Future Of POSTAR Discussed At MediaTel Group Seminar

One of the big questions facing the outdoor industry is whether POSTAR, the industry measurement system, is up to the job, and this was one of the subjects discussed by the panellists at the MediaTel Group ‘Future Of Outdoor’ seminar.

The panellists were in agreement that although POSTAR might not currently be perfect for the role, the outdoor industry is putting a lot of effort into changing things around.

Tim Bleakley, managing director of CBS Outdoor, outlined how POSTAR is attempting to change to better serve the industry. He said: “There’s a huge amount of collaboration on trying to get Postar up to speed, on RAB proportions easily. The industry is united in wanting a common currency.

“Postar was designed to measure roadside audiences, it wasn’t designed to measure outdoor. It’s like BARB only ever monitoring analogue audiences and pretending that digital didn’t exist. When POSTAR was formed, roadside was 78% of the revenue, its now 53%. It’s got to do an entirely different job.”

Meanwhile, Roy Jeans, CEO of IPM, pointed out that POSTAR has been performing reasonably well when taking into account its funding.

Jeans also noted that it is not just POSTAR that needs some revision, with other media measurement systems also needing to take stock.

Jeans said: “POSTAR broadly works, it has been under-funded compared to other media channels, compared to TV or newspapers, I think there has to be a debate about what we do. POSTAR is trying to do something much more complex than other media channels, it’s combining different formats at different times of day, different shapes, different locations, its a very complex piece of work.

“Having said that, you look at some of the other research out there, BARB is a bit of a mess going forward, there are big debates about what we do with that, the NRS is hardly a piece of research to be proud of I think. So there are lots of issues about research per se in the industry and POSTAR is just one of those conversations that’s taking place. I think that there is a real good will amongst both the vendors and the buyers about how we do this.”

For Barry Sayer, UK president of Clear Channel Outdoor, the main thing that POSTAR should focus on is broadening its remit. He said: “Old lady POSTAR has been with us for 10 years and it probably needs a facelift and probably an enema as well, but certainly, anything that Postar looks at right now has the support of the outdoor contractors.

“There’s been shifts in the marketplace, road signs are perhaps not as important as they were before because other media have come onto the marketplace and, I suppose, POSTAR needs to be broader, it needs to accommodate the changes in the marketplace over the last 10 years.”

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