Geopath Circulation

In 2010, the legacy standard of opportunity-to-see metric, i.e. daily effective circulation (DEC), was retired, and the Geopath Board of Directors voted unanimously to move toward a likelihood-to-see impression definition as the advertising currency. A likelihood-to-see impression considers if individuals have an opportunity to see the content and their potenential of noting it within thier field of view.

Geopath organizes the many different media types in the out-of-home space into three core classifications:

• Roadside Media Stationary media positioned to be seen by roadways or pedestrian walkways. Roadside audiences are persons on roadways within moving vehicles or persons traveling on pedestrian walkways en route to a destination.

• Place-based Media Media located at or within a destination venue (indoor or outdoor) with some audiences having extended dwell time. Place-based media audiences are typically pedestrians. Additionally, place-based media includes inventory affixed to the interior of moving fleet vehicles (such as buses or trains) servicing scheduled and on-demand routes. Intended audiences are persons using the fleet service.

• Exterior Fleet / Mobility Media Media affixed to the exterior of moving fleet vehicles servicing dynamic routes, whose intended audiences are persons within moving vehicles on roadways or persons traveling on pedestrian walkways.

While media types and environments within these classes are very different, the components and steps of calculation audience remain the same. Each of traffic, circulation, opportunity-to-see impressions, and likelihood-to-see impressions are estimated sequentially.

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Traffic

The absolute foundation of all out-of-home media measurement is to understand how many vehicles (or people) are traveling along a roadway, on a pathway, or or within an area over a specified period of time. The data used for each classification varies but the purpose remains the same.

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Visual of the traffic along a roadway.

Traffic does not remain constant over time and varies by hour and day. Periods of increased volume are often accompanied by decreased speeds; a condition known as congestion.

Each of the media classifications consider the following as “traffic”:

• Fleet Exterior (Scheduled and Dynamic)

  • The number of vehicles traveling along a roadway (often in either direction)

  • The number of people walking along a walkway in either direction

• Place-based and Interior Fleet

  • The number of people walking along a walkway in either direction

  • The number of people in an area with or without an extended dwell time

Circulation

Geopath measures audience in terms of people, not cars. While knowing the number of vehicles is an important foundation, knowing the number of people in the vehicles is the most important factor. In the same way that traffic volume and speed changes throughout the day, so does vehicular occupancy (the number of persons per vehicle). During the morning hours when most workers are commuting, the vehicular occupancy is very low because most people commute alone in vehicles. During the middle of the day when most trips on the roadway are for shopping or errands, the average vehicular occupancy increases.

In the example below, even though the highest volume of vehicles is in the morning, the highest volume of people occurs during the middle of the day.

When measuring pedestrian audiences, occupancy does not impact circulation as each pedestrian is counted once per trip. Therefore, pedestrian traffic and circulation are equal.

These media classifications consider the following as “circulation”:

• Fleet Exterior (Scheduled and Dynamic)

  • The number of people traveling in vehicles along a roadway in a direction where the media is within their field of view

  • The number of people walking along a sidewalk or walkway in a direction where the media is within their field of view

• Place-based and Interior Fleet

  • The number of people within a venue walking in a direction where the media is within their field of view

  • The number of people in an area for a period of time who are oriented so that the media is within their field of view