The Challenge of Measurement in Advertising
In today’s market, every euro invested in media must demonstrate its value. Advertisers demand transparency, comparable KPIs, and clear ROI, whether it’s digital, TV, or out-of-home (OOH). For years, however, outdoor advertising carried the label of the “unmeasurable medium.”
The Myth of “Uncountable” OOH
The belief that OOH cannot be measured comes from a time when the only available metrics were visual contacts and traffic counts. This is no longer the case. With technological advancements and the integration of mobile data, location analytics, and traffic data, OOH has evolved into one of the most accountable media channels in Greece.
LIS Research: Greece’s Answer to Measurable OOH
In Greece, the need for measurable outdoor advertising was addressed through the Location Intelligence Study (LIS) by Politis Group. LIS combines data from three leading location providers and an analytics platform, providing advertisers insights previously unavailable:
- Politis Group: Geographic reference points (advertising locations) and their connections to road axes.
- Vodafone Analytics: Unique visitors and average visit frequency per point.
- TomTom: Vehicle data on the area’s road axes.
- Carto: Spatial data processing and extraction tools.
The result is a specialized LIS study that fully captures the performance of an OOH campaign and provides reliable, actionable insights for advertisers.
What Advertisers See in LIS
LIS enables advertisers to evaluate every aspect of an OOH campaign using measurable data, without relying on international benchmarks or assumptions. Key metrics include:
- Unique Reach: The number of unique visitors exposed to the campaign, counted only once even if they pass the same point multiple times.
- Frequency: The average number of repeated exposures to the same visitors, measuring the impact of repetition.
- Total Reach: The sum of all unique visitors across all campaign points.
- Demographics: Audience breakdown by age, gender, and profile, such as residents, local citizens, and workers in the area.
- Dayparts & Weekly Patterns: Analysis by hour of the day and day of the week, to place DOOH ads at the most effective times.
- Vehicle & Foot Traffic: Flow of vehicles and pedestrians around locations, showing exposure and potential engagement.
- Profiling & Behavior: Visitor analysis through mobile data for better understanding of audience and motivations.
This allows advertisers to know who sees the campaign, when, and how, something previously almost impossible.
Benefits for Advertisers
Access to measurable and analytical data through LIS provides multiple advantages:
- Strategic Targeting: Selection of the most effective locations and time slots aligned with campaign strategy.
- Efficient Investment: Focus on OOH formats with higher engagement, maximizing ROI.
- Measurable Performance: Linking OOH exposure with tangible results, like increased visits or product/service interest.
- Campaign Optimization: Identifying which formats and placements perform best and adjusting strategy in real time.
- Decision Support: Providing reliable data for stakeholder presentations and future media planning.
In short, LIS transforms Greek OOH into a fully accountable medium, where every investment can be justified and every campaign optimized for maximum impact.
Conclusion
The myth that OOH cannot be measured is over. Tools like Politis Group’s LIS make outdoor advertising fully measurable, proving its value with clear metrics and ROI.
The question is no longer whether OOH can be measured, but how marketers will leverage this power to build more effective, efficient, and innovative media plans.
