VITAMEDIAS
Your Ad Could Be Here! (And Now We Can Tell You Who'll See It.)
In the statistically obsessed world of media ratings, outdoor advertising has long been a data-deprived wasteland. Time-tested technologies and methodologies can predict how many 18- to 34-year-old females will see a Motrin commercial, or hear one on the radio, or even click on a Web ad.
But for 70 years, the only information available to billboard advertisers has been raw traffic counts. Never mind who's actually in the cars - no one knows. Media buyers say that's one reason U.S. outdoor ad spending ($2.5 billion in 2002, according to research firm CMR/TNS Media Intelligence) now accounts for a measly 2 percent of the nation's total advertising outlays.
But that may soon change. Nielsen Media Research, the firm known for rating television viewership, is testing a billboard ratings system that uses the satellite-based global positioning system (GPS) to track consumers wherever they drive. In a Chicago rollout this fall, Nielsen will recruit a sample of adults - à la TV's Nielsen families - who, for a small stipend, will allow their minute-to-minute movements to be recorded on a cell-phone-size GPS receiver. Since Nielsen will already know each participant's demographic characteristics, the age and gender questions will no longer plague outdoor advertisers.