Road 2.0: OOH's gamechanger

Source © Wang Song 123rf he Outdoor Audience Council (OMC) has launched its new Roadside Outdoor Audience Data (Road 2.0) in partnership with MGEData.

More than two years in the making Road 2.0 is in line with international best practices and it is also future-proof.

Tried and tested

The change in partners to MGEData is a game-changer for Out of Home (OOH) in South Africa as it is a switch to a very granular and detailed methodology that produces an OOH model with data rooted in attention-based metrics.

The Travel Survey will remain with Ask Afrika.

Explaining the move to MGEData, OMC member, Lauren Shapiro, managing partner of Kuper Research says the OMC looked to find a partner best suited to this market. “There are many new players in the market with shiny new technologies, but we wanted what was tried and trusted.”

Not only is MGEData track record excellent, but they found MGEData to have the best possible evaluation of the technical viewability of OOH.

“OOH research is very complex and not plug and play. It is about modelling data, and it is not an exact science so there needs to be room to be flexible to grow and improve.

“MGEData was open to all of this and has experience in measuring Digital Out of Home (DOOH) which is where OOH is headed,” she says.

“We have worked with them for two years to fully understand the new currency,” Shapiro adds.

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Attention seeking revolution is coming

Neil Eddleston, founder, and director of Runor, UK believes that with the new system OOH will be better placed for the attention-seeking revolution that is coming, and with that, it will also be well placed to compare against other media.

Historically OOH is not perceived as an activity consumed media, but as media that is consumed while doing something else.

“There is increasing pressure from advertisers, buyers, and agencies towards attention-based metrics. OOH has been ahead of other media in its move to attention-based metrics to measure reach and frequency and for this, it has gained credibility in frequency and reach,” he says.

Thus, he says the new system anticipates changes coming in the industry making it future-proof. Road 2.0 can incorporate new environments that are not part of the current setup.

“Overall the system gives OOH better data, more granular data, more credible in media decision making and cross-media measurement and media effectiveness as we move forward in the next decade,” he says.

The provision of data allows you to use data layers not previously possible which translates to a better measurement of reach he adds.

“The modelling of the travel survey better defines the different modes of transport while the introduction of more glandular speed allows you to better represent audience contacts and, particularly if you adopt visibility adopted contact methodology, which the industry has.

“Basically with speed being better measured you get a much better correlation between the possibility of exposure and actual exposure,” he explains.

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Credible quality data

Shapiro says: “All media must take the dive into the new measurement methods. There is nowhere to hide anymore. Radio is doing it. Print is doing it and while they have found their numbers are smaller, they are more realistic. Television moved from diaries to people metrics and now the media is having to rethink its measurement model again.”

She emphasises that the OMC is not doing things the same way, but rather continuing to look at how to do things better and looking globally. “What you can be sure of is that now OOH has credible quality data it can present to its clients,” she adds.

Road 2,0 is available to media agencies and clients free of charge.