Modern Marketing recently attended the Out-Of-Home Measurement Council’s (OMC’s) presentation of the latest release of three years of fused ROAD research in Johannesburg at the Bryanston Country Club.
The research highlights how the industry is better equipped to evaluate and plan OOH, with a currency that offers the same metrics as other media types. This new release allows for all users to optimise media planning and buying, and to develop effective strategies.
During the presentation, OOH media owners, media agencies and marketers witnessed first-hand just how integral this data and software will become in their daily planning. The unveiling of the enhanced Optimiser tool demonstrated how OOH can be based on both budget and set criteria, aligning the software to the user’s needs and delivering efficiencies and better planning. Further projects and initiatives that the OMC had been busy with over the past year were shared with the audience.
This released research document serves as a guide to assist in understanding the scope of Out-of-Home billboards that are loaded on the Quantum software. The objective of the document is to understand the distribution of sites based on site audience reach and impacts.
The information will enable an assessment or evaluation of the audience volume delivered by set formats across all nine provinces as the population numbers and distribution are vastly different. Through the understanding of the volume of sites associated with a set audience volume, it is possible to consider or assess how different billboard sizes perform.
Campaign average per province
Gauteng
Western Cape
KwaZulu-Natal
Mpumalanga
Limpopo
Eastern Cape
North West
Northern Cape
Free State
The guideline ranges have been calculated into groups of unduplicated reach as well as impacts over a four week period. This demonstrates that as one moves up the pyramid, there are fewer billboards available in the high reaching groups and at the lower levels more billboards are available. Therefore for the same costs/CPM one could potentially buy more billboards in the lower ranges and fewer billboards in the upper ranges.
International guest speaker James Whitmore, Managing Director of Route in the UK, outlined his organisation’s history, its structure and scope. He emphasised that it is through trust and collaboration that Route has been able to deliver robust and detailed OOH audience measurement. He also outlined how Route is funded, with both media owners and media agencies contributing towards the research. The industry has committed to a cycle of six-year funding periods, which ensures a stable financial base that gives the organisation the freedom and independence to plan and think ahead. He concluded with a number of case studies. These demonstrate how audience data can be used to illustrate how OOH improves advertising results for clients, whether as a single medium or as part of a combination of media.
Lauren Shapiro from Kuper Research detailed how OOH research is different from other media research and is not a simple plug and play process. She explained that in terms of improved understanding of mobility, routing and the value of a greater number of respondents, the ROAD research highlights the OMC’s commitment in terms of longevity and delivers accurate audience insights to the market.
‘The perception around OOH must be changed in order to stay current,’ said Howard Lonstein, Marketing Manager, Outdoor Network and OMC committee member. ‘One way of demonstrating how OOH can stay current is to look at how optimising OOH in the media mix can increase the share of advertising spend to the medium. The best medium to demonstrate this is to synergise with digital. We are all aware that advertising budgets are not necessarily being cut, but rather being allocated to different media channels. By integrating digital with ROAD, some amazing and impactful insights are gained to guide planning and improve consumer targeting.’
‘It is only by creating accountability for our valuable client’s media spend and with trust in the data and methodologies, that the OOH industry can and will grow. The ever-improving ROAD research and Quantum software will go a long way in achieving this,’ concluded OMC’s General Manager Trish Guilford.
OMC www.omcsa.org.za
