frame would be exposed to the creative campaign. This could be for a number of reasons: the angle of the face to the road; viewing obstructions or part obstructions; the direction the vehicle or pedestrians are moving in, etc. The ROTS therefore include those that are travelling within the Cone of Vision, and in the direction of the frame.

The third step down are VACs – and it is here that MGE Data factor in additional layers of data to get a much more accurate and realistic sense of who actually can view the frame. Within the VAC analysis, factors such as traffic speeds, dwell time in front of the frame, illumination and frame height, are all taken into account, as well as other layers of information to which MGE Data have access.

A VAC provides the most accurate estimate of the possible actual viewability of a panel – and not just a number of people passing a frame.

Each layer of information factored into the calculation adjusts and reduces the estimated number of contacts that ultimately provide us with the VACs used for our analyses. These are the most realistic impacts/impressions that the frame will actually deliver, and are absolutely comparable with digital Impressions. The one great difference though, is that VACs are designed to provide an attention-based metric, not evident in digital impressions.

Fig 2:  The progression from OTS to ROTS to VACs

Being able to present the most realistic impact or impressions that a frame or a package of frames would deliver is a huge jump for us, and we are thrilled with the outcome of ROAD 2.0.

We understand that these massive changes to our data now comes with its own unique set of challenges. Having to train our members and the industry on our new methodology, our new improved results and of course new software and terminology post-Covid-19 – when people are working remotely and have moved provinces, along with many other operational changes – has been interesting, to say the least.

We have, to a certain extent, thrown 80% of the baby’s bath water out of the tub, in that it is simply not advisable to compare previous individual frame results with our new ROAD 2.0 results..

We have learnt that as soon as we advised people of this fact, the first thing that they have done is make comparisons on a frame by frame basis. We are, after all, creatures of habit. We all hate change. We all want our frames that were achieving the highest audiences to continue showing these unrealistic audiences.

We therefore implore our members and the industry to not make comparisons, but to embrace the new software and the new results, and work with our more sophisticated data.

So how does our new ROAD 2.0 research with our new VACs look if we are saying that our VACs are so much more realistic? Quite simply, when looking at the same package as in figure 1 above, do these impacts/impressions now look more realistic to you, taking into consideration that they are now based on a 5” ad in a 60” loop?

Figure 3

Source:  ROAD 2.0

The OMC takes a number of leads from the international members of the World Out of Home Organisation (WOO), and we ensure that our data is of the highest standard possible. The OMC and Kuper Research were part of the committee involved in the setting of the WOO Digital Guidelines during 2022 which were presented at the conference in Toronto.

The fast forward button has definitely been released. OOH is moving at a tremendous pace and the OMC has already embarked on our next journey, and working on our next JIC. Five additional JICS will be introduced over the foreseeable future, and we will of course continue to make improvements to our ROAD 2.0 data.

Trish Guilford is the general manager of the Outdoor Measurement Council. The OMC is a non-profit joint industry committee that has been incorporated to provide buyers of out of home media with a currency and survey that allows for efficient and accurate OOH planning. 

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