[DRAFT] Dynamic Fleet Measurement Product Summary
- Chris Luken
Overview
This document outlines Geopath’s proposed solution for measuring audiences to dynamic fleet media, which focuses exclusively on printed or digital messaging displayed on the exteriors of vehicles that traverse an unplanned (dynamic) path on roadways within the United States. Measurement of ad units directed at passengers within a dynamic fleet vehicle will be addressed as part of a separate effort.
A snapshot of the proposed solution for dynamic fleet measurement includes:
Planning Data
| ‘As Delivered’ Data
| Metrics
|
Reporting levels
| Date Releases
| Audience Profiles
|
1 e.g., forecast report delivered in October 2023 would contain monthly forecasts for November 2023 to October 2024.
2 e.g., forecast data for October 2023 would be based on vehicle trip data from October 2022.
Concept Overview
Geopath proposes a dual reporting system to forecast campaign audience estimates during media planning and calculate ‘as delivered’ audience measurement estimates post-campaign. The top 5 factors that influence audience estimates include:
Fleet vehicle type (car, truck, bus) and ad unit attributes, including its format (digital or print), placement (front, rear, left, right, or top), size, and shape.
Time periods (and ad rotation schedules for digital ad unit formats).
Routes traveled by the vehicle (including GPS coordinates per vehicle with date/time stamps).
Circulation data (i.e. estimate of people traveling in a vehicle or by foot on a roadway at a specific date and time).
Visibility Adjustment Index (VAI) (Geopath primary research that statistically models the likelihood of a person making eye contact with an ad unit).
Forecasted estimates for an ad unit will be based on the aggregated routes the vehicle traveled during the same time period in the previous year.
“As delivered” estimates report the performance of individual campaigns and are based on the actual routes traveled by the vehicle while the ad unit was on display.
Responsibilities of Dynamic Fleet Media Operators
Success of this project will be a collaborative effort, with data quality dependent on the accuracy and detail of the vehicle travel logs provided to Geopath by the fleet media operators.
Once the proof-of-concept period has concluded, each dynamic fleet media operator will be expected to:
Register their inventory with Geopath. Each ad unit will be entered separately and include a detailed description of the ad unit and ad unit assignments to each vehicle.
Initially upload up to 12 months worth of historical travel logs associated with each ad unit
Every month, upload the travel logs for the vehicles with assigned ad units and update the count of vehicles with ad units in operation
Scope & Sequence
Onboarding test units
Phase 0: Geopath will conduct a paid proof-of-concept test as described above, then socialize the OTS impression metrics with this dynamic fleet roundtable for analysis and business viability.
Forecasted impressions
Phase 1: annualized forecasts of opportunity-to-see impressions for select age-based audiences (persons age 0+, 5+, 18+, 21+) will be produced first.
Phase 2: monthly forecasts of opportunity-to-see impressions for select age-based audiences (persons age 0+, 5+, 18+, 21+).
Phase 3: monthly forecasts of likely-to-see impressions for select age-based audiences (persons age 0+, 5+, 18+, 21+)
Phase 4: monthly forecasts of likely-to-see impressions for extended age/gender/HHI-based audiences, PRIZM segments, and select Consumer Profiles
Delivered impressions
Phase 5: week-by-week ‘as delivered’ likely-to-see and opportunity-to-see impressions for extended age/gender/HHI-based audiences
Phase 6: week-by-week ‘as delivered’ likely-to-see and opportunity-to-see impressions for PRIZM segments
Reach & Frequency
Phase 7: week-by-week ‘as delivered’ likely-to-see reach & frequency estimates for extended age/gender/HHI-based audiences and PRIZM segments
Complete data production & integration into Geopath’s Insights Suite UI
Phase 8: onboard complete dynamic fleet media operator inventory sets (all remaining ad inventory units owned by this group) into the Geopath Insights Suite, enabling their use within Geopath’s media planning tools (including market plans, inventory plans, and day-of-week / hour-of-day impression reporting)
Geopath Audience Metrics
Impressions
Geopath plans to calculate impressions based on two definitions:
Opportunity-to-see (OTS) impressions will reflect the number of people who encounter a fleet vehicle and have a clear line of sight to the ad unit (e.g., people traveling in the opposite direction of a vehicle with a rear-facing display would not be accounted towards OTS impressions). This line of sight is called a viewshed. OTS can be considered the total potential audience based on the roadways traveled.
Likely-to-see (LTS) impressions are a subset of OTS and reflect the proportion of people who are likely to eye contact with the ad unit based on Geopath’s proprietary Visibility Adjustment Index.
Reach & Frequency
Reach estimates the number of unique people who view a campaign, and frequency denotes the number of times each person repeatedly views the ad. Reach and frequency are calculated using LTS impressions.
Forecasted Reach & Frequency (R&F) will be calculated per ad unit using the average week estimated for the reported month. R&F across months will be available upon request. “As delivered” R&F for the selected number of ad units will be reported for the individual weeks in the reported month, and a final R&F estimate will be calculated across all the selected weeks.
Audience Profiles
Impressions, reach, and frequency may be filtered by core demographics such as age, sex, race/ethnicity, and household income.
