Everyone loves a bargain, as long as they get at least what they pay for. For out-of-home (OOH) advertisers, this probably hasn’t always been the case, although no one could say for sure given that the world’s oldest medium has never been properly measured.
Outdoor media buyers have been left to depend on sellers’ assessments of the exposure of their sites. To address this problems, the Australia Outdoor Media Association (OMA) is planning the launch of a new tool, Move (‘Measurement of outdoor visibility and exposure’), in the second half of 2008.
1 OOH doesn’t have the market share it deserves because of its lack of transparency and accountability, say media buyers. Though its population is famously ‘outdoorsy’, only a reported five to six per cent of total adspend in Australia goes on OOH. Why? Because media buyers and planners can’t justify the expenditure with cold, hard statistics. The same situation existed in the UK in the 1990s. However, the influence of Postar, the UK initiative to quantify influence of advertising, helped bump OOH spend up to 10 per cent.
2 Current OOH statistics in Asia-Pacific are often misleading. “If you look in Australia, a lot of the current statistics take into account everyone that might, for example, pass a billboard in a certain period of time - and that becomes the basis for how you calculate exposure from every site,” says Helen Willoughby, CEO of OMA. “What Move does is look at how many eyeballs you’ll get per site. If you have a billboard at the side of the road, maybe only 60 per cent of the passengers driving by will see it.”
3 As OOH is a diverse umbrella category, comparing the impact of different sorts of OOH has been nigh on impossible. Postar in the UK started out with buses and billboards, and has tacked on other bits as the market develops. Many of the initiatives in Asia only zone in on the most frequently used adfaces, such as subway walls or road furniture. The Move initiative seeks to address this by adopting an egalitarian approach, in which every face is rated. Thus, a bus can sport two or even three faces, depending on how much of it is covered.
4 Extensive buy-in has been the key to Move’s common currency in Australia. “We’re working on getting together some key players in China,” says Jay Lin, CEO of Heartland China. However, the OOH landscape in China is only slowly moving toward consolidation. It remains heavily fragmented. Also, while Lin believes that a more transparent OOH industry could take the leap to 20 per cent of total adspend in China, the fact that it already rakes in an estimated 15 per cent suggests that the impetus for improving transparency might not seem pressing to media owners.
5 “Information is great, but analysis and comprehension of all the data you’ll get from Move is going to be a challenge,” says Alex Thompson, Asia-Pacific CEO of Kinetic. He applauds the initiative for including as wide a scope of OOH media as possible, but notes that advertisers will probably have to start spending more money on analysing data than they do now. “This might be an opportunity for specialist players to set up and give purchasers bigger representation,” he adds.
6 The cost of using Move has not yet been established. “We’re currently exploring the commercial opportunities,” says Willoughby. Prior to launch, Move has already cost A$5 million (US$4.7 million). Will Asian media owners be prepared to pay for either the research or the product? “If it’s really beneficial, I think owners and agencies will be willing to pay,” says Glenda Long, regional sales and senior marketing manager at JCDecaux Singapore.
7 In Australia, Move will reign supreme - but how will it fare in other markets? “It’s the only end-to-end measurement I know of,” says Willoughby. “But I know that in Asia, we’ll be one among many.” When Postar is revamped, it will be interesting to how it compares. “Postar has done some things extremely well,” says Thompson. “But you have to bear in mind how quickly the OOH environment changes. It’s a dynamic space where technological innovation pays a big role.” It will be some time yet before industry standards become the norm for outdoor in the rest of the Asia-Pacific region.
What it means for…
Media Owners
- Owners are going to have to get the ball rolling for transparency if they are to expand their share of the advertising pie. That means co-operating. And coughing up cash.
- Using impact figures rather than a maximum possible number of people who can see a site might make the numbers seem unfairly small during a phasing-in period - so education, education, education of the buyers will be necessary.
- Jumping on the digital bandwagon only makes sense if it’ll actually give greater impact - even if it’s gimmicky and cool, it’ll be tougher to sell if its too pricey and doesn’t offer return on investment.
- Know your product: more information can help you compete more efficiently. All commuters know that a bus and a bus shelter are very different things indeed; hard facts and numbers make that truism quantifiable.
Agencies
- Agencies will have to become more adept at working out what the figures provided actually mean - knowledge may be power, but only if it’s used effectively.
- Matching the creative work with the impact of the sites will become a way for agencies to differentiate themselves.
- Defending the cost of outdoor advertising to clients will become more straightforward, as budgeters ogling the bottom-line require real statistical insight.