The digital
out-of-home video category got another boost this week, with new research from Nielsen showing the medium's effectiveness in engaging with consumers and producing significant ad recall.
The Nielsen study for Outcast -- formed by the merger of Fuelcast, a pumptop video network, and Bhootan, a network serving gas station convenience stores -- augments a growing
body of DO research which is used in conjunction with the new metric for DO introduced by the Out-of-Home Video Advertising Bureau.
The Nielsen survey of gas station customers in Los Angeles,
Miami, Philadelphia and San Francisco found that about 90% said they noticed the Outcast screens. Further, Outcast achieved a 75% ad recall rate, meaning that three-quarters of people exposed to
specific ads remembered them later.
advertisement
advertisement
Seventy-six percent said they found Outcast "entertaining," 72% said they consider it a good source of product information and 71% said the presence of video
screens improves pumping dwell time, a period traditionally devoted to listless staring at digital counters. Finally, 87% said they would watch Outcast on a return visit.
The Nielsen study is
the latest move by Outcast to bolster its ad sales pitch. After the merger with Bhootan, in November of last year, the company hired two new sales executives -- John Caronna, vice president of sales
for the Western region, and Roger Blackshaw, vice president of sales for the Central region.
Outcast competitor Gas Station TV has also pushed ahead with custom research highlighting the
effectiveness of digital video at gas stations.
Last June, Gas Station TV revealed the results of a custom study performed by Nielsen showing that 10- and 15-second spots are equal or superior
to 30-second spots in terms of brand recall. The study was conducted over a two-week period at 24 GSTV-equipped U.S. gas stations in Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and Dallas, comparing ad recall for
10-, 15- and 30-second spots from two national advertisers.
In March, GSTV began offering "Echo Ads" -- shorter ads of about 5-to-10 seconds which follow the initial 15- to-30-second spots by a
minute or two in the programming cycle. They also run on C-Store TV, which extends GSTV's reach into gas station convenience stores.