Money set to MOVE as advertisers get sharper behavioural targeting, total measurement – and can combine programmatic CTV and OOH in one.

(Originally published on Mi3)

Out-of-home’s new measurement system goes deep and wide. VMO MD Paul Butler thinks it will see ad budgets being reallocated. UM national head of investment Brittany Crowley agrees. OMA CEO Elizabeth McIntyre unpacks fresh demographic data points that underline why.

“We've never had complete measurement of all of our assets. Now we do.” 

VMO’s Paul Butler thinks the launch of out-of-home measurement gives marketers a much clearer picture of who their ads are reaching. He also sees major upside for advertisers putting video ads onto digital screens in gyms, retail centres and petrol stations and office towers. 

Ultimately, he expects the money to follow the audiences, giving out-of-home a greater share of budgets. 

OMA CEO Elizabeth McIntyre backs that view. 

“MOVE tracks, how, why, when and where people move. There is hourly data and full seasonality insights with monthly variation for school and public holidays, across every single road, transport route and venue in Australia.  

“Specifically when we're looking at place-based [assets], this is the first time that they have been measured. Plus, shopping centres, gyms, offices, pharmacies, cafés – are all being standardised. Which means that when you're talking about a ground level in one shopping centre, it's going to be accurately compared with other shopping centres throughout Australia,” she says. 

“MOVE provides the most advanced audience behaviour measurement for outdoor advertising. It's capturing granular data across all of Australia. It's based on a synthetic population of 2 million people, which represents 22 million Australians, and it delivers insights for over 180 demographics across five metro and, importantly, 21 regional areas.” 

UM national investment head Brittany Crowley says that for a lot of clients, regional audiences are commercially critical yet historically undermeasured. 

“Regional is a really important piece of this. Having consistent, comparable data across 20+ regional markets means we can now properly integrate those audiences into national strategies, rather than treating them as an add-on or a separate buy.” 

Blanks filled

Hence Butler’s optimism that rising tide will float all boats – and particularly for those advertisers trading programmatically. 

Under the original measurement system, only static formats in metro areas were measured. MOVE 1.5 added digital rotations, but the assets covered were mostly roadside and limited amounts of retail – and entire regional areas were blank spots. 

Which meant half of VMO’s screens weren’t being counted. 

“This is the first time our place-based assets are in MOVE. Which means for 52 weeks of the year we have data measured at an hourly level. That level of granularity allows the data to be used within programmatic trading for all formats and with a standardised currency,” says Butler. “It’s a massive step change.” 

Smarter targeting

Place-based standardisation gives advertisers confidence that they are comparing like-for-like, per McIntyre. Until now, most place-based OOH publishers have used their own methodologies. 

More importantly, says Butler, the new system gives a much sharper read on what people are doing when they get to their destination – which means better quality audience targeting and a higher likelihood of stronger growth gains. 

“MOVE to date has understood when people leave the home, their commute, and where they end up for metro markets. But it hasn't understood the full suite of destinations – be it the office, the gym, a cafe, the airport. Nor has it fully understood what they're doing when they're in those environments, how long they spend there,” says Butler. 

“In our gym environments, people are spending up to an hour there, which is a different type of movement and engagement than what you would during the morning commute, for example.” 

Crowley backs the importance of place-based standardisation from an investment perspective. 

“We’ve had a lot of fragmentation in how different environments have been measured or positioned, which makes it harder to scale or confidently shift dollars. Now, we’re moving into a world where a screen in a gym, a retail centre or a petrol station can be evaluated on a consistent basis. That creates much more confidence when we’re making trade-offs across formats and channels.” 

Deeper demos

Applying MOVE data to gyms adds a deeper lens of insight – and filters allow advertisers to drill down into the demos they want to target and the outcomes they want to achieve. 

“It has found that full-time tertiary students go to the gym 36 per cent more than the baseline, which is allowing you to look at that demographic,” says McIntyre. “If I want to take that next step – such as, what is the peak hour of gyms across all the gyms being measured? It's 8am on all days, and the afternoon peak is 4pm on weekdays, which allows that targeting to take place.” 

Likewise petro-convenience screens. 

“Four out of five trips in regional areas are made by car. And petrol stations are the fourth most common trip purpose in regional areas,” says McIntyre. “There are 2.3 million petrol station visits a day, and overlaying it with seasonality, petrol station trips are up 20 per cent in summer and autumn. It is fantastic that has been quantified.” 

Reach remixed

Butler sees opportunity opening up for advertisers blending different asset combinations, such as petro-convenience and retail, and adding video to their out-of-home buys. 

“If we take a combination of our retail network and our petro-convenience network, we can develop a package for FMCG advertisers that reaches more of those shoppers in that last moment before purchase than pretty much anyone in media at the moment,” he claims.  

“Plus, half our assets run TVCs. So in the gyms, in our petro-convenience, it's a one-to-one communication with audiences which is not typical in out-of-home – and now we can understand the audience behind that.” 

VMO connecting to demand-side platforms like Yahoo’s DSP means “programmatic buyers can tap into a connected TV buy in out-of-home”, says Butler. 

“If you take any other medium that promises a one-to-one video environment, it would be seen as a really premium, high consideration format. It hasn't been the case in outdoor today, but I think this will change that.” 

Crowley agrees the application is tangible for clients. 

“Looking at an FMCG or retail advertiser, we can now map the full journey – from high-reach roadside, through to retail environments and last-touchpoint locations like petro-convenience – and understand not just the reach, but the role each environment plays. Similarly, for categories like fitness, finance or QSR, being able to identify high-value audiences in specific environments – and understand dwell time and peak moments – means we can plan with much more intent and less wastage.” 

Budget booster

Hence Butler’s belief that the broader out of home industry will quickly recoup its outlay to fund MOVE. 

“If there's one truism and media, it is investments tend to follow audiences.” 

Crowley suggests that belief is well-founded.  

“The rigour of MOVE helps back up the decisions that are already being made. But also, there are a lot of out-of-home environments that we want to play in that to date have been difficult to justify without the measurement – and budgets are finite,” she says. 

“By adding the measurement, the movement and the behaviour, I think it will start to shift where spend is allocated. Out-of-home is in a good spot and seeing great success. But I think MOVE could add to that and help boost it even further.”