In Situ Media Case Study

CASE STUDY

Responding to High Value Customers A small sport & leisure media specialist needed to raise its own

game to meet the changing tastes of Britain’s biggest advertisers

Insight. Strategy. Implementation.

Lucidity London Inspiring Growth

Lucidity London | Case Study | In Situ Media of 15

MODERNIZING THE UK’S NO 1 LEISURE CENTRE MEDIA COMPANY

Executive Summary

At the end of 2010, management at In Situ Media were facing challenges on multiple fronts. Revenues had been

falling since the UK first entered recession in 2008 while competition was intensifying as advertiser’s diverted

expenditure online and towards a growing number of Digital Out-Of-Home formats.

Furthermore, In Situ had failed to invest properly in its products and systems over many years. If management

were going to re-ignite growth in leisure centre media, they would need to modernise the company’s offering to

meet the needs of Britain’s biggest advertisers much more closely.

About In Situ Media

In Situ Media is an out-of-home advertising contractor

which sells display advertising space to major brand

advertisers inside 550 leisure centres across the UK.

Launched in 1991, the company now has long-term

contracts with 8 leisure centre management companies,

12 local authorities and 98 individual leisure centres.

It employs seven people and generates revenues of

approximately £1m a year.

Table 1 - Media formats available inside Leisure Centres:

Format Location

6-Sheets Poolside, foyers, walkways

Changing Room Panels Male, female and mixed

Banners Poolside and sports halls

Stickers On walls, mirrors and lockers

Sampling Reception, studios


Situation

In Situ was once the small friendly place where media

professionals went to buy large family, teenage and

health-conscious audiences on behalf of Britain’s biggest

advertisers. They knew they could get what they needed

because there were relatively few Out-of-Home options

available to extend the reach of their campaigns into

these demographics with such precision.

By the end of 2010 though, the advertising landscape

had changed dramatically. Massive investments in digital

were transforming the media industry and giving

advertisers more choice, flexibility and accountability in

their media selections. Large multi-nationals built online

display advertising networks capable of reaching

massive youth audiences, while the Out-of-Home

industry developed digital networks rotating multiple

campaigns in the same space every 2 weeks targeting

people on the move in shopping centres, supermarkets,

railway stations and the London Underground (see

Appendix A for more details).

With so many options available to advertisers, In Situ’s

leisure centre media proposition began to lose its

intrinsic appeal. Revenues began to decline as

advertisers moved expenditure into digital media

formats, relations with an influential channel to market

came under strain and one of the company’s most

valuable customers (the Government’s media buying

unit the Central Office of Information) closed its doors.

A shrinking panel network gave further cause for

concern. In Situ lost scale and quality from its panel

network when, in November 2010, one of Britain’s

biggest leisure centre management companies awarded

its media business to a rival, believing their network in

private gyms offered ‘a better fit with our brand’.

Truth was, In Situ’s products and systems were showing

signs of a lack of investment. Its panel network was

visibly ageing and its systems were undermining the

team’s ability to deliver a modern customer experience.

The company hadn’t tackled and resolved transparency

and accountability issues which the industry at large had

dealt with 10 years earlier.

These events occurred in a period of increased

competition which began with the ‘credit crunch’ in

2008. Advertisers’ responded to the financial crisis by

making massive cuts to their budgets, and expenditure

in out-of-home products took a particularly hard hit,

down 17% in 2009, before growth resumed in 2010.

Fig 1 - UK Ad Expenditure, % change on previous year

Source: Advertising Association/WARC

In Situ’s management needed a new plan to modernize

its core proposition and raise its quality standards if it

was going to adopt a more competitive posture in a fast-

changing environment.

-20%

-10%

0%

10%

20%

2008 2009 2010 2011

All Advertising Out-Of-Home


Task

Lucidity London were commissioned to help management

reverse the decline in sales, and return the company to

profitable growth. To this end, our strategic objectives

were articulated as:

1. Assess customers current perceptions of leisure

centre media, and the company’s overall service

2. Build consensus around a new strategy which aligns

the core proposition to the needs of Britain’s

biggest advertisers and their intermediaries

3. Remodel inefficient business processes to support

continuously rising quality standards

4. Begin modifying the set of associations surrounding

the In Situ brand and focus on building ‘quality’

attributes

5. Achieve gross media revenue of £1.5m in 2013-14

Action

External Reality Digs

To understand customers’ perceptions of In Situ and

their leisure centre media proposition, we asked senior

planners and buyers who knew the business well to

participate in a process we call Reality Digs.

Among the sample, we found the most commonly-held

perceptions of leisure centre media were somewhat

downmarket: ‘council-run centres’, ‘C2D audience’ and

‘not illuminated’ were among the more frequently

recalled top-of-mind attributes.

And in private health clubs, advertisers had an easy way

to compare the attributes and performance of both the

media and the contractor. This assessment revealed

more downmarket perceptions though - there had been

relatively few similarities between the development of

private health club and leisure centre media over the

years (see Appendix B).

These customers also told us that leisure centre media

presented specific problems for advertisers, including:

a low quality panel network (“not illuminated”, “no

regeneration of sheetage”)

difficulty understanding which sites offered genuine

impact and long dwell-times to advertisers (“too

many parallel panels”, “clutter in the environment”)

lack of investment in media self-bolstering activities

(“poor photographs”, “lacks research”, “no new case

studies”)

sales and marketing presentations that “haven’t

changed for years”

Exhibit 1 - Example of a low quality poster panel


Delving further into customers’ frustrations, we

arranged to interview decision-makers at an influential

out-of-home specialist with whom relations had recently

become strained.

