- TORONTO and MONTREAL, CANADA--CognoVision Solutions and BroadSign have integrated their reporting modules into CognoVision’s Anonymous Impression Metric (AIM) Analytics system to offer a first-of-its-kind joint application that measures campaign effectiveness based on audience numbers, viewer behaviour, and ad-triggered actions. The AIM Campaign Analytics service is now available to all marketers advertising on BroadSign-powered networks.
The integrated campaign analytics platform has been field-tested since February 2009 at two grocery stores in the Greater Toronto area, on 25 screens operated by The Marketplace Station. CognoVision’s AIM system processes the data feed from the optical sensors embedded in the screens and generates anonymous viewership statistics. The aggregated data is then correlated with proof-of-play reports from the BroadSign network management software using CognoVision’s web-based analytics tool, which is consistent with the Out-of-home Video Advertising Bureau’s (OVAB) Audience Metrics Guidelines. The reports generated in real time provide insights regarding what specific ads were seen, how long each ad was watched for, and viewer gender breakdown for each ad.
“The combination of our analytics application and BroadSign’s proof-of-play data opens up unprecedented opportunities for marketers to gauge the effect of almost every ad dollar invested in a digital signage campaign,” said Haroon Mirza, Director of Business Development at CognoVision. “By using our system, both network operators and advertisers can eliminate a significant amount of guesswork from campaign creation. They will see what content works better, what ad slot length is more effective, how long the loop should be for maximal impact, and can adjust other critical parameters. The audience data can also be processed against pointof- sale records to correlate the digital signage campaigns with actual sales lift,” added Mirza.
“For years, the digital signage industry has been looking for a metric that quantifies advertising dollars spent against reach,” said Raji Kalra, Managing Director of The Marketplace Station. “Terms such as GRPs and CPM stem from traditional non-digital media and are diplomatic ways to express potential, not actual impressions. However, by combining CognoVision’s audience
2 metrics and BroadSign’s content playback reporting mechanism in a single application, we can
now extract true viewership statistics containing rich data that has been almost impossible to
obtain up until now,” said Kalra.
According to Mirza, the ability to gather campaign analytics on a continuous basis across all screens in a digital signage network, 24 hours per day provides instant insights about customer behaviour and campaign effectiveness at a fraction of the cost of traditional research methods.
