• by Erik Sass , April 8, 2008

The Traffic Audit Bureau is augmenting its new measurement service for outdoor advertising with two more research firms. Both will help track the likelihood that passersby will see a billboard, then integrate that likelihood into the overall measurement. The additions will help put the finishing touches on the measurement service, which is due to launch in the fourth quarter.

The TAB claims the service will make outdoor unique among media by reporting how likely consumers are to actually see a particular ad.

The first new hire, Perception Research Services, will help measure how attentive passersby are to billboards with eye-tracking studies that determine where people are looking by observing the movement and dilation of their pupils, among other things.

The second firm, Marketing Accountability Partnership, is developing an analytical process to integrate this and other data, including the sign's format, size and spatial relationships, to determine a particular ad's actual marketing impact.

PRS and MAP join a number of other firms already participating in the new TAB measurement service, including GfK, Micro Measurement MRI, and Telmar. The project to produce an outdoor measure, which some have compared to a joint industry committee (JIC) in format, is managed by the TAB's board of advertisers, agencies, and media companies.