First Outdoor Media Measurement Tool Launched in India

India's first syndicated audience measurement system for outdoor media has been launched by The Media Research Users Council (MRUC) and Hansa Research in the shape of the Indian Outdoor Survey (IOS).

The survey will be rolled out across 19 cities in the next five years. Phase I will kick off in December 2007 in Chennai and Ahmedabad, and Phase II will commence in March 2008 and cover Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Pune, Jaipur and Kochi. The third batch of four cities will be covered in the second year of the plan and four more will be included in year three.

Roda Mehta, Chairperson-Technical Committee, MRUC commented: 'This is the first time that all the three industry constituents, advertising agencies, advertisers and media owners, have come together for creating a measuring tool for the industry. I hope IOS will become the planning and buying media tool for this medium in the country.'

Having gained support from the Indian outdoor players, the research will be funded by Ogilvy Action, Reliance ADA Group, OAP (Outdoor Advertising Professionals) and Lakhshya Outdoor Media based in Mumbai.

Covering more than 25,000 sites in Phase I and II, the survey will comprise three research modules – a census count of outdoor sites, a traffic survey and a survey of individuals.

IOS will develop a visibility index for each outdoor vehicle. It will measure the physical characteristics of an outdoor site and then estimate the traffic that passes by that site to generate the total 'opportunity to see' (OTS). The visibility index and the OTS will be combined to create a conclusive 'visibility adjusted impact' measure (VAI). Through a sample survey of individuals in each city, IOS will derive the profile of travel patterns of city residents and derive data for audience reach and exposure for each site.

The 'out of home' OOH units for the survey will include hoardings, bus shelters, public utilities, bridges, kiosks, unipoles, police chowkis and Gypsy shelters. For the traffic count, the five modes of travel will comprise four wheelers including cars and taxis, three wheelers including auto rickshaws, two wheelers including bikes and scooters, and buses and pedestrians.

Media planners, media buyers, advertisers and media owners will be able to tap into this data to compare the effect of outdoor advertising with print and TV campaigns.

The Media Research Users Council is a not-for-profit organisation established in 1994 to 'ensure credible, relevant, timely and economical media research' for the benefit of publishers, advertisers, advertising agencies, broadcasters and other media owners. The organisation is based in Mumbai and is online at www.mruc.net . Hansa has research offices across 4 cities and field offices across 17 cities, and a US site in Illinois, and is on the web at www.hansaresearch.com .