JOHANNESBURG: Nine Mile Media has made an investment into the Billads Bill Folder medium by developing a research tracker that provides a comprehensive view of its effectiveness. It consists of key measures conducted for 20 Billads campaigns that have seen over 2000 consumers interviewed onsite and 800 of them again two weeks later via telephone.

Both awareness and activation campaigns are measured with the tracker. Awareness campaigns include an advert inside the Billads bill folder, with no other elements added to it; whilst an activation campaign includes other elements like samples, table talkers, window decals, scratch cards and other mediums, in addition to an advert inside the bill folder, which is geared to enhance the visibility of the campaign.

Consumers are interviewed using technology such as iPads. The results are instantly uploaded to Interact RDT's survey tool and can then be viewed by various parties. "This methodology is not only extremely effective in providing consumers' perception at the point of interaction with the campaign, it also allows for course correction as media agencies and their clients are able to get feedback instantly instead of waiting weeks before results are captured and analysed", said Gary Greenfield, Interact RDT's managing director.

The tracker was developed for Billads due to the lack of research available in the ambient media space. "It was very difficult to determine how well a campaign did, compared to other similar campaigns, due to the lack of data and measurement in alternative forms of marketing such as Billads," says Greenfield.

Show/Hide Comment form