Out-of-home (OOH) advertising is finally on an equal footing with other forms. This after the Outdoor Measurement Council (OMC) brought a brand new audience measurement model to the South African market. Michael Bratt attended the launch to find out more.
The new model was designed jointly by Ask Afrika and Spanish OOH research company, Cuende Infometrics. It combines various elements including traffic flows, satellite imagery and travel patterns to form a comprehensive traffic model, which when combined with the location of all media owner billboard panels, creates an accurate representation of OOH audiences. As a result, advertisers will now have access to data about reach, frequency, GRPs (gross rating points), duplication factors, impacts, and CPM (cost per thousand), and, most importantly, this data is now comparable with other advertising mediums for the first time ever.
The main benefits of this new model are that OOH advertising will become more accountable, and is expected to grow its market share of local advertising spend as buyers are now able to see, through in-depth analysis, the true value of this medium. Initially, the new research model will only cover roadside OOH formats, before extending to the inclusion of commuter media and indoor OOH media down the road.
But it is not just advertisers who will benefit from the new research model. Along with it, Cuende Infometrics is bringing new software into the South African market for OOH media owners. Quantum software, which is available to owners through Telmar, will enable them to upload their inventories on to a map, define a visibility model for each panel and calculate the corresponding frequency and reach. The user will have access to audience and panel network metrics, and can experiment with potential panel and network sites to discover what will give them the best impact for specifically defined target markets.
Daniel Cuende, CEO of Cuende Infometrics explains that this will enable users to locate each billboard – along with orientation, audience estimation, GPS data, impact, profile, and demographics as they go, and allow them to experiment with orientation and groupings of billboards, look at brand data, and speedily create a new offering.
The OMC is a non-profit joint industry committee, which formally came into being in March 2015. It was the brainchild of Terry Murphy of Primedia Outdoor and Lyn Jones of JC Decaux (formerly Continental Outdoor Media), with technical support being provided by Kuper Research. Other players who have since come on board are Outdoor Network and AdOutpost. When it was set up its mandate was to formulate and deliver an accurate out-of-home audience measurement currency.
