Audience Measurement for Transit Advertising - Transportation

142 Pages·2012·2.19 MB·English

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This work was sponsored by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA)
in cooperation with the Transit Development Corporation. It was
conducted through the Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP),
which is administered by the Transportation Research Board (TRB) of
the National Academies.

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

Authors herein are responsible for the authenticity of their materials and
for obtaining written permissions from publishers or persons who own
the copyright to any previously published or copyrighted material used
herein.

Cooperative Research Programs (CRP) grants permission to reproduce
material in this publication for classroom and not-for-profit purposes.
Permission is given with the understanding that none of the material
will be used to imply TRB, AASHTO, FAA, FHWA, FMCSA, FTA,
Transit Development Corporation, or AOC endorsement of a particular
product, method, or practice. It is expected that those reproducing the
material in this document for educational and not-for-profit uses will
give appropriate acknowledgment of the source of any reprinted or
reproduced material. For other uses of the material, request permission
from CRP.

DISCLAIMER

The opinions and conclusions expressed or implied in this report are
those of the researchers who performed the research. They are not
necessarily those of the Transportation Research Board, the National
Research Council, or the program sponsors.

The information contained in this document was taken directly from the
submission of the author(s). This material has not been edited by TRB.
The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific
and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. On the
authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal
governmentonscientificandtechnicalmatters.Dr.RalphJ.CiceroneispresidentoftheNationalAcademyofSciences.
TheNationalAcademyofEngineeringwasestablishedin1964,underthecharteroftheNationalAcademyofSciences,asaparallel
organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the
National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also
sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior
achievementsofengineers.Dr.CharlesM.VestispresidentoftheNationalAcademyofEngineering.
The InstituteofMedicinewas established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members
of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the
responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government
and, on its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Harvey V. Fineberg is president of the
InstituteofMedicine.
The NationalResearchCouncilwas organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of
science and technology with the Academy’s purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in
accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the
National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and
the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine.
Dr.RalphJ.CiceroneandDr.CharlesM.Vestarechairandvicechair,respectively,oftheNationalResearchCouncil.
TheTransportationResearchBoardisoneofsixmajordivisionsoftheNationalResearchCouncil.ThemissionoftheTransporta-
tionResearchBoardistoprovideleadershipintransportationinnovationandprogressthroughresearchandinformationexchange,
conducted within a setting that is objective, interdisciplinary, and multimodal. The Board’s varied activities annually engage about
7,000engineers,scientists,andothertransportationresearchersandpractitionersfromthepublicandprivatesectorsandacademia,
allofwhomcontributetheirexpertiseinthepublicinterest.Theprogramissupportedbystatetransportationdepartments,federal
agenciesincludingthecomponentadministrationsoftheU.S.DepartmentofTransportation,andotherorganizationsandindividu-
alsinterestedinthedevelopmentoftransportation.www.TRB.org
www.national-academies.org
CONTENTS 

