Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief
The Indian Outdoor Advertising Association (IOAA) has devised its first-ever unified audience measurement system for the outdoor industry named RoadStar.
Based on GPS, RoadStar has been developed by Mumbai-based firm Relu AI. The software, first launched by the firm back in 2020, is already being used by some media owners such as the Times and Jagran groups.
Praveen Vadhera, CEO of the IOAA was quoted as saying “We have started working on upgrading the tool. Hopefully, RoadStar will get an official stamp of AAAI by the end of this month. The Roadster has been developed based on the consultation with stakeholders and their feedback at various steps. It covers 800+ markets in India till Taluka level. It provides impressions and profiles of consumers exposed to more than 63,000 outdoor media properties across India”.
In consultation with the IOAA it has been upgraded further over the last year. The IOAA presented the tool before the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) on May 8 for their feedback and approval, howevere while most of the advertising agencies hailed the software, GroupM and Rapport have reportedly raised concerns related to data safety and legal contracts associated with the system.
Sources said that “Rapport wanted clarity on certain legal bindings related to data safety. To address that, a copy of the legal contract was shared with AAAI members soon after the meeting. GroupM seeks to consult its IT team to streamline their privacy protocol with the one associated with RoadStar”.
IOAA is the national body of Outdoor Media owners with more than 80% of top out-of-home media owners and over 220 members across India. At present, outdoor players are using their own measurement and data privacy protocols to analyze the effectiveness of campaigns.
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