In addition, the audience may be profiled by Claritas PRIZM segments such as “Upper Crust” or “Beltway Boomers” and select Claritas Pop Facts segments (e.g., “Used tobacco in last 30 days”).
Audiences can also be sorted by those who live in-market vs. out-of-market. For example, impressions for a campaign displayed in Manhattan can be reported for the entire audience or filtered to reflect people living in the New York DMA (or New York County or CBSA).
Reporting Periods
Data will be released once per month. Forecast reports will estimate audiences by ad unit for the upcoming 12 months. “As delivered” metrics will be reported for campaigns that ran the previous month. A final report summarizing the campaign performance across all vehicles and weeks will be provided when a campaign is completed.
Data Delivery
Data will be delivered once per month in CSV files until a User Interface is developed.
Reports will show estimates of impressions, reach, and frequency by ad unit for the specified time period. The data may be filtered by audience demography and/or geography within a specific time period. Impressions data can be grouped by ad units or geography within the delivered CSV file. Unduplicated reach estimates across multiple ad units or by geography will be available from Geopath upon request. “As delivered” reports will automatically group all ad units that traversed the chosen geography within the chosen timeframe.
Methodology
Geopath’s core out-of-home measurement service monitors circulation for nearly every roadway in the United States. The data is aggregated annually to forecast estimates for an average week in the upcoming year. Circulation estimates derivate from a combination of the following datasets. Its validity is widely accepted among out-of-home media buyers. For more detail on Geopath’s existing methodology, please refer to the Geopath OOH Measurement Methodology pages on our publicly-facing Confluence site.
To measure dynamic fleet media, Geopath will cross-reference a fleet vehicle’s routes with circulation data for the same roadways and times of day. Based on the characteristics of the vehicle and ad unit, a custom viewshed will be calculated for each roadway traveled. The people who pass through the viewshed on each roadway will become the Opportunity-to-See audience for the ad unit. A custom VAI will be calculated for the ad unit and applied to the OTS audience to determine the final Likely-to-See audience.
Terms to Know
Roadway | Circulation | Viewshed | Visibility Adjustment Index (VAI) |
|---|---|---|---|
A roadway is a stretch of road between two nodes. A node is a point at which two or more roads intersect or branch. The length of a roadway varies based on the distance between the nodes. For example, 7th Avenue between 39th Street and 40th Street would be one roadway; I-95 southbound between exits 34 and 35 is another roadway. Every public road accepting vehicular traffic has its own unique roadway identification. Roadways are aggregated into geospatial H3 units, counties, and markets for geographic reporting. | Circulation is the estimate of people traveling on a roadway either in a vehicle (drivers and passengers) or walking on a street on a specified date and time. The direction of travel is considered for vehicular traffic on two-way streets. Geopath calculates the routes people likely travel daily so circulation can be deduplicated across roadways and over time. | A viewshed is an area between the ad unit and the audience with a line of sight to the message. People in a viewshed with a clear line of sight to the ad unit count as the opportunity-to-see audience. | VAI is used to estimate the audience that is likely to see an ad unit. Geopath conducted original field research to monitor people’s eye movement on roads. The likelihood of someone making eye contact with an ad unit depends on the size of the display, its distance from the person, the angle of the display in relation to the person (e.g., parallel, perpendicular), and the amount of time the ad unit was in the person’s field of view. These factors combined create the ad unit’s Visibility Adjustment Index (VAI). |
Next Steps:
Geopath is seeking feedback from this dynamic fleet roundtable on the abovementioned service. The scope of the initial build will focus on 20 markets to be selected by this committee.
Proof of Concept:
Each dynamic fleet media operator will submit one week’s worth of travel logs for two campaigns. These logs will include a description of the ad unit on each vehicle, and all paths traveled while the campaign was displayed (with timestamps).
The specific format and agreed-upon granularity of the travel path data to be provided by dynamic fleet media operators will be discussed in detail and agreed-upon by this group. Geopath will then produce sample post-campaign reports for review, which will focus exclusively on OTS impressions.
As part of this paid proof-of-concept, ad units sold by dynamic fleet media operators will be onboarded into Geopath’s platform and assigned Geopath spot IDs (which will be visible to all Geopath members).
Commitment:
The development and execution of the proof-of-concept will require initial funding from this roundtable of fleet media operators.
If the majority of fleet media operators are satisfied with the proof of concept, Geopath will seek additional investment to develop the complete scope of service outlined.
Why Geopath
Geopath is the industry standard in OOH audience measurement that has been in business for 90+ years and is incorporated as a not-for-profit organization.
Geopath is not dependent upon any specific buy-side or sell-side systems; it is platform-agnostic.
Geopath’s organizational mission is to service both buy-side and sell-side members in the OOH ecosystem, providing objectivity and promoting interoperability.
Geopath can extend its existing capabilities to service the needs of place-based media owners while remaining internally and externally consistent with OOH measurement baselines.
Geopath’s audience measurement products are developed in consultation with industry standards bodies and research foundations (e.g., Media Ratings Council, Advertising Research Foundation).