LIST OF APPENDICES ............................................................................................. iii 
LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................ iv 
LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................... iv 
AUTHOR ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................... v 
ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................... v 
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .......................................................................................... vii 
CHAPTER 1  BACKGROUND .................................................................................... 1 
PROBLEM STATEMENT ................................................................................................. 1 
STATE‐OF‐THE‐PRACTICE SCOPE OF WORK ................................................................. 2 
Comprehensive Review of Current Systems ............................................................................. 2 
Interview Media Buyer/Planners and Sellers ........................................................................... 2 
REVIEW OF GLOBAL TRANSIT AUDIENCE MEASUREMENT PRACTICES ...................... 3 
Spain .......................................................................................................................................... 3 
Netherlands............................................................................................................................... 4 
Finland ....................................................................................................................................... 4 
Switzerland ................................................................................................................................ 4 
Australia .................................................................................................................................... 5 
Ireland ....................................................................................................................................... 5 
United Kingdom ........................................................................................................................ 6 
Summary and Key Insights ........................................................................................................ 7 
GLOBAL STANDARDS FOR OUT‐OF‐HOME AUDIENCE MEASUREMENT ..................... 7 
DATA COLLECTION PRACTICES AMONG U.S. TRANSIT AUTHORITIES.......................... 8 
Fleet and System Data .............................................................................................................. 8 
Passenger Volume Data Collection ........................................................................................... 9 
Ridership Surveys ...................................................................................................................... 9 
CURRENT U.S. TRANSIT ADVERTISING AUDIENCE MEASUREMENT PRACTICES ....... 10 
TEAM (Daniel Mallett Associates) ........................................................................................... 10 
Ridership (APTA or Transit Authority) .................................................................................... 11 
Out‐of‐Home Ratings (Traffic Audit Bureau) .......................................................................... 11 
i
Digital OOH Audience Measurement Guidelines (DPAA) ....................................................... 11 
Market Data (Scarborough) .................................................................................................... 11 
Summary and Key Insights ...................................................................................................... 12 
CURRENT U.S. TRANSIT MEDIA BUYING AND SELLING PRACTICES........................... 12 
Transit Media Buyer/Planner Survey ...................................................................................... 12 
Transit Media Buyer/Planner Interviews ................................................................................ 13 
Transit Media Sales Contractor Survey ................................................................................... 14 
Transit Media Sales Executive Interviews ............................................................................... 14 
Summary ................................................................................................................................. 16 
FEASIBILITY OF A U.S. TRANSIT MEDIA AUDIENCE MEASUREMENT SYSTEM ........... 16 
CHAPTER 2  RESEARCH APPROACH ................................................................. 19 
WORK PLAN SUMMARY ............................................................................................. 19 
Develop Fieldwork Plan .......................................................................................................... 19 
Fieldwork and Data Collection ................................................................................................ 19 
Develop Audience Measurement Algorithms ........................................................................ 20 
Refine Needed Data Resources .............................................................................................. 22 
Conduct Follow‐Up Consultation ............................................................................................ 22 
THREE‐MARKET FIELD TEST ....................................................................................... 22 
Background ............................................................................................................................. 22 
Purpose and Scope of Fieldwork and Data Collection ............................................................ 23 
Bus Exterior Exposure Observations ....................................................................................... 24 
Passenger Origin‐Destination Intercept Surveys .................................................................... 26 
EYE‐TRACKING PILOT STUDY ...................................................................................... 28 
Background ............................................................................................................................. 28 
Purpose and Scope.................................................................................................................. 30 
Study Design ........................................................................................................................... 30 
CHAPTER 3  FINDINGS AND APPLICATIONS .................................................. 37 
OPPORTUNITY‐TO‐SEE METRICS ............................................................................... 37 
Opportunity to See Surface Vehicle Exterior Advertising ....................................................... 38 
Opportunity to See Rider‐Targeted Advertising ..................................................................... 54 
ANALYSIS OF EYE‐TRACKING PILOT STUDY RESULTS ................................................. 62 
ii
Analysis of Video Camera Technique ...................................................................................... 62 
Analysis of Eye Camera Technique ......................................................................................... 64 
REACH‐FREQUENCY‐DEMOGRAPHICS ....................................................................... 66 
SUMMARY OF DATA NEEDS ....................................................................................... 66 
Surface Vehicle Exterior OTS .................................................................................................. 67 
Internal Transit System OTS .................................................................................................... 70 
CHAPTER 4  CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS .............................. 73 
INDUSTRY CONSULTATION ......................................................................................... 73 
CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES .......................................................................... 74 
EYE‐TRACKING STUDY CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ........................... 75 
RECOMMENDED TRANSIT MODEL IMPLEMENTATION PLAN ................................... 77 
Stewardship and Funding ....................................................................................................... 77 
Surface Vehicle Exterior OTS .................................................................................................. 78 
Rider‐Targeted Media OTS ...................................................................................................... 81 
Converting OTS (Opportunity to See) to LTS (Likelihood to See) ........................................... 83 
REFERENCES ........................................................................................................... 86 
ABBREVIATIONS AND GLOSSARY OF TERMS ................................................. 87 

LIST OF APPENDICES* 
Appendix A –Sample of U.S. Transit Authority Data Availability .............................................................. A‐1 
Appendix B – Description of TAB Out‐of‐Home Ratings Audience Research ............................................ B‐1 
Appendix H – Transit Advertising OTS Worksheets .................................................................................. H‐1 

