Route, the audience research body for out-of-home has released the first ever set of audience figures for advertising sites across the rail network, showing rail advertising delivers over a billion impacts a week.
The rail audience data joins existing figures for roadside, bus and London Underground, launched in February this year. It includes 70,000 new sites at 775 stations. In addition to JCDecaux and CBS Outdoor, contractors Build, KBH On-Train Media and T4media are added to the media owners represented with this new release.
Rail audience figures are created by a ground-breaking approach that combines GPS data, passenger data, observational research and recall work to build a station model which flows people virtually through stations. This complex system allows for circulation around the space and visits to points of interest, such as restaurants and shops, en route to platforms. For example, there are over 50,000 alternative ways to pass through London Victoria.
It is the most complex integrated model of its kind for a UK medium, using ‘big data’ passenger count sources alongside tailored analysis to best understand outdoor audiences in the rail environment.
The data will allow planners to compare and combine audiences across different environments, and formats including digital.
James Whitmore, managing director at Route said: “We're delighted to be launching data for the rail network. It's really tricky to work out how to track people as they move around labyrinthine spaces such as the large station termini. The solution is highly sophisticated. Importantly, it also offers the scope to adapt to changes yet to come”.
Spencer Berwin, Managing Director – Sales at JCDecaux said: “This is the first time that Rail has been included in Route and is a milestone moment. The rail audience is currently a massive 1.5 billion journeys a year and is forecast to grow by a further 400 million journeys a year by 2020. At the same time, the rail environment has been transformed as stations have become retail and travel hubs. Route will not only tell us that an audience of 2 million pass through Waterloo each week, but will also reveal where their journey began – whether that’s from London boroughs such as Kingston or the affluent Surrey commuter belt. By defining and understanding the rail audience, brands will benefit from even more effective and innovative media planning, part of a new era for Outdoor advertising.”
Gordon Evans, COO at T4media said: “This is a very exciting announcement for both T4media and the out-of-home industry, delivering detailed audience estimates for the rail environment. Route will prove an excellent aid to planners and advertisers measuring our niche media against other outdoor media formats.”
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