The South African Advertising Research Foundation (SAARF) will launch a national electronic outdoor survey towards the end of March this year. The study aims to develop a dependable, people-based audience measurement system for outdoor advertising. It is scheduled to run until the end of 2008.
SAARF chief technical officer, Piet Smit, says South Africa is the first country outside of the United States, to make use of the new technology. “We are the guinea-pig, as it were, and will have to determine what results we measure and achieve over the next three years, and how best to process the data most effectively for the outdoor industry’s requirements,” Smit says.
Measuring electronic outdoor media began in 2002 with a pilot project between SAARF and Nielsen Media Research using a car meter. After the test phase, Nielsen downsized the car meter to a tracking device called the Nielsen Personal Outdoor Device (Npod).
The Npod can be clipped onto a car window or attached to a belt. The device is able to communicate with at least three satellites at the same time. It is possible to identify the global position of the Npod accurately to within half-a-metre making use of a global positioning system such as GPRS (General Packet Radio Service). SAARF will be able to track the exact movements of the respondents carrying the device. When overlaying this satellite information with a Geographic Information System map showing the position of outdoor sites, it will be possible to identify which billboards or bus shelters each respondent has passed.
SAARF is currently holding briefings and demonstrations in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, after which 7,000 respondents in these two provinces will receive the devices towards the end of March. The study will be extended into the other provinces during 2007 and 2008. The sample of SAARF AMPS respondents will carry the Npod for nine days. The device will then be collected along with the diary and self-completion questionnaire during the three fieldwork waves scheduled to the end of July.
“Currently, questions on outdoor media in SAARF’s AMPS survey only provides a potential reach of outdoor media, such as bus shelters and billboards, which is not accurate enough for use in campaign planning,” Smit says. “Every five years, SAARF conducts research on outdoor media using the Copland Model but even this research, combined with SAARF AMPS is still not detailed enough to plan campaigns. The Npod results will raise the level of measurement of outdoor media and provide accurate electronic data which can be used with confidence in campaign planning together with TV, radio and other media.”
The initial research results for Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal will be incorporated into the SAARF AMPS survey in 2006.