Automation in Outdoor Advertising

Prologue

Outdoor Advertising also known as Out-of-Home (OOH) Advertising is the oldest and the most effective form of advertising. Of course, that is a subjective matter but as an informatics and software company, we at Hashbrown Systems, more or less hold that belief.

If there was a truly distributed form of advertising, that also depended upon hundreds of microservices to deliver one great campaign, it was OOH Advertising. Unlike, TV, Radio or Internet – where the medium is centrally controlled, outdoor is well, for lack of better word, totally decentralized.

Even today for a nationwide campaign of a major multinational white-goods brand, the definitions and guidelines for Planning, Execution, Monitoring, and Audit are as loose as a clown’s pockets.

Not to mention the variable, ad-hoc pricing of Outdoor Media and the big elephant in the room, Pilferage.

This is a small tale of remarkable achievements at Hashbrown Systems. A story of technological innovation and application of mind, analysis, machine learning, and Artificial Intelligence.

Introducing Hashbrown Systems

It is important to know and understand how Hashbrown Systems is slowly and steadily becoming a phenomenal part of outdoor advertising industry in India. When it comes to Location or Spatial Intelligence, we are the pioneers of the industry. But do not take our word for it, the user is behooved to read this particular case study on Outdoor Compliance and Media Monitoring - click here

And take a gander at this chart below.

*Brands were indirectly related to Hashbrown by way of agencies.

** Numbers are higher and data has been verified by one of the big four.

*** The accounting firm audits our data and processes on behalf of our client, which is a media agency.

The numbers presented are verifiable and we have erred on the side of caution, which means that the real numbers are probably higher.

Understanding Automation in Outdoor Advertising & Marketing

Simply put, Automation is a technology by which a process is performed with human minimal assistance. And Automation works of standards and outdoor advertising simply doesn’t. It works on hearsay, it works on goodwill, it works on approximation and it works on trust or lack thereof.

The industry does not pride itself in employing reliable sources of information, neither reliable processes for verification, planning, execution or audit. Everything is and has been arbitrary and there is disproportional dependence on the goodness and kindness of the heart of media owners and agencies alike.

Hashbrown Systems broke its bones in monitoring and reporting and that is where we introduced intelligent, location aware, innovative, yet intuitive mobile applications in the field to monitor media.

First step was merely monitoring but by employing vision from Hashbrown Systems’ Artificial Intelligence library, reporting happened instantaneously. From the images, we were able to verify

• - Location & Address, City, State
• - Time and Date
• - Quality of the Media
• - Clarity of Message

Brand Managers were in constant contact with their campaigns.

We added validations, controls, and tamper-proof processes and added compliance where none existed before.

Planning with Numbers

If you contact the outdoor advertising sphere, you will find a total lack of numbers, or should I say numbers that can be verified by way of science or statistics. Planning is arbitrary and judgmental, so is pricing but we will come to that later.

At Hashbrown, we are rebels and misfits but also pioneers. We started collecting data of all kinds, of people, of business, literacy, demography, and then classified and segmented to better understand and identify the target groups and provide a precampaign estimate on overall reach in terms of numbers of views, impressions and in some cases interactions.

Our soon to be released planning tool – “Compass’ will make life easier for brand executives, agencies and auditors.

This case study on Compass makes for an informative read - click here

Campaign Execution

After planning, cometh execution and here we deploy one of the finest software ever conceived by mankind – the humble Microsoft Excel.
A single step of uploading an excel file – propagates information to all stake holders – media owners, agents, field auditors and auditors instantly.
Total activity is tracked and reported as per the rules and requirements set by the brands or agency.

Smart Cameras

Hashbrown has designed, manufactured and programmed smart cameras that transmit on ground data to the server. The device, still in alpha stage, has started transmitting pertinent data, samples can be seen here –

The device identifies and counts the vehicles and as we develop it further, intelligent insights can be gleaned about the various locations, where media is installed.

The meaning of it all

To Hashbrown Systems, this is an ideal step towards creating smarter, more intelligent products. This is something we have striven to do, but for the industry it would be a couple of things but mostly,

Higher allocation of marketing budget into outdoor advertising.

Standardization of process would boost profitability for all stake holders, especially media agencies.

Non-arbitral pricing would also ensure appropriate dispersion of funds and higher reach.

Zero Pilferage or Identification of theft brings greater transparency and breeds trust.

Numbers, above all ensures that Brand Managers are able to present their case with panache.

Epilogue

Hashbrown has developed a suite of applications that can perform data analysis, resource allocation, generate campaign and audit reports, and provide performance analytics.

Watch this space as we shall share more about our out-of-home journey, you are always welcome to contact us to acquire more information about our products, applications and capabilities.