A new measurement for a new medium: why Digital Out of Home needs greater granularity

Digital Out of Home (DOOH) has always been seen as an effective medium for reach. But in 2020, it is now approaching the most effective. There is a mass audience story to be told that supersedes most other media. To tell the story accurately and precisely requires a more dynamic research approach for quality large format digital billboards.

The power and importance of the mass reach medium is fundamental to positive brand building, and DOOH is ready to assume this mantle; through new audience reporting at a level of granularity not previously possible.

Outdoor was one of the few mediums to enjoy growth in 2019, and advertisers are seeing the efficacy of OOH campaigns like never before. According to the OAAA, 70% of the top 100 advertisers increased their second-quarter spending, and 25% doubled their investment. As a sector, and specifically in DOOH, we need to meet this increasing advertiser demand with a more robust and dynamic way to measure the audience.

Not only will this further vindicate the current expenditure growth, but it will also ensure that DOOH advertiser pressure for providing ROI is met with a superior means of reporting audience, more appropriate to the 21st-century version of OOH.

The transition from static, high-reach posters to dynamic high-reach digital screens has been key to OOH’s transformation to a primary medium. The effective digitization of physical assets has enabled a shift in perception from a location-focused audience model to a customer-centric mobility model. Digital billboards are transforming the outdoor landscape, powerfully communicating in specific sites on iconic buildings, landmark locations, and regional epicenters. The new-breed of quality DOOH offers the benefit of a premium location delivering mass reach, which changes by date, time of day, season, and even by event or occasion. Up until now, measurement capabilities have not been able to capture these critical nuances accurately.

This is no surprise given the transformation of the OOH format. Still, it is our responsibility to meet this measurement gap with the accuracy and nimbleness reflective of this new digital screen medium.

This is why QMS has worked with independent experts over the past two years to produce a data, insights, and measurement system able to dimensionalise mass audience OOH attributes and capture the unique reach of DOOH. These efforts have culminated in a new platform called DYNAMiQ. It has been built to capture the dynamic nature of the mass out of home audience and the dynamic communication capabilities of the medium.

DYNAMiQ’s mobility data will allow advertisers to define the audience in terms of gender, market, time of day, season, and event. Getting to the point where we have reliable and robust mobility data has taken substantial time and investment. Through our partnership with mobility data and intelligence provider DSpark and audience modeling specialists WEJUGO, we are now able to collect and process billions of anonymised and aggregated mobile network data points from a third of the Australian population. With massively enhanced data sets, DYNAMiQ will enable advertisers to capture audience data better than ever before, using a research lens that allows a clear view of audience dynamism.

It will provide advertisers with more granular insights into what each digital billboard can deliver and when – naturally enabling more dynamic opportunities for creative messaging.

DYNAMiQ has been built to work in complement to MOVE data, and just as importantly, is a future-proofed cloud-based platform, which translates to a capability for continuous development and enhancement in responding to opportunities in the market.

A new, dynamic measurement model for this mass reach medium was essential, and now it’s here – DYNAMiQ is truly a new measurement for the new DOOH medium.