In the midst of macroeconomic uncertainty, the advertising industry is looking to cut costs and increase efficiency, while emphasizing customer trust. It is at this point that automation goes from desirable to essential.

In the case of outdoor advertising, its growth is linked to real-time data management. Automation in this area represents a breakthrough in terms of transparency, specifically in a key activity within the sales process: Proof of Posting (POP) reports.

If you’ve been in the OOH industry for a while, you’ve probably heard of this term. POP reports are certifications that assure advertisers that their campaigns were displayed according to their media planning,  locations and target wise.

Why is it necessary to consider POP in the media sales process?

Although OOH is one of the safest advertising mediums, we must understand that no medium is completely immune to fraud. Jim Wilson, a member of the Forbes Technology Council, explains the importance of establishing transparency standards as OOH becomes increasingly automated.

There are clear lessons to garner from the online advertising sector, namely building up solutions which incorporate transparency, limit fraud and enable trust as a baseline.

Jim Wilson

And that’s because many advertisers and OOH agencies are demanding as a condition of purchase the delivery of POP reports, especially now that the industry is going through a recessionary period where every dollar spent is being scrutinized.

Making a difference

While advertisers share a uniform need, the POP process is still unique to each media owner. This gives rise to two main challenges: first, manual work is set up that can take days or weeks; second, KPIs vary by OOH company, making it difficult for advertisers to compare their results.

Faced with this, there are tools like ViiA POP that track and record every piece of advertising content that plays on a screen, allowing real-time reporting. Automation in this case not only generates fewer errors and faster response times, but also allows to standardize the analysis with key information such as number of plays, audience size and delivery statistics.