Keeping an eye outdoors

In spite of being an unregulated and immeasurable medium, the outdoor industry has shown tremendous growth in India. The industry faces a lack of monitoring agencies, which makes it impossible to judge its effectiveness. Advertisers tend to rely on word of mouth and gut feel. They no longer need to do that, for Proof of Performance, a media monitoring company based in Singapore and operating in countries such as Malaysia and the Philippines, launched its services in India seven months ago.

Proof of Performance (POP) offers monitoring services to ensure that an outdoor ad which has been paid for is exposed to the audience as promised, at the location where it should be, visible as it should be and free from defects.

One defect that often needs monitoring is partial illumination or no illumination at night. Other direct defects that are noticed and reported are wrinkles and tears in the flex. The negative impact on a brand due to such defects can be easily avoided through monitoring.

Aditya Mathur, head, operations, Proof of Performance, tells afaqs!, “Monitoring outdoor campaigns is totally different from monitoring campaigns for television or print. The observer needs to be physically present on the site. Outdoor is a nascent industry in India and there are chances of goof-ups because of the outsourcing system that is rampant here.”

Mathur adds, “Sometimes, agencies may give a wrong picture of the status of an outdoor campaign to the client. There are even times when both the brand and the agency sign up for our monitoring service for the same campaign. We at Proof of Performance ensure complete accountability and trust for our clients.”

POP enters into a non-disclosure contract with its clients, including brands, ad agencies and market research organisations. The clients provide information on the location and time period for which the monitoring is to be done. Usually, clients choose to get the sites monitored for the entire duration of a campaign.

POP sends out dedicated teams to the sites with a customised monitoring system in place according to the client’s needs. In India, POP's staff comprises 18 people in operations and 23 people in ground staff.

The reports are sent across to the client via email. The client also has the option of account login on the POP website, wherein he can access the report directly. The cost of the service depends on the number of sites to be monitored, the location and the duration of the contract.

Monitoring ensures that the client gets value for money and that the ad reaches the audience as envisaged and paid for.

For the record, Proof of Performance operates in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. It plans to start operations in Hyderabad and Pune in a fortnight's time.