Qualitative measurements are one of the most vulnerable points of the outdoor advertising market. The development of the digital environment imposes new requirements for monitoring systems, including the classic outdoor, which is in need of more accurate data.
Today in the market of outdoor advertising in Russia there is a paradoxical situation. There is only one generally accepted meter — the company “ESPAR”, engaged in monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of outdoor advertising. However, these measurements have a number of significant limitations: only 41 cities are represented in the monitoring, the only available target audience is 18+. In November 2018, at the “National Advertising Forum”, the Committee on media measurements of NAVK presented a single currency for the outdoor advertising market, but the new standard has not yet been approved by all market participants.
As a result of the lack of full scale measurements, large advertisers, such as, for example, “MegaFon”, placing outdoor advertising in more than 200 cities of Russia, are forced to either reduce budgets for this channel, or buy equipment “blindly” — without the possibility of evaluating the effectiveness and planning of the campaign to its target audience, relying only on the expertise of the buying Agency and data from regional contractors.
Solution
In 2017, oneFactor, specializing in Machine Learning services, launched a system of media measurements in outdoor advertising SmartIndex, which allows you to combine classic market tools and technologies based on big data. The service automates the planning and analysis of outdoor and omnichannel advertising, helps to optimize advertising costs and create an optimal placement plan depending on the goals of the advertising campaign for any target audience. The obtained data can also be used for further promotion in other media.
SmartIndex works on the basis of data on the load on the networks of mobile operators, information from web partners and data from mobile applications and covers the entire territory of Russia — from Kaliningrad to Petropavlovsk — Kamchatsky, more than 250 settlements.
The principle of operation and optimization of SmartIndex
1. Data loading. The SmartIndex system loads a list of designs available for purchase (information is collected and provided by the Agency) in any city of Russia with a minimum set of data — coordinates, azimuth, ID and type of structures, the conditional cost.
2. The choice of parameters of an advertising campaign and load them into the system: the target audience, period, target coverage.
3. The choice of the optimization goals of the targeted program. For example, it can be minimizing the cost of accommodation provided that the target coverage is achieved or maximizing the coverage of the city with the total number of structures not exceeding a certain number.
4. The introduction of additional constraints: the ad budget, the maximum number of structures, a uniform graphical breakdown by city, the minimum distance between the advertising surfaces.
New planning tool has been in the real conditions tested by MegaFon in cooperation with media Agency Media Instinct. For this advertiser, outdoor advertising is the third channel of communication in terms of costs. At the same time, 25% of the budget in this segment falls on small towns.
Let’s take a closer look at the case with testing a new, more accurate approach to media measurements throughout Russia on the example of small settlements.
SmartIndex testing was conducted in the period August-September 2018 in three cities of Moscow region: Elektrostal, Orekhovo-Zuyevo and Mytishchi. We chose three possible scenarios for the use of the service: the creation of optimal targeted program for the operator, minimizing the cost of the current placement, the placement analysis in cities outside of the official monitoring.
Results
In Electrostal, the task was to choose the optimal address program to maximize the coverage of the target audience. The use of the SmartIndex system allowed to optimize the address program in the city: the coverage rate (Reach) increased by 18% with an increase in the cost of placement by 8%.
In Orekhovo-Zuyevo tool SmartIndex was used to minimize the cost of the company. An analysis of the current location of MegaFon was carried out and a new, optimal version of the address program was proposed. As a result, the budget was reduced by 4% while maintaining the previous target coverage of 18–45.
Further optimization of the AP program can increase the efficiency of outdoor advertising of the operator up to 18% and significantly reduce the cost of placement while maintaining the desired coverage.
Agency comment
Alexander Syrovatsky, Client Service Director, Media Instinct Group:
The Smart Index system is a new source of changes in the outdoor advertising market, which provides ample opportunities for quality and cost improvement of UN-placement for large Federal advertisers such as MegaFon.
The introduction of such technologies can significantly improve the efficiency of media investment in outdoor advertising. Potentially, a significant reduction in labor costs and human factor in the preparation of targeted programs is achieved; in addition, the speed of preparation of optimal proposals is significantly increased. Work in this direction is an integral part of progressive advertisers and advertising agencies.
Customer comment
Snezhana Chernogortseva, Brand and Marketing Communications Director, “MegaFon”:
With the current level of technology development, wide use of smart algorithms, artificial intelligence and neural networks, the lack of a single, full-fledged measurement system in outdoor advertising for us as an advertiser is a problem.
We welcome all technological solutions that will help make planning at the UN more transparent and measurable. Therefore, we were happy to test the oneFactor system “in battle”. At the heart of the technology lies an extensive and regularly updated database from a variety of sources, while the system is not tied to the data of the owners of advertising structures. This approach makes it possible to obtain the most objective and relevant section of information. With oneFactor, we speak the same language of big data as the Telecom operator.
An absolute advantage is the ability to plan and measure advertising campaigns in those cities that do not fall into industrial sources. In the future we see a significant potential of the SmartIndex system in assessing the effectiveness of placement on the relevant target groups, in measuring the effectiveness on a wide list of cities, in minimizing the cost per point of coverage in the collection of programs.
