This is a pivotal time in the Out of Home (OOH) industry, given its strong recent growth, bright outlook and many exciting changes taking place.  Foremost among these changes is a new outdoor audience measurement system, Eyes on Ratings, which will literally transform the way outdoor is bought and sold in 2009.    Empower’s take:  while outdoor has been excluded from some local plans due to lack of demographic audience data, Eyes On Ratings will change this.  For the first time, we’ll be able to truly measure outdoor’s contribution to local media plans’ Reach and Frequency.  The result?  Expect to see OOH on more of our clients’ local media plans moving forward.

In addition, other macro trends are bringing attention to OOH industry – from Wall Street analysts evaluating the industry, to consumers experiencing OOH ads in an array of new venues.  (See separate entry:  Why are all eyes on OOH?) 

Eyes On Ratings – This is Big
“The OOH industry is investing an estimated $25 million to create a new measurement system that establishes the medium at the forefront of media research, delivering the holy grail of actual ad exposure,” according to Jack Myers.   The industry association TAB (Traffic Audit Bureau) worked with a consortium of research firms, advertisers and agencies to develop the Eyes On data.
Eyes On Ratings will literally change the way outdoor ads are bought and sold – why?  The short answer:  because traditional DECs (Daily Effective Circulation) will be replaced with ratings for individual outdoor boards. 

Why is this important?  For the first time, media planners will have the data needed to compare outdoor’s contribution to other media.  This gives outdoor a “seat at the table” for more local media planning initiatives. 

The traditional measure for outdoor, DEC, is basically the number of people (bodies!) who pass a board.  This is not an audience measure; it’s essentially the equivalent of Household Ratings in TV.    “While other media are talking about target audiences of women 18-49, we were talking about DECs, which has nothing in common with terms or language used by other media,” according to Joe Philport, president of TAB.

Eyes On Ratings take DECs another two steps forward:  

(1) moving from ‘body counts’ to demographic audience measurements, and

(2) actually reflecting those who are likely to notice an ad on an outdoor display – moving beyond the number of people passing a board to people actually looking at it.  Continuing the TV analogy, this puts outdoor on par with Nielsen’s newer Commercial Ratings.

So – instead of a DEC measure for each panel (e.g. 20,000 persons age 18+ per day), we’ll have EOI – Eyes On Impressions (e.g. 43,000 impressions among adults age 25-45 per week).  Instead of the number of persons passing by a board, we’ll have the number who are likely to notice the board.

How is this possible?  The methodology merges multiple sources:  (1) current databases of outdoor units (2) traffic counts (3) eye-tracking data based on noticeability of the panels, and (4) travel survey data that capture demographics and reach/frequency patterns for the audience.

The new Eyes On System is projected to deliver measures by year end in 200 markets.  In the weeks to come, all members of The OOH Team at Empower will be participating in Eyes On University to bring this new measurement advance to bear for our clients’ mediamarketing challenges. 
 
By: Alison Lang, Empower MediaMarketing Out of Home Director
Alison.lang@empowermm.com