Keeping TABs on Outdoor Eyeballs

In the US, the TAB (Traffic Audit Bureau for Media Measurement) is developing a new integrated audience measurement system for outdoor advertising, with the help of agencies GfK Custom, MRI, Telmar and Transearch. The system promises groundbreaking data on numbers likely to see a given ad.

Implementation of the scheme will be in phases, with a complete rollout scheduled by third quarter 2008. Billed as 'the first of its kind able to report real commercial data' on both pedestrian and vehicular audiences, the new system employs visibility or 'eyes on' tracking to pin down numbers likely to see an advertiser's message, 'be it driving by a giant billboard or walking past a transit shelter'.

Established in 1933, the Traffic Audit Bureau for Media Measurement Inc. is a non-profit organization run by a board made up of advertisers, agencies and media companies, whose main aim is to act as an independent auditor for Out of Home media in the US.

MRI (part of GfK) will design and execute the travel surveys, while GfK Custom Research North America has been chosen to conduct the 'eyes on' research, Telmar to provide modeling and analytic expertise and Transearch to handle data relating to pedestrians.

For the first phase of the program, now underway, MRI (MediaMark Research Inc.) will conduct 4,200 detailed interviews in five markets - Chicago, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Dallas and San Francisco - using face-to-face CAPI, and 50,000 shorter interviews about general travel patterns in a total of 15 markets.

'This is a change we have actively been working on for some time,' says TAB President & CEO Joe Philport. 'We are surpassing all other media by taking the lead in bringing outdoor into the 21st century with a comprehensive system that provides a solid foundation for future measurement.'

The companies above are online at the following addresses:

www.telmar.com
www.transearchgroup.com
www.mediamark.com
www.gfk.com
www.tabonline.com

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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