Achilles was the bravest, handsomest, and greatest warrior of the army of Agamemnon in the Trojan War. One of the childhood tales reveals that his mother, Thetis, dipped Achilles in the waters of the River Styx, by which means he became invulnerable, except for the part of his heel by which she held him—the proverbial “Achilles’ heel.”
You might begin wondering, “Not yet another crazy title! 😖”.
Now replace Achilles with “OOH” and Achilles’ heel with “Attribution” and there, things immediately fall into place.
Attribution in the advertising world refers to the near-impossible process of determining the user actions that led to the desired outcome between seeing the ad and the conversion (for eg. purchase).
Direct attribution: You see an ad for an Apple Watch -> You check your bank balance -> All clear -> Click -> Purchase.
Indirect attribution: You see an ad for an Apple Watch -> Ignore -> Few months later -> You see your best friend wear one -> Go to Apple Retail Store -> Purchase
Now consider the second case.
You see an ad for the Apple Watch on Instagram and then you forget about it. Few days later, you see it on a billboard while commuting for work and by the time you have reached your office, you’ve convinced yourself to get an Apple Watch.
Now for literally the million-dollar question: Which ad pushed you to purchase the Apple Watch? Welcome to the complex world of attribution.
Digitally native companies have better access to attribution and data when compared to that of offline media (OOH, Print, Radio, TV, etc.) as the customer’s path to purchase is often linear.
Offline attribution is complex although not impossible, and with the technology and data available, the offline ad attribution ecosystem is bustling with new interesting methodologies and innovations!
It is OOH that is often singled out as the medium which is most difficult to gauge as it lacks a unique rating system, at least in India.
Radio has RAM, TV has BARC, Print has IRS while OOH ratings are rarely spoken about, although RAM/BARC/IRS all extrapolate and aggrandize data and might not stand up to careful scrutiny.
We though are showing some promise in this aspect. Geopath in the US and Route in the UK have been doing a brilliant job in bringing a uniform rating system to the OOH sector.
How do you attribute online and offline activity to OOH?
Measurement is not a nice-to-have anymore but a must-have. As more brands require a direct correlation between OOH spend and consumer action, we'll see more OOH vendors work to develop their own measurement offering. Ultimately the true winners will be those who are able to provide more refined data and analytics helping to further build effective OOH campaigns.
-Brian Rappaport, CEO of Quan Media Group, an OOH planning and buying company.
In my opinion and from my experiences, I believe there are 4 ways to attribute an OOH advertisement to a purchase (or any other chosen metric), the process ranging from downright simple to a statistical challenge.
The tried and tested Coupon/Promo Codes or Fancy landing pages (URL Tracking)
Adding coupon codes or fancy landing pages to OOH campaigns is the most straightforward and the cheapest measurement option. Using different coupon codes across multiple media can also help figure out which medium is performing best. However, this option does not help track the total number of impressions for a given OOH medium.
Bringing the OOH into the Digital ecosystem, aka Geofencing
Of course, OOH is one of the best complementary mediums out there and when executed meticulously along with digital campaigns, can work wonders by tapping into the digital methods of attribution and enhancing the conversations around the brand.
Geo-Fencing refers to drawing a virtual barrier around a location (or billboard) using mobile device global positioning system (GPS) or computer Internet Protocol (IP) data and addresses, which is just like your virtual address. Ads inside of geo-fenced areas can be seen on computer, tablet, or mobile devices as potential customers are when they access their phone or browse the web.
Geofenced advertising can activate or display mobile content or ads to the person inside the geo-fenced radius to alert them of a local deal or the distance you are from a particular store location. With geo-fencing outdoor advertisers have the opportunity to combine the impact of OOH at a specific location with precise mobile targeting at that same location to a variety of audiences.
Augmented reality (AR) activations
AR is finally here to the advertising ecosystem. After many years of wondering what impact this tech could have on the OOH industry, we have managed to figure out a useful case for it - attribution and customer engagement.
Augmented reality activations built into billboards are one of the latest trends in OOH enabled by mobile — and another potential way to track an outdoor campaign's success.
Burger King, for instance, integrated OOH with mobile AR to let consumers in Brazil get a free Whopper when they pointed an app at McDonald's billboards and virtually burned them down. Puma created an AR experience as part of the launch of its new North American flagship store in New York with interactive signs and shoe tags that activated branded content.
FYI, AR can also be used for non-vengeful reasons. Burger King’s got no chill!
Attributing via Word-Of-Mouth (WOM) traffic
This is the one I’m most excited about. There’re 2 often underrated advantages to OOH:-
It’s a great enhancer medium. Call it the steroids of the advertising world.
OOH x Any other advertising channel = Multi-X Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)
It is the medium that generates the highest qualitative offline conversations (through Word-Of-Mouth)
How do you attribute purchases of the Breville BES870XL from this post?
OOH campaigns can partner with affiliate channels that monetize referrals and incentivize WOM, and work together to generate online conversations + track conversions from online-offline channels.
Here’s a simple drawing for your understanding. Also, can I be Jack?
Damn, all this knowledge. Where and how to deploy them? There’s a science to understand attribution and simplify the data behind it.
There’s only one way to execute the perfect attribution for an OOH campaign, that is, ***drum roll*** - Pick a metric. Just one.
Don’t be the cheesecake factory. Be all ‘bout that burger.
The in-vogue attribution tactic (followed by Ubimo) is to focus more on the impact of the OOH campaign instead of providing a set of extrapolated fake vanity data.
This exclusive methodology uses data science and artificial intelligence to ensure both exposed and control groups are comprised of devices with similar characteristics—including device signals, demographic and behavioral traits—then measures lift across both groups prior to and during the ad campaign to determine the change in lift. The results provide the most reliable picture of eyes on an ad and subsequent visits to the advertised location.
The attribution methodology works only if you have a clear metric in mind. The singular focus on the metric, be it purchase/walk-ins, etc., can help in understanding the impact your OOH campaign has had compared to regular days.
This is getting really long, so I’ll conclude with this P.S.
P.S. Attribution is not the be-all and end-all. Heck, nobody cares about attribution when it comes to long term brand-building. Remember your brand purpose. Ensure every aspect of your advertising is aligned with it and we are set to go!
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