Outdoor industry postpones launch of new currency MOVE until next February
Australia’s outdoor industry has postponed the beginning of its long awaited audience measurement system MOVE until next year – and set a date of February 23 for the launch.
MOVE stands for Measurement of Outdoor Visibility and Exposure. The project – mainly funded by APN Outdoor, EYE, Adshel, JCDecaux and oOh!media – will cost around $5m. Other inventory covered will include TorchMedia, GOA Billboards, Bishopp Outdoor Advertising, Metrospace Outdoor Advertising, Savage Outdoor Advertising, Outdoor Systems, independent outdoor media (iOM) and Bailey Outdoor Advertising.
The decision on timing for the launch, which had been originally expected earlier this year, divided the leaders of the Outdoor Media Association, with some members wanting to launch the Sydney data immediately.
However, with the audience data for Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth not likely to be ready until January, the board decided to postpone. MOVE Chairman Steve O’Connor, CEO of JC Decaux, said: ““There was robust debate by the members of the MOVE Board as to whether or not to release the system this year with Sydney data only, and then roll out the other markets as they became available,” O’Connor said: “In the end, the Board resolved that it was in the industry’s best interests to launch all markets and all formats at the same time.”
These guys are pretty funny. Another firm date, eh!
It is pretty funny how the outdoor advertising industry take measurement so seriously in the context of variables which won’t and can’t be incorporated into a precious algorithm. I travel on the M4 each day, and through Annandale, and I’m constantly amazed at how the industry can be so precise about audience size and type when there is graffiti on artwork, billboards obstructed by trees, which have grown over time to obscure the message, and even very expensive billboards facing eastward over east-bound traffic (i.e. the creative can only be seen via your rear view mirror). I’d give that example an LTS of 0, but I’m sure the client is paying a bundle. A measurement methodology which lacks a common sense approach is useless and will be disregarded accordingly.
And Tim, I can categorically say that the industry was NOT sitting on the data as some ‘pundits’ suggested.
Unfortunately, there were a combination of errors detected when we got a ‘first-look’ at the data. For example, some sites had a zero audience which for large roadside is totally unbelievable. This meant checking all 60,000 sites again, as well as re-processing each market as some key data was missed during procesing, meaning that the audience data simply made no sense.
So what to do? Release wrong data to adhere to a time-line, or to “take the hit” and release late?
The OMA made the only sane decision – to do what was unpopular and delay. Hey, of course I wanted it out there as much (no, more!) than the next person, but robustness of the results correctly took precedence.
…yawn, wake me up when they are finally ready.