The businesses we partner with for growth expect more from OOH when it comes to measuring the impact and return of their marketing dollars. Gone are the days of simply accepting rudimentary or one-dimensional measures around campaign reach and delivery. These metrics are important, but must be evaluated alongside a deeper understanding of true customer engagement and impact.

BrandSpace is the in-house media and advertising division of Scentre Group, owner of 42 Westfield destinations across Australia and New Zealand.  We are driven by a simple but powerful mission. To connect customers to the brands and retailers they love, or would love to discover. As we navigate the evolving landscape of retail, media and marketing, we have revolutionised our measurement offering to challenge the industry on the conventional thinking that exists in this space. Partners require more knowledge on the performance campaigns, beyond mere visibility, to gain greater insight and provide more informed future decision making.

That has led to a significant focus for BrandSpace on the accountability of OOH measurement and reporting. In particular, bringing the precision of digital measurement to the physical world, addressing the notable absence of insight into campaign effectiveness and to combat misconceptions that Retail OOH measures are reliant on aggregated mobile data assumptions and inconsistent network measures.

This year, BrandSpace launch a -three-tiered approach to measurement that evaluates full funnel metrics, with greater insight into campaign effectiveness on Westfield customers at all stages of their journey. Focused on data precision, network consistency and accuracy, the measurement enhancements emphasise real time engagement, brand performance, and customer impact on sales.
 

Customer engagement reporting

Customer engagement reports are the first enhancement within the suite, and available for all campaigns running on the 100 per cent digital SmartScreen network. All 1600 plus BrandSpace SmartScreens across Australia and New Zealand, customer engagement reports measure real time engagement with each individual SmartScreen ad play, relying on actual viewer behaviour to deliver valuable insight into customer interest and intent.

Partners will now be able to analyse customer engagement as a metric for every campaign, derived from a composite of glances, dwell time and attention time based on views across the network within Westfield environments. The technology detects people anonymously using audience measurement and can determine the number of people passing a screen as well as approximate other attributes.  Findings are aggregated and analysed, offering a much richer understanding of performance measures, segmented by demographic, location and creative (launching imminently).

Partners can then form benchmarks and a robust view of the factors that drive effectiveness in OOH, including the impact of campaign length and scale, creative, formats, locations, targeting strategies and more.
 

A robust approach to methodology

In partnership with TalentFirst.ai, an industry leader in data and measurement solutions, a 12-month validation program ensued. Testing real campaigns, across multiple categories ensured we were developing a product that was scalable, fit for purpose, and most importantly solved the current gaps in OOH measurement. Working with the most important partners has shown that the insights surfaced can contribute more meaningfully to the decisions being made for ongoing marketing investments.

Lawrence Puang, Founder of TalentFirst.ai; “BrandSpace has made a courageous move to re-imagine the measurement standard for its partners. They spent a lot of time listening to the market, then executed a transformation program from the ground up to launch one of the most advanced measurement capabilities in the dOOH space – or even across other channels. The market should be really excited by this new standard.”  

The enhancements provide partners with the ability to understand the impact of their planning decisions on customer engagement, seeking to address ongoing debates behind the lead indicators for performance. Performance ambiguity linked to OOH channels no longer needs to be accepted, as partners can now rely on real campaign insights to make more informed decisions about their investments. Brands can compare one campaign to the next as easily as they plan and book them, making every opportunity one to learn from and provide partners with the necessary tools to optimise more effectively.
 

The collaboration with partners

A collaboration with media agency, Wavemaker, representing Paramount Pictures, following the release of Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One (MI7), showcased the enhanced reporting's richness and depth coupled with the brand uplift study.

“Through their new reporting capabilities, BrandSpace equipped my team with insights not previously available. Promoting Paramount Pictures’ MI7 campaign, and leveraging BrandSpace’s fully digital screen network, according to the study, the campaign experienced 2x higher spontaneous brand awareness and consideration than non-ad viewers.¹

 Moreover, engagement was reported to be 9% higher¹ in a specific destination compared to the benchmark. BrandSpace’s ability to discern which demographics, based on age and location, engaged most effectively with the creative content are already shaping our future campaign strategy through the utilization of BrandSpace's Planner IQ tool.” Peter Andrew, Group Director, Wavemaker

Positively, strong engagement has not been reserved for Paramount. Across all campaigns tested in BETA phase there was a high level of engagement, prompting the development of granularity to benchmarking, ths initiative forms part of BrandSpace’s future pipeline of enhancements."
 

Stay tuned for more.

In addition and also available now are enhancements to Brand Uplift reporting, uncovering the brand impact on individual customers through survey methodology, utilising Westfield’s community research fused with Westfield’s membership database to compare measures of awareness and consideration on action post campaign. What's unique about this capability is that we only survey customers we know were in destination when the campaign was live, offering a degree of accuracy unrivalled in OOH measurement.

Rounding out the suite is the Customer Impact Report, which will provide brands with insight into how their campaign impacted sales and most significantly how it impacted customer spending behaviour. In conjunction with a new data partnership soon to be announced, this capability is currently being tested with select partners and will be released in coming months.

These advancements follow the recent announcement of Scentre Group’s FY23 results, which demonstrated Scentre Group’s commitment and success in driving more people, more often and for longer across their 42 Westfield destinations. Read the Group’s latest results here.

Source 1: BrandSpace SmartScreen Audience Analytics, Westfield Customer Research – Paramount Mission Impossible Research Study 2023

_{Scentre Shopping Centre Management Pty Limited and its Related Bodies Corporate (as that term is defined in the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth)) and their employees and agents (Scentre Group) have produced the information set out in this document. This document and its contents are provided in good faith and is believed to be correct as at October 2023. However, you should make your own enquiries and obtain your own advice about your participation in the BrandSpace Network and you must satisfy yourself as to the correctness of the information set out in this document. Where noted, Scentre Group has sourced information from third parties, including through surveys commissioned by Scentre Group and its partners, and other public and private sources. While such sources are believed to be correct as at the date of this document, this data may not have been independently verified by Scentre Group employees and Scentre Group makes no representation as to the accuracy of such information. This document does not constitute any offer, warranty, or representation as to the profitability or performance of any shopping centre owned or operated by Scentre Group, any other premises, media assets or any part the BrandSpace Network. Any forecasts or results referred to or set out in this document may be affected by a number of unforeseen circumstances and no assurances can be given that these forecasts or results will be achieved. Any retailers, additional services, specific screen placement or impact, depiction of retail usage or category of retailers represented are for illustrative purposes only and do not constitute any representation as to the final location for activity or performance of any campaign. You are strongly recommended to obtain your own legal, business and financial advice in relation to your involvement in the BrandSpace Network, including any physical or digital space in a shopping centre owned or operated by Scentre Group. You should not act on any information supplied to you in this document without first obtaining that advice. Except for any liability which cannot by law be excluded, Scentre Group is not liable or otherwise responsible for any loss or damage (whether from negligence or otherwise) suffered as a result of any decision  that you may make to act on the information contained in this document.}