OUTDOOR INDUSTRY TARGETS CARBON NEUTRALITY NEXT YEAR

The outdoor media industry is moving toward carbon neutrality in 2022, with the industry set to calculate the carbon output of OOH campaigns, and give advertisers the chance to offset and reduce the carbon impact of their media spend.

The drive to net zero was announced as the industry presented a suite of new tools which it says is set to make Out of Home (OOH) advertising easier to plan, buy, and measure. OMA CEO Charmaine Moldrich said the association, "would be working on getting to net zero by next year."

The inaugural industry showcase launched initiatives that will be available for agencies and clients from 31 January. This includes an update to Move (Measurement of Outdoor Visibility and Exposure) which will now measure digital screens.

The outdoor media industry was smashed by Covid, as commuters eschewed the daily routine into the office, and travel stopped, with revenue plummeting from $935m in 2019-2020 to $440m last year. The new initiative is in part aimed at clawing back the lost half a billion dollars.

The print side of outdoor media, which is currently about 40 per cent of the spend, has already made great strides in reducing its carbon footprint, through the introduction of recyclable materials, with Cactus Imaging launching its own material, and then others such as PVC-free Kavalan avaiable through merchants like Spicers.

Included in Move 1.5 is a new qualitative measure based on neuroscience, the Neuro Impact Factor, giving buyers an insight into the impact of their campaigns, weighted by audience, for both classic and digital signs.

Adding to the new measurement tools is a standardisation document, which sees the industry unite on terminology, geography, screen ratios, insertion orders, as well as a shift to selling the channel using Share of Time as the common currency.

Share of Time is the percentage share of display time received out of the total display time over a defined and agreed buying period, including other advertisers’ content, programmatic and other commercial arrangements. Crucially, agencies and advertisers will now be able to use Share of Time when planning their campaigns, making it easier to buy by location and environment to meet their desired campaign objectives.

“With more and more people back out and about as restrictions ease this summer, advertisers need to be in the right places and spaces to connect with audiences. Not only have we made it easier to buy and measure audiences, we are also providing a measure showing the impact our signs have on audiences. Giving advertisers the opportunity to get their messages to the nine in 10 Australians our signs reach each day. What’s more, over the next year we will be working to make Outdoor more sustainable by offering advertisers the choice to offset the carbon footprint of their campaigns,” said Charmaine Moldrich, OMA CEO.

The new digital measurement metric provides reach and frequency scores for digital signs based on the average audience dwell by environment, by ad play length, and by Share of Time bought.

“Clients and agencies always want as much data as we can possibly get our hands on. And so, while waiting for Move 2.0, we really wanted to be able to measure digital signs, and Move 1.5 does that for us. We're excited to get into the new platform and see how audiences properly move around and what Share of Time is going to do to that audience so that we can start to understand better metrics to buy and measure digital signage. It's a great addition,” said Pia Coyle, Avenue C managing partner and chair of the Outdoor Futures Council (OFC).

“Move 1.5 will give buyers more accurate reach and frequency scores for their campaigns, as well as opening a new dimension to audience measurement by scoring the impact of their campaigns on the people who see them. Industry standardisation will only supercharge these new tools because as we make Outdoor easier to transact, we are setting the industry up for future developments in programmatic and automation,” continued Moldrich.

National Head of Investment for MediaCom, Nick Thomas, said, “It has been a huge amount of work and it's taken an amazing amount of collaboration from all the partners including the OMA, our clients, and the Outdoor Futures Council. We're not just representing the agency, we're representing the client's voice too, and when I think about the work we've done in the standardisation space, it's a massive leap forward for the category and something we should be really proud of in the industry.”

“Our signs reach almost every Australian in the outdoor spaces where they live, work and play. The innovations we have unveiled at our first ever Out-Front are the result of our collaboration with our members and the OFC to provide additional tools and ease of use in planning, buying, and reporting on their campaigns,” concluded Moldrich.

The initiatives were announced at a virtual Out-Front event hosted by OMA and MOVE CEO Charmaine Moldrich and general manager of the OMA and Mov Kylie Green. Featuring a discussion with Data and Insights Director for oOh!media, Tara Coverdale; managing partner of Avenue C and OFC hair, Pia Coyle; and Move 2.0 lead Grant Guesdon.

It was followed by a Q&A about the new standards with executive general manager, Revenue Strategy and Operations for JCDecaux, Cassandra Cameron; chief customer officer for QMS Media, Mark Fairhurst; and National Head of Investment for MediaCom, Nick Thomas.

Move 1.5, the Neuro Impact Factor and industry standards will be available from 31 January.