*Note: The following appendices are available on the TRB web site by searching for TCRP Web‐Only 
Document 57. 
Appendix C – Transit Media Buyer/Planner Survey Responses 
Appendix D – Transit Media Buyer/Planner Interview Responses 
Appendix E – Transit Media Sales Contractor Survey Responses 
Appendix F – Peoplecount Origin‐Destination Survey Questionnaire 
Appendix G – Peoplecount Origin‐Destination Survey Responses 

iii
LIST OF TABLES 
Table 1:  Summary of Peoplecount Origin‐Destination Survey Program .................................................... 27 
Table 2:  Traffic and Pedestrian Components of Bus Exposure .................................................................. 39 
Table 3:  Modeled vs. Actual Opposing Direction Traffic on Six Bus Routes .............................................. 42 
Table 4:  Modeled vs. Actual Opposing Direction Traffic on Six Bus Routes .............................................. 43 
Table 5:  Observed Same‐Direction Traffic as Percent of Opposing Traffic ................................................ 44 
Table 6:  Estimation of Exposures to Cross‐Street Traffic ........................................................................... 45 
Table 7:  Summary of 2007 Pedestrian Study Areas ................................................................................... 47 
Table 8:  Pedestrian Density Categories ..................................................................................................... 48 
Table 9: Pedestrian Count Hourly Breakdown ............................................................................................ 49 
Table 10:  Noting Scores of Transit Media Using Video Camera Technique ............................................... 63 
Table 11:  Noting Scores of Transit Media Using Eye Camera Technique .................................................. 65 

LIST OF FIGURES 
Figure 1:  Summary of Survey Results from Atlanta Bus Route 5 ............................................................... 24 
Figure 2:  Summary of Survey Results from Atlanta Bus Route 110 ........................................................... 25 
Figure 3:  Summary of Survey Results from Chicago Bus Route 3 .............................................................. 25 
Figure 4:  Summary of Survey Results from Chicago Bus Route 66 ............................................................ 25 
Figure 5:  Summary of Survey Results from Portland Bus Route 20 ........................................................... 26 
Figure 6:  Summary of Survey Results from Portland Bus Route 72 ........................................................... 26 
Figure 7:  Mobile eye‐tracking camera used in EYE mall advertising test .................................................. 30 
Figure 8:  NY MTA Transit Route Used for Eye Tracking Studies ................................................................ 32 
Figure 9:  Survey Participant Wears Eye Camera Headgear on NYC MTA Bus ........................................... 36 
Figure 10:  Survey Participant Wears Eye Camera Headgear on NYC MTA Subway Platform .................... 36 
Figure 11:  OTS Traffic Streams Contributing to Bus Exterior Advertising Audience .................................. 40 
Figure 12:  Vehicle‐Mounted Cameras Record Mobile Pedestrian Counts ................................................ 46 
Figure 13:  Actual versus Modeled Pedestrian Volumes (Stationary Counts) ............................................ 48 
Figure 14:  Actual vs. Modeled Ped Count by Run ...................................................................................... 51 
Figure 15:  Actual vs. Modeled Ped Count by Travel Day ........................................................................... 51 

iv
AUTHOR ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
The research reported herein was performed under TCRP Project B‐39 by Peoplecount, a division of 
Transearch Group Inc. Kelly McGillivray, P.Eng., served as the project’s Principal Investigator and the 
primary author of the report.  Other authors of the report are Michael Latka and Evelyn Field of 
Peoplecount. 
Peoplecount acknowledges the guidance and assistance of the Traffic Audit Bureau for Media 
Measurement of New York, NY, along with its Transit Committee and Technical Committee.  Access to 
transit authorities for data collection was invaluable, and we acknowledge Atlanta’s MARTA, Chicago’s 
CTA and Portland, Oregon’s TriMet transit systems for permitting access to their systems as well as 
generous sharing of system data and information.  

ABSTRACT 
This report documents a study to develop a transit advertising audience measurement model or 
methodology and presents a recommended approach for measuring the Opportunity to See advertising 
displayed on the exteriors of buses and other surface transit vehicles, as well as internal transit 
advertising displayed inside buses, railcars and transit stations. Fieldwork was conducted in three transit 
systems: Atlanta’s MARTA, Chicago’s CTA and Portland, Oregon’s TriMet, including tracking of bus 
exposures to other vehicle occupants, and rider intercept surveys. The report presents a series of 
methodologies for each component of transit advertising (bus exteriors, bus interiors, railcar interiors, 
station concourses and station platforms). The described methodologies include equations, sample 
calculations and sample worksheets. In addition, an eye‐tracking study was conducted on the New York 
MTA subway and bus system to test two proposed approaches to estimating actual viewership scores. 
The report also presents a road map for full‐scale implementation of transit advertising audience 
measurement. 

