A stochastic approach to assessing exposure levels of outdoor media using travel survey data

The success of outdoor media lies in their exposure levels to the passing public, which, in turn, depend considerably on their placement and location. While it is commonsense to place these media along busy transport routes or public congregation points, such as subway stations and shopping centres, measuring the effectiveness of these media has been a challenge. One of the vexing issues concerning such measurements is the resource-intensive data collection process involved. Because of the prevalence of travel surveys in most major cities around the world, this paper contends that a cost-efficient way to assessing the exposure levels of outdoor advertising is to derive them by locating the positions of travellers using travel survey data. It proposes a stochastic approach to assess the spatio-temporal distribution of travellers over a 24 hour-period. Using data from the Victorian Activity and Travel Survey, this paper demonstrates how travel survey data could provide useful information on the size and profile of the general public exposed to outdoor advertising media placed in different parts of Melbourne¿s Centre Business District. The illustration underscores the value of the method in generating the much sought-after exposure data to develop models to measure outdoor media spatial targeting capability.