• by Tony Jarvis , Op-Ed Contributor, March 2, 2023

Australia’s Measurement of Outdoor Visibility and Exposure (MOVE), an equivalent of Geopath in the U.S., has released a new out-of–home “tool kit,” which includes new metrics that go well beyond established visibility-adjusted or so-called “eyes-on” attention measurement.

We call it eyes-on in the U.S., but Down Under they call it “likelihood-to-see,” or LTS, which probably under-values the metric based on what its methodology can actually achieve.

Like Geopath, MOVE adds a visibility adjustment factor, panel by panel, to convert the gross impressions of an out-of-home media placement to eyes-on or “contacts.”

Similar to Geopath’s release of new data and enhancements like a new out-of-home campaign reach and frequency model, MOVE also added sophisticated persons’ mobility and location measurement to increase the accuracy of campaign reach and frequency against a wide swath of target groups across all measured out-of-home media formats.  

However, the significance of these advances for the medium go well beyond the accuracy of campaign reach estimates week-by-week.

In out-of-home media markets around most of the world, reach estimates are based on ads looked at – or eyes-on – not merely opportunities-to-see, not “viewable impressions,” which are a purely device-based measure. 

In the U.S. and Oz, eyes-on reach generally outperforms other media for the budget, especially when using a mix of out-of-home media formats, and when other media’s opportunity-to-see metrics are discounted for measured ad exposure by the target audience.

Out-of-home media also builds reach very quickly from Day One, according to America’s and Australia’s measurement services.  

Which other media offer such person’s-based measured ad exposure data for planning, buying, and selling?  

Going beyond eyes-on, MOVE has now introduced “neuro impact factors” (NIF) that provide “scientific evidence” of the relative impact of ads looked at. The NIF scores are based on various return-on-investment brand outcome research across a variety of campaigns across all out-of-home media formats, and across a wide mix of creative executions.  

While creative is the primary driver of brand effects, this method holds its contribution to ROI constant in order to tease out the relative impact by out-of-home format.  

These impact scores parallel well-established indictors for the ad formats available in other media, whether a 60-second radio spot, or a four-color magazine advertising spread –  which should be very valuable to media planners.

As most agency executives understand, brilliant, innovative out-of-home creative executions will outperform the normative numbers of other media every time. Call it the “X factor.”  

Is the U.S. ready for the “impact” of this potential next step in out-of-home media measurement?

With the Media Rating Council “imminently” poised to release its new out-of-home audience measurement standards, will Geopath be allowed to add something equivalent to NIF scores to U.S. out-of-home media attention metrics?

It appears Oz may have the answer.