COMB Software Makes (D)OOH Easier To Plan/Buy/Sell
Gail Chiasson, North American Editor
In light of the Canadian Out-of-Home Measurement Bureau releasing new software for planners, buyers and sellers of out-of-home and digital out-of-home advertising media this week, we interviewed Karen Best, COMB president to learn more about it.
The COMB Data Report now resides on more than 1,000 Canadian media industry desktops, enabling users to quickly see the complete perspective of COMB-approved OOH media products across the country.
Planners can choose from over 250 markets, 38 indoor and outdoor OOH products, and 16 OOH media companies, collectively representing close to 80,000 outdoor and indoor advertising faces or screens.
“It includes digital OOH inventory from Pattison, Astral, Zoom, Newad, EC Boone and WMC Digital, six of the total 16 OOH companies included in the report,” says Best.
The data uses mainly audience size methodology, largely traffic count, which is relatively simplistic, but the best available. Delacan is subcontracted to help gather data for the outdoor products. Company individual data is heavily vetted by an industry technical committee.
“The data deployed is really handy as to who has what, where and in what format,” says Best. “When we report, we group product types together. For example, in digital outdoor, we have four groupings: digital 10s (10’ x up to 35’); digital 14s (14’x 48’); vertical spectaculars (32’ x 20’); and video boards.”
Indoor products are similarly grouped – eg. digital place-based screens in restaurant washrooms and changing rooms are grouped as ‘classics’. It makes them easy for a planner to locate, no matter whether they are products of Zoom or Newad.
“Only the 16 COMB members are included in the report, but we know that there are more DOOH companies in the market and we hope that they will become COMB members and could then be included,” says Best. “It’s a matter of time.”
Follow DailyDOOH