Initial results from the partnership between Posterscope and EE reveal that they have made OOH results measurable for the first time, and 200% more effective.  Redefining media planning strategy, Posterscope used EE’s mobile data to optimise OOH media selections and measure campaign success.

The Trial

Posterscope clients including Lenovo, Nationwide, RBS, Studio Canal, Very.co.uk and British Gas took part in the trial, which was conducted from January to May 2014. The out-of home communications agency fed its proprietary ‘Planner’ app, an algorithm-based tool powered by Route, with EE’s mData. 

This mData draws on 27 million EE customers’ aggregated and anonymised usage data, across 120,000 hotspots. Together with the 19 bn GPS data sets of Posterscope’s ‘Route’ survey, the data was used to gain insight into consumers’ movements and location-based digital behaviours when they were out of their homes. This revealed how, when and where mobile devices are used in relation to, and in the proximity of, OOH media sites nationwide. Posterscope was able to measure increases in ad awareness, purchase consideration and online searches for the participating brands.

The Results

Results from the Lenovo campaign, which featured a control group and group optimised by EE data, included unprompted advert awareness and purchase consideration both increasing by 200%, and online searches increasing by 150%.

James Davies, chief strategy officer at Posterscope, commented: “We can now accurately identify which outdoor sites are seen by users of particular websites or apps and what they are doing on their mobile devices at the time.  For example, we now know Surbiton and London’s Caledonian Road stations both deliver major peaks in visits to fashion related websites so placing relevant OOH adverts in those areas will increase ad effectiveness.

“A lot has been written about big data’s usefulness recently but this is a real-life example of how we’re using it to transform an industry.  And the best thing is we’re the only OOH agency with a mobile network partnership, enabling us to draw on a dataset which features 27 million mobile users to improve OOH ad effectiveness.”

The Future

“Despite this landmark moment for the industry, we believe there’s still more to come,” continues James Davies. “By using more sophisticated data analysis techniques we’ll be able to identify audiences in real-time, display relevant digital-out-of-home adverts and improve campaign effectiveness even further.  For example, a sportswear brand could use this advanced real-time data to identify runners coming towards a digital screen and then display adverts for products such as running shoes.”