For years, the media industry considered out of home advertising the blunt instrument of the media mix. Planners bought giant billboards and hoped people drove past. Those days are officially over.
MOVE 2.0 has finally launched. The new $20 million measurement tool leaves its cage to shift the industry from simply buying panels to genuinely understanding people.
In the latest edition of the Mediaweek Newsmakers podcast, Elizabeth McIntyre, chief executive officer of the Outdoor Media Association and MOVE, joins Brittany Crowley, national head of investment at Universal McCann, to unpack the reality of the release.
Elizabeth McIntyre, CEO of Outdoor Media Association and MOVE. Image: supplied
From panels to people
The industry built MOVE 2.0 over five years. The creators designed the platform to standardize an increasingly complex sector.
As McIntyre explains in the episode, the tool now accounts for formats you cannot even hold in your hand. It measures everything from classic roadside billboards and transit to digital screens in cafes, gyms, and doctor surgeries.
“We are moving from a world of counting screens to a world of understanding human mobility,” McIntyre says. “This is about giving agencies the confidence that when they invest in out of home, they know exactly who they are reaching and how those people are moving through their days.”
For media planners, this presents a major transition. Crowley notes that agencies have moved from simply picking locations on a map to tracking actual human behavior, mobility, and dwell times. The new system allows agencies to plug the data directly into their own planning tools to drive smarter business outcomes.
“It completely shifts the conversation,” Crowley notes. “We no longer just talk about location and reach. We can now look at the nuance of how audiences interact with different formats at different times, which fundamentally changes how we build campaigns for our clients.”
Brittany Crowley, national head of investment at Universal McCann. Image: supplied
Hundreds of billions of rows of data
The sheer scale of the platform staggers the mind. To build MOVE 2.0, researchers collated an astronomical 600 billion rows of data. To be fair, it’s also been reported as 400 billion. But really, no matter how you cut it- that’s a lot of data.
To make sense of it all, the system utilizes an incredible simulation. It layers ABS data, public transport taps, and mobility tracking to model synthetic Australians who mimic real population movements.
Crucially, the creators included regional areas and seasonal shifts in the core measurement for the very first time. This means agencies can finally see how audience movements change during summer holidays versus the middle of winter. The insight gives planners the confidence to test and learn with fresh data.
The ultimate industry collaboration
Perhaps the most impressive feat involves the collaboration behind the scenes. In a fiercely competitive market, rival out of home providers agreed to pool their resources, fund the research, and build a unified system.
Both McIntyre and Crowley agree that this united front brings a new level of transparency and rigor to the channel.
Oh, and Crowley (I like to call her ‘The Notorious B.R.C.’) wraps up the episode with a custom out-of-home rap.
Yes. A rap. You really need to hear it. Trust me on this.
Listen to the full episode of Newsmakers below.