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I often wonder how agencies and brands actually measure the success of DOOH campaigns. It is critical that the fundamentals are clearly set out pre-campaign and pre-creative. What is it that the client and the agency wish to achieve? Do they want a call to action, do they require active number measurement, or is it simply brand awareness?

It must be determined pre-campaign or you are asking for trouble. And you must ask the question, as it is common for this never to be mentioned by some agencies.

You may recall my previous blog pertaining to audience measurement. This is a  unique measurement of success associated with any digital screen network, and any media owner which shies away from audience-measurement software should be avoided at all costs. That said, you should obviously consider an alternative proposed metric, provided you are certain of its authenticity.

Let me give you an example. This week, SA Digiadvans and SA Digiwalkers are in Paris executing a campaign on behalf of Virgin Radio. The brief is to drive listeners to Virgin Radio. We are allocated the demographic, and the locations are clearly set out. It would be easy to tap into the French transport systems and borrow their stats for how many people are on the streets/locations which we are targeting, then provide the client with this data. But that would be cheating, although the figures would probably stack up.

If we are to stand even a remote chance of increasing DOOH spend we must be more accurate, and provide each client with measurement information which demonstrates how effective the screen activity has been.

I can only comment on Quividi, as this is the only measurement system that I have tried and tested...and it works. This system allows us to measure not just the numbers by the hour or minute if necessary, it also allows us to measure each recipient’s dwell time in front of the screen.

It will also measure the gender of the target audience. This is essential for some brands, and in Paris we have not only provided the client with up-to-date stats by the hour, we have also provided them with the gender percentage split location by location.

When we undertake a second campaign for Virgin Radio we will already be gifted with knowledge of which locations benefited the client the most. We can also leave out the locations which did not perform for the client. That is the level of authenticity which each and every screen owner should be demonstrating to the agency and, above all, the client. Anything short of this is simply not acceptable. Amscreen are a true advocate of this measurement to clients, and I salute them for that.

This level of effective campaign measurement will establish trust in the DOOH sector and inevitably increase the percentage of spend going to this sector. It will also help to bring about peace between media owners and clients, for we seem to have seen some disquietude with what is currently been offered by way of measurement from some owners of digital screen media.

Each brand must now be inquisitive pre-campaign, and this level of investigation will allow the media owners who are really working hard to provide true and accurate data to prosper.

For example, i3 Window is one of the innovators of interactive screen activity, constantly assuring that for each campaign that they execute, the client comprehends how it is measured. You may have recently observed the Fallen Angels campaign in London’s Victoria station for Lynx, or the JCDecaux Ford C-Max activity rolled out throughout several shopping malls.

This is exactly what i3 pride themselves on delivering, and it should be the level which every screen owner aims for. Augmented reality is the king of interaction and its effectiveness is immeasurable.

Useful metrics are quite frankly easy to implement, they are worth their weight in gold, and more and more agencies will start insisting on them, pre-campaign.

So: effective measurement or deception? You choose when you come across your next digital screen network. The brands deserve to know how effective their budget was in the DOOH sector; don’t you agree?