POSTAR Set to Launch New Outdoor Currency

UK out-of-home measurement body POSTAR is set to launch a new GPS-enabled 'currency' next February, covering a wide range of outdoor environments including road, tube and rail. The launch has been made possible with a £19m investment from companies in the sector.

POSTAR (Poster Audience Research) produces audience estimates for out-of-home advertising, to demonstrate how many people see an ad campaign and how often they do so. The information is used as the currency for planning, buying, selling and evaluating ad investment in the medium.

Through the new study, which will provide an entirely new currency to replace POSTAR99, a sample of 23,000 people will use GPS technology to track their travelling patterns and measure their ad exposure. Resulting data will then be mapped onto a bespoke network of the country's pathways by Ipsos MediaCT.

As well as including 'all possible outdoor environments', the study will measure the effect of illumination on audience figures, along with the effect of an advert being digital. Additionally, historic eye tracking research from Birkbeck College, University of London will be used, and inventory measured will increase to 360,000 from 120,000 sites in POSTAR99, with more to be added.

Following the launch, POSTAR will continue to release updates at regular quarterly intervals, with data for retail and airport environments also on the agenda.

MD James Whitmore (pictured) comments: 'The study brings together several large sets of data. Combined it is one of the biggest datasets of its kind with over 160 million records - providing an enormous enlargement of the current understanding of out-of-home audiences. We are in a position to launch this rich data in February next year and now need to prepare the industry in an ordered and measured way.'

A beta version of the data is being made available to subscribers in advance of the roll-out on 26 February 2013, to enable them to familiarise themselves with the data, train staff and update systems.

Web site: www.postar.co.uk .