Poster Impact hits 25 Years and 20,000 Campaigns

Poster Impact, the OOH campaign evaluation tool established by PML Group in 1996, has hit two major milestones this year – twenty-five years of service, and surpassing twenty thousand campaigns measured.

Recall and creative rating have been at the heart of Poster Impact since day one but as the methodology moved from face-to-face interviews to online surveys in 2007, the scope of the study widened to introduce metrics such as call to action, message understanding and relevance.

Poster Impact was the first service of its kind in the Outdoor sector in Ireland and the first wave of research was carried out in April 1996, with PML engaging TNS MRBI (now Ipsos MRBI) to carry out the fieldwork on their behalf. The PML Group/Ipsos MRBI partnership on Poster Impact continues to this day. Among the first campaigns to be evaluated by Poster Impact were PMPA, Ritz, Castrol, Brennan’s Bread and Club Lemon. The best recalled campaign in April 1996 was Beamish Stout.

Poster Impact measures the effectiveness of more than 1,000 OOH campaigns each year, with the best in class celebrated via The Poster Impact Awards. Winners in 2021 included AIB, McDonald’s, Virgin Media, Disney+ and Diageo. The HSE’s OOH work around Covid-19 was also among this year’s winners but was also recognised as the highest recalled campaign ever measured by Poster Impact.

Almost 5,000 48 Sheet campaigns have been included in poster Impact along with more than 1,800 T-Side campaigns and thousands of 6 Sheet designs. But as the market has developed, so too has Poster Impact. For example, since their launch a decade ago, 650 digital mall dPod and iVision campaigns have been measured.

300 different respondents are surveyed for Poser Impact each cycle and to date, more than 130,000 respondents have taken part in the ongoing research programme.

Colum Harmon, marketing director, PML Group:

“We are immensely proud of the contribution that Poster Impact has made to the learning and understanding of OOH media and its audience in Ireland. We believe in a data-led, evidence-based approach to making great Outdoor campaigns and our commitment to the Poster Impact offering is testament to that. We look forward to working with Ipsos MRBI in developing this service further for many years to come.”

Damian Loscher, MD, Ipsos MRBI

“PML Group has built an unrivalled understanding of Out of Home, one campaign at a time. Their commitment to research is hugely impressive, spanning over 25 years and across 20,000 campaigns, and never wavering. PML have used research to gain the experience, knowledge and the insights they need to help their clients succeed. For all of us in Ipsos MRBI, we have revelled in our partnership and we applaud PML’s vision and sustained investment in research.”