SPR+ station study shows reality with deliberate caution
The new station study by Swiss Poster Research Plus (SPR+) shows more contacts for 2,600 poster sites at railroad stations than for 35,000 street sites. However, SPR+ deliberately stacks the deck low - for both station and street sites, because the Affichage subsidiary focuses more on quality than quantity in its poster research. And also for the sake of its own credibility.
Rail for goods - and stations for billboard advertising. Based on the recently presented station study by Swiss Pos-ter Research Plus (SPR+), this advertising spot would be perfectly acceptable. At least if high OTS (opportunity to see) values are the main objective of a poster campaign. The fact is: according to the study, 60 percent of the approximately 2,600 poster sites in the 27 Swiss railroad stations surveyed generate at least 30,000 contacts per week, whereas only 48 percent of the 35,000 street sites in Switzerland achieve this figure. Moreover, top sites with over 100,000 contacts per week only account for 5 percent of road traffic sites, while 14 percent of railroad station sites fall into this category.
The station with the highest proportion (35%) of top sites is not Zurich's main station, but the one in Bern. In general, the poster sites there are very well positioned: 92 percent of the sites receive over 30,000 weekly contacts, in Geneva and Zurich stations the figures are 85 and 84 percent respectively, and in Basel 68 percent of all poster sites. Of course, the stations surveyed also include some with less well-positioned advertising spaces, such as Zug station, where 56% of the spaces achieve less than 15,000 contacts.
However, anyone familiar with the latest SBB figures will wonder whether SPR+ isn't understating things. After all, SBB is talking about 900,000 train passengers a day (or 6.3 million a week), each of whom comes into contact with several poster sites at at least two stations - not to mention the areas that can be seen en route.
In fact, unlike SBB, SPR+ only counts the contacts of people who live in the agglomeration of the station under investigation. For example, the study at Geneva station only included people who are at least 15 years old - and who also live in the Geneva agglomeration. Accordingly, poster contacts of children, foreign tourists and even all Swiss citizens who do not live in the agglomeration of the Rhone city were not taken into account.
Why this narrow definition of the target area? Because the station study is part of the overall SPR+ poster research. As you know, SPR+ has been providing the market with research data for billboards since the end of 2006, but so far only in the street area. This street study is based on the GPS-recorded routes of a random sample of 10,000 people throughout Switzerland. However, in view of the large number of people, poster sites and possible routes, it was not possible to carry out a representative survey for the entire Swiss population for cost reasons. From the outset, SPR+ had to limit itself to the 12 largest agglomerations and also split the survey into individual studies - one study per agglomeration. This meant that in Zurich, for example, only test subjects who also lived in the Zurich agglomeration were used. And as with the station study, only those journeys that were also made in Zurich were of interest. All others would not be representative enough. In other words: the posters actually achieve higher performance values, but SPR+ only shows the "guaranteed minimum".
Nevertheless, there was a gap in the street study: GPS devices do not receive satellite signals indoors, which is why SPR+ was unable to provide contact values for poster sites in train stations, parking lots or shopping centers. SPR+ therefore carried out a separate study, which examined the 27 most important train stations. To be more precise: 27 individual studies were also necessary here to ensure the link with the local road studies. Additional studies for other train stations and shopping centers are to follow at a later date.
The 27 station studies were carried out according to a uniform pattern, which is to be demonstrated at Zurich main station: SPR+ created a route model for each station, showing all turning options (nodes) and route sections. At Zurich Main Station, this includes 147 route sections and 121 turning options as well as 69 special locations such as restaurants, stores and meeting points. Frequency counts were then carried out at all station entrances, platform entrances and other important passages - a total of 2,100 individual counts were made on 46 percent of the routes at Zurich main station. The total counting time between September and December 2008 amounted to 2,431 hours. Because the people counted could not be differentiated according to place of residence, language assimilation and age, the frequencies had to be "adjusted" on the basis of statistical data. They were then extrapolated to the usual weekly frequencies in outdoor advertising. The Munich-based Fraunhofer Institute also used a sophisticated procedure to calculate weekly frequencies for the sections of the route that were not counted.
The next step was to link the Zurich station study with the Zurich street study. This was possible because the GPS recordings showed which test person entered the main station, where they left it again and how long they stayed there. A plausible route was then assigned to each station visitor from the large number of possible routes in the main station. This made it clear, at least in the model, which poster sites they had passed. Similar to the street study, these contacts were weighted very strictly - according to distance, number of posters at the same location and direction of passage (frontal, parallel or away from the poster).
The reach values from the station study are now already integrated into the SPR+ planning tool, meaning that the evaluation of poster campaigns now takes into account not only street space, but also that of the 27 stations studied. However, the price integration of the station areas into the new SPR+-based APG tariff system will not take place until later.
