POSTAR Launched Today
Today saw the official launch of the long-awaited POSTAR research for the outdoor advertising industry.
The new research methods have taken almost two years and £1.6m to develop. POSTAR, unlike OSCAR, is a Joint Industry Committee between the OAA and COS and believes that it will replace OSCAR as an independent, respected and universally accepted currency for the outdoor advertising industry.
As well as measuring Opportunities To See (OTS) POSTAR will also quantifiably measure visibility of posters in terms of lighting, distance from curb and angle to the road (Visibly Adjusted Impacts or VAI). Other new developments include using ‘neural networks’ to measure exactly how much traffic passes each site and experiments to measure accurately what people see and the order they see it in when passing posters. As well as this over 7,500 people were surveyed over 80,000 journeys in 140 sampling sites to establish socio-economic data which was then split into nine groups.
Those involved with the launch of POSTAR include Christine Walker (chief executive of Zenith Media), Ivor Stock (managing director of NOP), Simon Cooper (technical consultant NOP), Dr Paul Barber (Professor of Cognitive Studies, Birkbeck College), Richard Holliday (director of OAA), Chris Morley (chairman of COS) and Chris Dickens (non-executive chairman POSTAR).
In the future POSTAR believes it will provide:
- realistic and reliable coverage and frequency data
- Visibly Adjusted Impacts per panel
- panel numbers needed to reach campaign targets
- information on how panel illumination and seasonal daylight changes affect cover
It is also apparent that those involved with POSTAR see it as a continually evolving product rather than a fixed contract: it is expected to change as the need arises. All the speakers agreed that whilst no research is perfect, POSTAR is a big step forward for the outdoor advertising industry. POSTAR will also now approve individual industry research , the first of which is likely to be TDI.
Initial reaction from agencies is positive: Rupert Steele, of Leo Burnett, said that he had “little doubt that the investment in the research, in terms of time, energy and finance will pay dividends for the outdoor industry: at last we all have a current, credible, and industry-accepted study on which to base planning and buying decisions”; Mike Goodman, of AMV, commented that he had read negative comments in the press about POSTAR but in the event he was pleased with the issues which the research addressed. He suggested that in fact it was more sophisticated than other research methodologies such as NRS. David Beadle, from Media Factor, believes that the concept of VAI is absolutely crucial and is a necessary complement to OTS.
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