v
vi
INTRODUCTION
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Sale of advertising in public transit facilities and vehicles is a nearly $1 billion industry generating
approximately $500 million annually to transit authorities. Yet transit advertising revenue (which is part
of the Out-of-Home category) represents approximately one-half of one percent of total U.S. ad
expenditures. The other 99.5 percent of advertising revenues goes to television, radio, billboards, the
internet, newspapers, magazines, and other media.
The American Public Transportation Association (APTA), as a service to its transit agency members,
has set out to boost transit’s share of national advertising expenditures. To assist with this effort, APTA
has established an ad revenue task force representing dozens of transit agencies throughout the
country. The goal of this task force is to increase transit advertising sales and revenue.
A key impediment to increasing transit advertising revenues is the lack of a credible audience
measurement system that can demonstrate the value of transit advertising to potential advertisers. The
implication is that the development of a transit audience measurement system would put transit on par
with more successful media such as television and radio in the eyes of advertisers and media planners.
These more lucrative media enjoy independent audience measurement systems that assure advertisers
and media buyers of credible audience reach and frequency information. Prospective advertisers rely
heavily on audience measurement information to decide where to advertise, to determine whether they
are reaching the target audience and to justify the cost effectiveness of their media purchases.
Research was needed to define and validate an audience measurement system for transit
advertising. The resulting research builds upon recent work that developed and tested an audience
measurement system for traditional out-of-home advertising such as billboards and transit shelters (i.e.,
the Traffic Audit Bureau’s “Out-of-Home Ratings”, formerly known as “Eyes On”).
This report documents the resulting study and analyses conducted by Peoplecount, with input from
the Traffic Audit Bureau for Media Measurement in an advisory capacity. Methods are developed for
measuring the various segments of transit advertising media, including bus exteriors, bus and railcar
interiors, and in-station advertising.
Around the world, the gold standard of out-of-home media metrics comprises three components:
• Opportunity-to-See (OTS) Measures – Accurate estimates of the entire universe of people who have
an opportunity to see the advertising medium. OTS metrics are derived independently from
audience-centric reach-frequency-demographic estimates and include some type of “traffic” count;
• Likelihood-to-See (LTS) Ratings – A “rating” or index expressing the average percentage of the OTS
audience that actually looks at the advertisement; and
vii
• Reach-Frequency-Demographic Ratings – The LTS audience is then expressed as the number of
unique individuals (Reach), the average number of times each individual sees the advertisement in a
given time period (Frequency), and a breakdown of the age, sex and other demographic
characteristics of this audience.
The methods developed in this report concentrate on the first of these three components: the
Opportunity to See. Furthermore, a pilot study of eye-tracking techniques was conducted to explore
the application of Likelihood-to-See ratings. The scope of the report confines itself to development of
practical methodologies and illustrative examples – actual audience ratings for transit media are not
developed.

FINDINGS
As the purpose of this study was to develop a “methodology” to measure transit advertising (i.e., a
series of algorithms or methods used to estimate the audience of various components of advertising
media displayed in public transit systems), the “Findings” are, in fact, the methodologies ultimately
recommended. Thus, we include an overview of the various methodologies in this Summary, but have
refrained from providing specific numbers, graphs, equations, fieldwork results or insights, as they are
documented in the main body of the report.
Peoplecount conducted fieldwork in three transit systems: Atlanta’s MARTA, Chicago’s CTA and
Portland, Oregon’s TriMet, including riding of buses and counting vehicles passing and being passed by
the bus, as well as 2,500 rider intercept surveys. These independently collected data, in addition to data
and information obtained from the transit authorities themselves, were compiled and analyzed to
develop and test specific methods to measure the audiences of each sector of transit advertising.
Opportunity to See Surface Vehicle Exterior Advertising
The term “surface vehicle exterior advertising” includes bus sides, bus backs, full bus wraps, light rail
or streetcar exteriors, and possibly train exteriors or wraps (if viewed from surface streets). The
audience of exterior bus advertising comprises:
• occupants of other vehicles and
• pedestrians on sidewalks.
Using the data collected in the field, Peoplecount developed algorithms to estimate advertising
exposures to pedestrians and occupants of other vehicles using known local data including Annual
Average Daily Traffic (AADT) volume, posted speed limit, road classification, known bus stop locations
and travel times. The final methodology is applied using the following approach:
viii