Out of home advertising companies strive for greater metrics and transparency

Agencies and out-of-home providers are increasingly embracing third-party, cloud-based technology and reporting in order to provide advertisers with greater transparency and campaign insight.

The push comes as MOVE, the group focused on OOH audience measurement in Australia, invests up to $10 million into rejuvenate industry metrics to cope with what’s becoming an increasingly digitised channel.

Companies including JCDecaux, oOh!media, Omnicom and Posterscope Australia have all partnered with Seedooh, an independent technology platform providing standardised reporting for the out-of-home advertising industry. Launched in July 2017, Seedooh is a secure, cloud-based ‘compliance as a service’ platform for the OOH industry providing near real-time delivery data for OOH campaigns in both digital and traditional formats.

As of this week, Seedooh’s reporting and verification platform will be integrated into JCDecaux’s system to create an independent campaign delivery reporting function that works within the end-to-end campaign delivery processes.

“The digital expansion OOH has been rapid and significant and now sits at almost half the total industry’s media revenue, but measurement has not kept up,” JCDecaux Australia CEO, Steve O’Connor, said. “At JCDecaux, we expect to exponentially increase our digital assets to 2,500 by early 2020 and, as a company, we anticipate that more than 80 per cent of our business will be digital.”

News of JCDecaux’s investment comes less than two weeks after MOVE, a partnership between the Media Federation of Australia (MFA) and the Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA), confirmed it’s investing millions into updating its measurement approach to cope with digital out-of-home signs.

MOVE CEO, Charmaine Moldrich, said in order to produce a metric that’s fit for purpose now and into the future, it’s time to find a new way of measuring OOH impact.

“We will investigate various international models, as well as invest in data and research to create the next generation of dynamic audience measurement,” she said in a statement.

The fresh framework and project guidelines are expected to be finalised by end of May and will be a joint effort between MFA and AANA. A key emphasis will be on standardising terminology and ensuring transparency and standardisation.

O’Connor threw JCDecaux’s support behind the MOVE measurement system overhaul. “We know digital offers considerable benefits for advertisers and the partnership with Seedooh allows advertisers to have complete confidence that their campaigns have appeared and offers the highest level of transparency,” he said.

Adshel CEO, Mike Tyquin, also believed the industry’s leading operators all recognise and are committed to accountability and transparency for out-of-home, as recently outlined by Outdoor Media Association.

"The investment in MOVE to include digital formats at an estimated cost of $10 million and commitment to third-party verification – both of which are strongly supported by Adshel - are two clear initiatives that will build further advertiser confidence in out-of-home," he said.

oOh!media is also providing advertisers with independent reporting of classic and dynamic campaigns after integrating the Seedooh cloud-based platform in March this year. oOh!media chief executive officer, Brendon Cook, said it’s tremendous others in the industry are following suit, and saw it as part of a wider commitment to transparency across the industry.

“With the revelations around serious misreporting by some within the online space, we recognised it was important to be at the pinnacle of transparency even before any questions were asked,” Cook said. “After all, clients rightfully deserve peace of mind that they are getting what they pay for.”

Omnicom head of partnerships, outdoor and audio, Jo Dick, also welcomed independent verification of audience delivery.

“Anything that drives greater transparency and rigour for our clients’ investment will only help fuel further growth for the outdoor sector,” Dick said.

Seedooh has aligned with PwC to bring third-party verification of OOH data in its platform to create clear, validated and standardised reporting for advertisers, media agencies and OOH media owners. Seedooh CEO, Tom Richter, was delighted JCDecaux recognised the value in transparent, connected and standardised reporting.

“We welcome their commitment to the Seedooh platform and look forward to delivering this important solution to market,” he said.

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