Christina Radigan, Senior Vice President, Strategic Research & Insights, OUTFRONT and Drew Jackson, CEO of Street Metrics explained how this achievement enables planning, reveals campaign insights and streamlines attribution analysis for bus advertising.
According to Radigan, Outfront is one of the largest media networks with a roadside billboard posters and extensive transit and street level media. It was within bus advertising specifically that they were first introduced to StreetMetrics. For Jackson, his company is a third party media measurement platform specifically built for the outdoor advertising industry. “We got our start in the transit side,” he noted, “But we measure more than that from planning to campaign to outcome measurement, providing the full funnel full suite of metrics.”
The partnership has resulted in a game-changing application for dynamic data – fluid data which changes over time - that is poised to strengthen the entire out-of-home market. “Our measurement product predicts and forecasts the potential amount of impressions that could be associated with our media or custom packages,” Radigan explained. What sets this innovation apart is that it has the, ”ability to have data that can be used for planning to gather an insights and then actually using that same data set, that continuum of data, to then actually determine outcomes. That's a key differentiator and leading force of measurement for out of home,” she added.
This is only the beginning, she assured. “While it's starting with bus, we're really ambitious and hoping that we can continue to (expand) this relationship and partnership. We are very excited about this being something that we can put us on par with digital channels that use continuum data to do planning, insights, and correlation of targeting audiences and packaging to a business outcome.”
Capturing and measuring dynamic bus data involves a variety of data sets and protocols in conjunction with different ad campaigns. Jackson noted that, “You have to look at the unit level and the individual. You have to get really granular with time. Also, campaigns are always evolving. The campaign that's on a specific bus is not always the same and the interaction, types and amounts of people that are coming in contact with that media are always evolving. There’s seasonality and changes such as when Covid hit and people were traveling less. We need to understand the ebbs, flows and movements and the connection points and ultimately, the tools to help surface insights.”
For Outfront, the goal was to, according to Radigan, “modernize measurement and have the ability to look at data historically. What we're trying to do is create a look back of historical anonymized data so that we can identify trends. You need to have data for about 12 to 18 months to identify what seasonality looks like, what markets are growing or giving more exposure to campaigns and associating that to a campaign level.”
There are great variations by markets as well. “A campaign in Miami might look very different than a campaign in New York City in January in terms of its exposure month to month,” she stated, to drive value, especially around major events such as the New York Marathon. In the near future, according to Radigan, it will be possible to reconcile the estimated audience with the campaign exposure and correlate it to a business outcome, “such as football to a store visitation. For example, with Wendy's we drove football and we were able to say that by using our street metrics data, we were able to Geo fence locations and venues to understand the impact of those exposed to store visitation.”
For Radigan, StreetMetrics protocol helped to evolve out of home from brand messaging and brand awareness to lower funnel behavioral metrics. “The opportunity I see is out of home is delivering on brand exceptionally well but we're also showing and proving the efficacy of these lower proof points that oftentimes other channels are used to deliver. The ultimate picture is that it's moving the needle for out of home holistically. It puts us on par with digital.”
This effort is somewhat collaborative in that the competitive set that Radigan visualizes is not necessarily other out of home companies. In fact, she sees this innovation as a channel-wide competitive advantage. “We want to grow the pie for transit and ultimately the entire sector. It's really about growing share for industry and getting on par with other channels with the delivery and types of data that they have,” she explained.
The response from the agencies has been gratifying. “Last year we doubled the amount of attribution studies we did. It's a six-fold increase from pre pandemic. I think they're energized. I think that the agencies are really excited about it and they've been thrilled with having the outcomes and measurement that we weren't able to provide years ago. Advertisers are leaning in and using the channel against different KPIs. And we're seeing repeat business.”
Next steps include further benchmarking and, a “continued collaboration with stakeholders, other vendors that offer transit, to really dive in, evaluate the data and look at how we can bring it to market in a meaningful way. Because of the newness around it, it's making sure that we bring in all the stakeholders that are relevant within our own business practices and increase the ease of accessing the data,” she concluded.
This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com
Artwork by Charlene Weisler
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