A step change for the Australian out of home industry is about to take place, according to digital out of home network Inlink's general manager of product and innovation, Dan Howlett.
Its new offering uses Wi-Fi technology to count foot-fall volumes, dwell time and proximity of people to specific locations. The platform is similar to that used by Westfield and others to measure traffic volumes in shopping centres.
Howlett says it's launching the real-time audience measurement and analytics platform to give clients and agencies detailed and accurate information on the reach and effectiveness of their brand campaigns.
It has installed the platform in CBDs across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane with the first audience analytics to be available at the end of September. Installations are underway in Perth and Adelaide, to be added to the platform in October.
“This is a major step forward for out of home, moving from modelled audience measurement to real time audience analytics,” Howlett said.
“With the increasing digitisation and cloud connectivity of OOH inventory, analytics should also become the norm. We’re only just seeing the tip of the iceberg in terms of what’s possible.”
Under development for the past 12 months, Inlink’s platform will capture millions of data points each day to provide a real-time view of people-traffic volumes and provide analysis of trends and traffic behaviours. It also provides campaign specific reach and frequency information using current data.
Howlett stressed that the current audience measurement model uses tenant and visitor information from the Property Council of Australia, combined with Nielsen research to determine frequency.
“This new model will allow advertisers to understand how their campaign was impacted by the number of viewers making their way through office buildings across the duration. Whilst the current audience measurement model is quite extensive, it doesn’t take into account the impact of day to day or hour by hour traffic,” Howlett said.
The real time understanding of how traffic is moving through the environment is based on the time of day or specific events that take place. For example, across Melbourne Cup period last year, Howlett says there is a clear understanding of how the public holiday significantly reduced numbers in Melbourne, while increasing traffic around lunch and race period in other capital cities.
Howlett said it works with the aid of data probes that are connected to specific Inlink Wi-Fi hot-spots in CBD office buildings, which them listen out for consumer devices within range.
These devices aggregate mac address information from all devices within the connecting zone, identifying the devices without impacting the privacy of the specific user. The data collected includes individual device information to count traffic, as well as the distance range to determine the traffic flow.
The probes have been initially installed into select office towers within the CBDs. Upon analysing the initial 12 months of data, the intention is to triple the number of sites activated in the next 12 months.
Howlett added that there is a large amount of infrastructure that needs to be implemented before the data can be captured.
He said providing advertisers and media buyers the opportunity to plan their campaigns based on real time traffic information allows them the opportunity to be more strategic in their approach.
“They can utilise the data captured over the past 12 months to understand what effect seasonal periods can have on their target audience,” he said.
“For example, the data will allow brands to understand how office tower traffic is affected in the lead up to Xmas and across the festive holiday period, something which was only assumed prior to this data being available.”
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