Gail Chiasson, North American Editor
Rob Winston, head of The Winston Group LLC, will be one of three speakers on the ‘soapbox’ giving short 15 minute talks right after lunch at The DailyDOOH Investor Conference Wednesday, October. 22, 2014 in New York.
ex-Arbitron Rob Winston will be on his ‘soapbox’ in New York
And if you are an investor being approached to help fund any type of a network now or in the future, Winston, who spent more than 20 years with Nielsen, has some solid advice for you: “Push for measurements and analytics.”
“There are five steps investors have to look for,” says Winston. “The first two are, of course, clear objectives and ROI measures clearly defined. But then there are three steps the investor really needs to look for.
“Step one is pre-deployment research. You must have solid research on the potential audience; how they will use the environment; how often they’ll use it, why and where. You need to know the behaviour of the audience. And you’ll need to know, if the network is to be ad driven, how big the audience will be for the ads, how you will monetize.
“This information will all help determine how to design the execution: the number of screens, dwell time, the physical deployment, the content, plus audience effectiveness and sale-ability. If you don’t have this information, you are taking a shot in the dark.”
Winston says that step two is definitely the pilot project. “This will give you an idea of any potential fatal flaws, in the technology, in the content, what works or perhaps doesn’t. If your content isn’t what the audience wants, this is the time you’ll see it before you do a full deployment. You’ll see any red flags.
“And step three is after the first full deployment. You’ll want to measure engagement effectiveness. You’ll want to see how the audience is using the screens. Then you can also look at the idea of growth, of possible expansion into new locations or into new sectors, or into new additions to the screens synch as interactivity, mobile, social.”
Winston advises that investors demand all these things. And as much as providing all the measurement will cost the network money, investors would be wise to push for it at each step.
Follow DailyDOOH