Also in this report:

– Transit suppliers fight misconceptions: Notion that interior transit audience limited to teens and blue-collar consumers finally giving way as new categories of advertiser take public transit p.16

– Location, location, location: Grant: Old real estate adage also applies when planning outdoor advertising campaigns p.19

– Know the product in every market: Saunders p.22

– Spotlight onOut-of-Home Creative p.24

– Do your homework: Hughes p.25

What are the principles that should guide a planner or buyer working in out-of-home?

For this special report, Strategy asked four top media people to share their commandments for planning and buying an effective campaign in this medium. We wanted to understand some of the practical matters involved – how, for example, they apply research data – as well as the attitude and approach they bring to the task.

Their comments appear on pages 19 to 25.

Rob Young is senior vice-president of Harrison, Young, Pesonen & Newell in Toronto.

At hypn, our commandments for working in out-of-home can be grouped into the following categories: Planning, Buying, Location Quality, Posting and Follow-up.

To make the point, let’s go for a little drive around Toronto. After all, everything you need to know about out-of-home can be learned from the street.

Just look around: we’re in the middle of an out-of-home building boom. The 32,000 faces available to advertisers across Canada today represent a dramatic increase from the 27,000 available just a few years ago. Churn rates (deletions and new additions over a year) were once stable at 5%. Today that rate is up to 18%.

Planning

Do you see your ad yet? Perhaps the planned daily grp level was too low. Some operators have sophisticated case studies examining the relationships between out-of-home weight and awareness. There are also studies on file that track awareness produced by optional mixes of media in conjunction with out-of-home. Make sure this information is considered at the planning stage.

Remember: a well-planned grp is worth its weight in weight.

Buying

Still haven’t seen that poster yet! Maybe the problem is a function of price negotiated during the buying process, or lack of avails due to high demand. All of these conditions must be addressed and resolved during the negotiation process.

Timing of negotiation is critical. The early buyer gets the prime weight at best price.

Location Quality

Do you see that poster unit over there? It’s too high, not angled enough and blocked by a tree. Operators would give that unit a bad ‘pqr’ score. (pqr, or ‘product quality rating,’ was a standard used until recently to provide operators with a form of plant report card.)

Most plants in Canada have these problems under control, but beware of operators in the midst of an accelerated new build program.

Then there’s the matter of illumination. It’s hard to find un-illuminated poster units at night, but they’re out theresomewhere. The traffic counts you pay for include vehicular counts after the sun goes down. So if the bulbs are burned out, you’re getting burned. This can be a significant problem with large, high-profile units like Superboards or sides of buildings.

Don’t you just love the poster location here on Avenue Rd. north of Lawrence? Lots of cars pass by daily – what media people call a ‘high average daily circulation count.’ Some operators have higher average counts than others. Look into the Canadian Outdoor Measurement Bureau’s quarterly Market Data Report book for an objective comparison.

While we’re on the topic of location quality, consider the possibility that you might have a client with many outlets in the city, who needs ads posted within a three-kilometre radius of the store, facing the right way. An operator with thousands of units can satisfy your client’s requirements better than an operator with hundreds of units. In this case, big tends to be better than small.

Posting

Did the right paper get on the right unit at the right time? comb offers an ongoing monitoring service known as ‘popeye’. This is done for comb members in most markets. But the wonderful people at comb also provide a campaign ‘Proof of Performance’ audit service for your client at very reasonable rates.

Posting timing is critical. There is no point advertising a special price offer if the deal has expired.

Follow-up

Ah, now that’s a great unit over there. Just the right angle and height. You can see it for blocks. It is illuminated and has an above-average traffic count. It is located where you want it. But wait: last month’s poster is peering through the middle of this month’s! A tear in the fabric of space!

This problem has a seasonal skew, so blame the weather, not the operator. But blame the operator if it doesn’t get fixed within 48 hours. Make sure a 1-800 number is available to call.

That completes our drive. Now it’s time to recap.

The medium is changing rapidly, so stay awake. Operators have helpful planning tools and research studies: use them. Buy early, negotiate hard and understand the medium’s seasonality of supply and demand. Pay attention to location quality issues like illumination, location to store, traffic counts and facing direction. Pay attention to Proof of Performance audits, because the best-laid plan can go awry if posted on the wrong week. And finally, make sure the operator is responsive to paper wear and tear.

Remember: Planning. Buying. Location Quality. Posting. Follow-up.