Steven Keith Platt, Director, Platt Retail Institute, Hinsdale, IL continues to believe that the long-term prospects for the Digital Communications Network (“DCN”) industry are outstanding. “As the industry matures, each deployment success and failure leads to a greater understanding of short and long-term sector deployment prospects. For instance, while the outlook for deployment in governmental applications is outstanding, recent events indicate that such opportunities will not mature for a long time. Similarly, we have advocated that traditional advertising messages will not work in the vast majority of retail environments, whereas promotional content does. As a result of this ad model focus, the uptake for various retail applications is lagging. On the other hand, such advertising can be successful in various out-of-home (“OOH”) environments. Due to this and other factors, DCN deployments in the OOH market are accelerating. “
As a result of this strong level of activity in the OOH industry, the Platt Retail Institute (“PRI”) will be undertaking two major research projects in this sector. The first, the seventh major Working Paper from PRI, investigates a mall-based DCN. Their second investigation into the OOH market looks at a DCN in a transit environment (PRI Working Paper #8).
In Working Paper #7, PRI measures the impact of a DCN on shopping behavior in a mall. The underlying research for this study was conducted in the UK. This Working Paper is scheduled for release during the fourth quarter of 2007.
In Working Paper #8, PRI redefines how digital transit OOH ads are measured. By way of background, consider that mass media advertising has tended to focus on the concept of message exposure to achieve a desired level of awareness. Exposure, in turn, focuses upon a message’s reach (the number of persons exposed), and frequency (how often the message is viewed). In regard to OOH media, measurement of exposure has revolved around traffic counts and medium visibility. In PRI’s research, they will redefine exposure of digital transit OOH for both media measurement and pricing purposes by adding the component of impact (looking at the screen and the length of viewing time). Thus, they can then redefine exposure to include reach, frequency and impact. This Working Paper has an anticipated release set for the second quarter of 2008.
For more information, contact Steven Keith Platt, skp@plattretailinstitute.org; Phone: 630-920-1844
