OVAB to publish guide to audience measurement metrics

The Out-of-Home Video Advertising Bureau (OVAB) is preparing to release a document that it hopes will standardize the numbers and the language used by screen networks, research providers and ad agencies.

The 82-page "Audience Metrics Guidelines" will be publicly released at OVAB's Digital Media Summit, being held Oct. 29 at The Grand Hyatt in New York City.

Suzanne Alecia, president of OVAB

Alecia said the guidelines are not only a tool for measuring the effectiveness of digital signage campaigns, they also provide buyers with the ability to compare those campaigns to other, more traditional media.

"It's unprecedented," she said. "For an organization as young as we are to be able to come to a consensus about what these metrics are, really shows how eager the industry is to work together to come up with solutions. We're very proud of the fact that as a young emerging industry, we've leapfrogged into establishing some of these guidelines early on."

The guide was written with the assistance of OVAB's agency advisory board, which is made up of 32 executives from 25 major ad agencies. Alecia said the group also worked with 17 third-party research companies in devising the standards.

"(This is) our first leapfrog into the traditional media machine, if you will," she said.