Playout- A Centralised Tracking System

Earlier this year, we heard that  The UK Major media owners have entered into a landmark deal to create a centralised system for tracking and verifying all out-of-home advertising, which should be live in July, so as it creeps closer to summer- MAG wanted to write a run down of what this means for the industry in the UK.

The system is being described as the move that keeps Out of Home “In the game”  per se as advertisers and agencies seek increasingly sophisticated and high quality sources of data. 

Piccadilly Lights

The system is called Playout and is being backed by Outsmart’s members, the major outdoor companies Clear Channel, Global, JCDecaux, and Ocean Outdoor, as well as specialist media-buying agencies such as Kinetic, Posterscope and Rapport and Talon Outdoor. 

Tim Lumb, director at Outsmart, stated that  the Covid-19 pandemic, when lockdowns from 2020 dealt a massive blow to the outdoor sector, incentivised competitive media owners to start working together on research projects. “We’re seeing, as necessitated by the crisis of COVID, collaboration happen between otherwise fierce competitors. Playout feels a next step on from that,” he concluded.

Digital OOH now makes up 64% of the entire UK OOH sector revenue and runs on 27,000 digital screens across it. This is why having a centralised tracking system that will provide the industry what it needs during campaigns is now more important than ever.