Laqshya Media Group launches cutting edge OOH planning tool

Laqshya Media Group (LMG), one of the largest independent media conglomerates in India, has launched ‘SHARP’ (Strategic Hyperlocal AI-powered Reach Planner), a first of its kind state-of-the-art planning tool for measuring the effectiveness and media value of Outdoor campaigns. This is India’s first ever measuring tool, developed in-house by LMG that allows brands to target the right audiences in a cost effective manner.

The OOH tool uses machine learning to deliver AI-optimized metrics and recommendations. The system is fed with data received from more than 50,000 geo-tagged sites comprising of billboards, BQS sites, mall facades, pillars and poles across 26 cities.

SHARP combines diverse data points including geotagged OOH locations across formats, a traffic measurement study by a global research agency, multiple databases to map and measure the current profiles of resident & transit population and panel rating points and various other site factors with the data on thousands of sites across multiple OOH formats. Each site is geo-tagged and cross-linked with google-map APIs to indicate various relevant points of interest like Banks, Auto showrooms etc. from the site.

SHARP is also coded to differentiate between multiple (stacked) billboards at the same location with indicative pricing per site.

Alok Jalan, Managing Director, Laqshya Media Group said commenting on the new tool, “As an industry leader, it was but natural that we had to resolve client concerns about the lack of measurement metrics in the OOH Industry. SHARP has been the outcome of months of hard work & is unmatched in its ability to give a scientific rationale for an OOH campaign.“

A massive immersion of data & technology has been done to generate the right algorithms for machine learning. In addition, APIs of numerous consumption economy platforms have been integrated with the software to have a dynamic tracking of consumer interest points. While planning marketing budgets for a campaign, OOH usually gets a lower share of the pie; SHARP is set to change this. With better data and targeting, brands will be better assured of return on OOH investment, which in turn has the potential to alter the share of wallet for the medium.

Sai Nagesh, Chief Strategy Officer, Laqshya Media said, “SHARP was developed in response to the growing demand by brands who wanted quantification of results delivered by an OOH campaign. The software relies on machine learning to deliver AI-optimized recommendations for the most effective results in a client defined target audience. Allowing clients to identify locations with the highest audience density in order to reduce spill-over, an OOH campaign’s Reach and effectiveness is now quantifiable. Apart from providing valuable campaign optimization opportunities, it lists the touchpoints available within the neighbourhood of an OOH asset as per Google defined touchpoints available on the Google maps API. The days of gut-feel & assumptions are over.”