Methodology
How the measurement works
Every audience figure in out-of-home answers the same question: how many people went past this panel, and how many of them were in a position to see it. This is how Pikaboo answers it, with the supporting detail under each step.
Process
Six steps, in order
- 01
Observe
Start from where phones actually are.
Anonymised, aggregated mobile location signals, processed in bulk. No identity is held and no individual profile is built. Every figure reported is an aggregate.
- 02
Locate
Resolve where each device lives and works.
Repeated overnight and daytime presence establishes a home and a work area for each device in the panel. This separates a resident from a commuter from a visitor, a distinction that matters at a taxi rank and not at all on a highway.
- 03
Scale
Scale the panel to the real population.
Panel residents in each small area are compared against that area's census population to produce a scaling factor, so a suburb where the panel is thin is not reported as a suburb where fewer people live.
- 04
Attribute
Count who passed each individual panel.
Scaled movement is intersected with the position and orientation of each site, producing contacts for that panel rather than for the road, the suburb, or an average of the area.
- 05
Adjust
Discount those who could not have seen it.
Contacts are multiplied by a visibility factor reflecting orientation to the flow of traffic or pedestrians, viewing distance and approach speed, obstruction and clutter, and the size and placement of the panel. The result is VAC.
- 06
Verify
Confirm in person that the panel is there, and posted.
FOONA, our field network, captures dated and located evidence of the physical structure and its creative. A modelled audience number and a delivered campaign are separate claims, and this is what separates them.
Outputs
What comes out
VAC = opportunity to see × visibility factor
Passing a panel is an opportunity to see it. The visibility factor discounts for the fact that not everyone who passes is in a position to look: it reflects orientation to the flow, distance and speed of approach, obstruction and clutter, and the size and placement of the panel. VAC is the figure after that discount.
- Reach
- Unique people exposed to a site over the measurement period, counted once per person rather than once per passing.
- VAC
- Contacts adjusted by a visibility factor derived from the physical characteristics of the panel and its setting. Passing a site is not the same as seeing what is on it.
- Average frequency
- Total contacts divided by reach over the measurement period.
Privacy
What the system never does
Pikaboo measures crowds, not people. Inputs are anonymised and aggregated before they reach us. No identity is held, no individual profile is built, and every figure reported is an aggregate across many devices. Nothing in the system is designed to answer a question about a named person.
Field verification records the panel and its creative: the structure, the poster, the date and the location. It is evidence about advertising inventory, not about the public.
Limitations
Where it is weaker
Every measurement method has a shape. These are the limits we design around, published rather than discovered.
- A device is not a person. Phones are shared, and people carry more than one.
- Location accuracy varies by setting. Dense city blocks and indoor environments are harder than open roadside.
- Unusual routines, night shifts in particular, can misplace a device's home or work area.
- Resident and visitor views answer different questions. A resident-weighted view will undercount a destination site; a national view will include audiences a local campaign is not buying.
Standards
Built against the international definitions
Pikaboo computes reach, VAC and frequency using the definitions set out in the ESOMAR Global Guidelines for Outdoor Advertising and the World Out of Home Organisation's recommended approach to digital out-of-home audience measurement. These are the references on which out-of-home currencies are recognised internationally.
Pikaboo is not an accredited currency and does not present itself as one. Independent methodological validation is in progress. The method is documented in full and open to third-party audit.