IOAA pushing private measurement tool without consensus: OOH stakeholders on Roadstar
It has emerged that the industry stakeholders are not on the same page as the Indian Outdoor Advertising Association (IOAA) concerning the latter's unified measurement tool “Roadstar” underwent pilot tests at agencies. A day ago, e4m reported how the software Roadstar, endorsed by the Indian Outdoor Advertising Association (IOAA) as the first-ever common currency for the sector, has been undergoing pilot tests at agencies. While many hailed the move and lauded IOAA for its efforts to take the first step towards a common currency, some blamed the association for pushing a private company’s software as the measurement currency without building consensus among the stakeholders. Some players also wonder why the IOAA endorses a tool developed by a private firm a few years ago. Notably, Roadstar was developed by a Mumbai-based firm Relu.Ai in 2020. IOAA has endorsed it recently as the unified measurement tool after working on its upgradation for over the last one year. The industry body now hopes that the media planners, agencies and media owners would accept it for wider use. However, the software still awaits validation from the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI). “We learnt about Roadstar only through e4m reports (first published on 13 May and then on July 22). IOAA has never reached out to us so far for our inputs and feedback,” several leaders claimed, although they welcomed the IOAA initiative. Vikas Noval, Co-Founder & Country Head of Interspace Communications, said, “I would love to understand the methodology, metrics, deliverables, periodicity of updates and broader vision behind Roadstar to evaluate how Roadstar compares to the proprietary tools that most of the established agencies like us have already invested and deployed.” He noted further, “A deeper understanding would help us assess the potential for alignment of our existing metrics and ensure data privacy, which is paramount and needed more than ever. As a part of the industry, I would welcome every initiative which is towards the greater good of the OOH domain and helps us build credibility and merit.” Praveen Vadhera, CEO of IOAA, decline to comment on the matter. No backing from a research agency or MRUC? It is also alleged that IOAA has roped in neither any research firm nor any industry body like the Media Research Users Council (MRUC) to validate the methodology for the unified system. “It would have been better if agencies and a research firm would have been taken along to develop this tool. Besides, MRUC’s stamping on the methodology of the proposed system would have been an ideal composition to call it an industry-unified research. Such a tool would have better acceptance among the stakeholders,” said a senior leader, requesting anonymity. Many tools already at work Reach and frequency are two key metrics that can help measure the effectiveness of an OOH advertising campaign. Reach refers to the total number of people exposed to an outdoor advertisement while frequency refers to the number of times, those people have seen the advertisement. By tracking metrics like impressions, viewability (high traffic areas), engagement (scanning QR etc) and conversions (sales), advertisers can determine how much their campaign reaches their target audience. As IOAA took years to come up with a software that can track all such metrics, market demand prompted many software firms to explore solutions. Many OOH agencies, including leading ones, started using measurement software, such as Moving Walls, X-OOH and IMPOT, either developed by themselves or procured from outside. They don't feel the need to replace it with Roadstar, at least now. Saibal Gupta, Managing Partner and CEO, Experia Group, said, “We have developed our own high tech measurement tool-X-OOH-and have been using it for more than a year now. Many other tools are also in use in the industry. Unless IOAA proposes something which has a competitive edge over existing tools and is also people-friendly, it will not get wider acceptance in an industry which has low entry barriers.” The OOH industry commands nearly 4 percent of India’s total advertising spends market which is roughly rupees one lakh crore. Experts believe that the industry can grow its pie to 10 percent in the next three-four years if it is able to demonstrate its effectiveness through data. This requires a proper unified measurement system. "Roadstar can be a game changer for agency and vendors. Data of reach and audience interaction is the most crucial aspect of our industry, with software/app like these one can categorise the ooh media," said Gaurav Bipin Mehta, Sunrise Publicity LLP, Managing Partner.
Tags : Ooh Roadstar Ioaa Measurement