Markus Knöpfli
The station with the highest proportion (35%) of top sites is not Zurich's main station, but the one in Bern. In general, the poster sites there are very well positioned: 92 percent of the sites receive over 30,000 weekly contacts, in Geneva and Zurich stations the figures are 85 and 84 percent respectively, and in Basel 68 percent of all poster sites. Of course, the stations surveyed also include some with less well-positioned advertising spaces, such as Zug station, where 56% of the spaces achieve less than 15,000 contacts.
However, anyone familiar with the latest SBB figures will wonder whether SPR+ isn't understating things. After all, SBB is talking about 900,000 train passengers a day (or 6.3 million a week), each of whom comes into contact with several poster sites at at least two stations - not to mention the areas that can be seen en route.
In fact, unlike SBB, SPR+ only counts the contacts of people who live in the agglomeration of the station under investigation. For example, the study at Geneva station only included people who are at least 15 years old - and who also live in the Geneva agglomeration. Accordingly, poster contacts of children, foreign tourists and even all Swiss citizens who do not live in the agglomeration of the Rhone city were not taken into account.
Why this narrow definition of the target area? Because the station study is part of the overall SPR+ poster research. As you know, SPR+ has been providing the market with research data for billboards since the end of 2006, but so far only in the street area. This street study is based on the GPS-recorded routes of a random sample of 10,000 people throughout Switzerland. However, in view of the large number of people, poster sites and possible routes, it was not possible to carry out a representative survey for the entire Swiss population for cost reasons. From the outset, SPR+ had to limit itself to the 12 largest agglomerations and also split the survey into individual studies - one study per agglomeration. This meant that in Zurich, for example, only test subjects who also lived in the Zurich agglomeration were used. And as with the station study, only those journeys that were also made in Zurich were of interest. All others would not be representative enough. In other words: the posters actually achieve higher performance values, but SPR+ only shows the "guaranteed minimum".
Nevertheless, there was a gap in the street study: GPS devices do not receive satellite signals indoors, which is why SPR+ was unable to provide contact values for poster sites in train stations, parking lots or shopping centers. SPR+ therefore carried out a separate study, which examined the 27 most important train stations. To be more precise: 27 individual studies were also necessary here to ensure the link with the local road studies. Additional studies for other train stations and shopping centers are to follow at a later date.
The 27 station studies were carried out according to a uniform pattern, which is to be demonstrated at Zurich main station: SPR+ created a route model for each station, showing all turning options (nodes) and route sections. At Zurich Main Station, this includes 147 route sections and 121 turning options as well as 69 special locations such as restaurants, stores and meeting points. Frequency counts were then carried out at all station entrances, platform entrances and other important passages - a total of 2,100 individual counts were made on 46 percent of the routes at Zurich main station. The total counting time between September and December 2008 amounted to 2,431 hours. Because the people counted could not be differentiated according to place of residence, language assimilation and age, the frequencies had to be "adjusted" on the basis of statistical data. They were then extrapolated to the usual weekly frequencies in outdoor advertising. The Munich-based Fraunhofer Institute also used a sophisticated procedure to calculate weekly frequencies for the sections of the route that were not counted.
The next step was to link the Zurich station study with the Zurich street study. This was possible because the GPS recordings showed which test person entered the main station, where they left it again and how long they stayed there. A plausible route was then assigned to each station visitor from the large number of possible routes in the main station. This made it clear, at least in the model, which poster sites they had passed. Similar to the street study, these contacts were weighted very strictly - according to distance, number of posters at the same location and direction of passage (frontal, parallel or away from the poster).
The reach values from the station study are now already integrated into the SPR+ planning tool, meaning that the evaluation of poster campaigns now takes into account not only street space, but also that of the 27 stations studied. However, the price integration of the station areas into the new SPR+-based APG tariff system will not take place until later.
Markus Knöpfli
Regardless of whether it is a street or station study: thanks to the very narrow contact selection and the strict contact weighting, SPR+ probably offers the market one of the toughest reach currencies. This was already decided when Clear Channel Outdoor was still involved in poster research (until 2005). SPR+ can currently only be happy about this strict standard, especially with regard to the station study. This is because SPR+ is now wholly owned by Affichage Holding, the market leader in Swiss outdoor advertising. The station study was also paid for by the Affichage subsidiaries APG and Impacta. What's more: Impacta specializes in poster advertising in railroad stations - and has been the exclusive marketer of SBB poster spaces for years. So while the road study was an industry contract, at least at the beginning, SPR+ only researched the train stations on behalf of Affichage (albeit at the request of agencies and advertising clients). A softer currency would therefore be detrimental to SPR+'s reputation. mk
