Whilst Out of Home (OOH) advertising is recognised as a powerful standalone channel or a vital part of integrated campaigns, its effect is often under reported relative to other media in recall studies. In an effort to give some insight on the medium, Posterscope Australia and Symphony Analytics and Research, in partnership with APN Outdoor, used GPS technology to capture real-time exposure and measure the impact and effectiveness of OOH advertising.
Using GPS telephony, the study was able to measure recall for those who had been in proximity to an outdoor site and compare this to a control group.
The study was conducted via a smartphone mobile app over a two week period with a sample of over 200 Sydney-siders. GPS coordinate data and direction of travel was captured via the mobile app to determine whether the individual had travelled past the specific APN Outdoor Billboards located around Sydney. Following the two week test period, qualifying participants were issued a mobile survey that tested their recall and perceptions of the active advertisers.
One advertiser saw a 68 per cent increase in retailer visit intention for those exposed versus the control group.
“Out-of-Home exposure triggers attitudes and behaviours that consumers often have difficulty quantifying themselves. This is the sort of pioneering approach that we constantly seek out to provide our clients with a deeper understanding of the different ways Out-of-Home works. Out-of-Home exposure can now be verified and from this we can measure attitude and behaviour shifts instead of measurement starting at claimed awareness,” observed Posterscope Australia’s Strategy & Insights Director, Cassandra Thomas-Smith.
Advertising measurement and the demand for ROI metrics have seen rapid growth in the past few years. In the past, print gave circulation figures; TV offered viewing statistics and, with the development of digital, came online campaign effectiveness tools. Outdoor advertising by its very nature, however, has been a little harder to crack real-time. Elaborating further on this, Symphony’s Research Director Eddy Hamad explained, “At the end of the day, clients want assurances as to whether their ads are truly memorable or not. With our approach, we were able to leverage the GPS capability in today’s smartphones to provide clients with an answer to that conundrum.”
“We were really happy to partner on this innovative study and we see a great potential to develop this idea for future campaign measurement. This advanced research methodology helps to better advise our clients on creative direction, placement and frequency, which are key factors in everything we do,” added APN Outdoor’s General Manager of Marketing, Janine Wood.