For them, leisure centre media was surrounded by a

constellation of unhelpful attributes associated with In

Situ rather than the format itself, including:

management which lacked commitment to the

industry’s drive for greater professionalism

observable lack of investment in product, sales,

marketing and operations

comparatively low product and service standards

They went on to describe a modern media environment

in which greater creativity had driven agencies to

consult more closely with media owners and work with

clients to match new technologies with innovative

executions. The relationship between agencies and

media owners, which once may have been considered

adversarial, had become far more collaborative. Without

digital, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth capabilities in the network, In

Situ had missed out on this trend.

Internal Reality Digs

When we assessed the company’s service delivery

model, we discovered a proposition that was being

undermined by flaws in the design of its processes and

systems. For a while now, management had ignored

critical issues related to buyers’ assessment of quality in

both pre- and post-sales service (see Table 2).

Table 2 – Key Processes and their Impact on Quality

Stage Process Quality Assessment Criteria

Pre Panel Assessment what is the presentation like

Posting how are ads put on display

Audience Estimation how many people will see my ad

Post Proof-of-Posting what evidence is supplied to prove

my ads are on display as specified

Campaign Evaluation how many people saw my ad

See Appendix B for a more detailed description

As the reality of the challenges facing the management

team became clearer, so too did the root cause of the

company’s decline. In the absence of a formal planning

process, In Situ had responded to the credit crunch by

drifting towards a strategy of cost minimisation. This

was driving a general perception that the company was

unresponsive to customers’ concerns. And, to people for

whom winning in their own business was about caring

more than other companies (about customers, about

colleagues, about how the organisation conducts itself in

a world with endless opportunities to cut corners), In

Situ had fallen way behind.

New Strategy, New Direction

Having persuaded In Situ’s management to recognise

the enormous changes taking place across the industry,

and take an honest look at the company’s operations,

we needed to build consensus around a new plan to

revitalise the business. After all, national advertisers

were still looking for places to interrupt consumers to

deliver commercial messages. And public leisure centres

were still being visited by millions of Brits each week.


We recommended the company adopt a customer focus

and a generic strategy focused on quality improvements.

By concentrating resources on delivering continuous

improvements to product and service quality, we felt we

could boost the appeal of leisure centre media among

Britain’s biggest advertisers.

The strategy had two distinct phases. The first phase

prioritised the modernisation of the static 6-sheet

proposition and the company’s systems. The second

would focus on the development of a digital network.

Re-Modelling Operations

Responding immediately to concerns over the quality of

the company’s network, we initiated a panel audit to

quantify the scope and scale of any problems, and set a

baseline for a panel replacement programme.

We immediately ran into problems operationalizing the

audit though. No-one at In Situ was routinely visiting

their leisure centres so, unless we spent 2 months

travelling around the country ourselves, how were we

going to assess the condition of almost 3,500 poster

panels in 550 leisure centres nationwide?

A solution arose as we considered how to respond to

concerns around accountability in the posting process.

At that time, In Situ were sending posters to leisure

centres by courier, together with instructions to display

them at a specified time and location. The sales team

then telephoned leisure centres to check that the

posters were on display at the right time and place.

This process had two major flaws. Firstly, there was no

‘hard’ evidence that campaigns were on display – it was

theoretically too easy for someone to tell us that posters

were on display even if they weren’t. And secondly, the

company had no direct contact with its panel network;

they lacked a clear view of its (deteriorating) condition.

We recommended outsourcing the final leg of the

posting process to regional posting contractors, along

with a mandate to provide time and date-stamped

‘proof-of-posting’ photos from each individual posting

event. With each new campaign, we’d receive images of

panels which the operations team could assess for signs

of wear and tear, and take action where necessary.

As the panel audit progressed, so the panel replacement

programme began. Within 2 months we’d received

images of 80% of In Situ’s panels, and identified sites

which urgently required repair or replacement. When

management selected a new high spec poster panel to

introduce into the network, the rejuvenation of the

physical network began.

Exhibit 2 – Example of a new poster panel


Lifting Sales & Marketing to Higher Standards

With a revitalized panel network in development, we

began assessing opportunities to improve In Situ’s sales

and marketing competencies.

In interviews, customers had informed us of the need to

refresh the company’s sales collateral (see Appendix C),

while also highlighting the need to:

excite planners about leisure centre media

articulate key media facts and figures clearly

socialise case studies demonstrating the

effectiveness of leisure centre media

take better photographs

arrive at meetings informed about brand advertisers

and their communication strategies

We drew up a sales and marketing plan which prioritised

and co-ordinated the delivery of these and more

customer-inspired quality improvements on a timetable

which would maximise their cumulative effect.

Signalling the start of change, we created a fresh new

visual identity for the company, quickly followed by a

user-friendly website designed to meet the information

needs of busy planners, buyers and clients. Content

highlighted new product and service quality attributes,

and a download library minimised the time required to

access PowerPoint, PDF and JPEG files for circulation

among larger decision-making groups.

Exhibit 1 - In Situ Media’s new logo

Exhibit 2 - New company website

Pre-Sales Service Enhancements

To present the new quality-based narrative directly to

customers in group presentations and face-to-face

meetings, we created a library of PowerPoint slides for

the sales team addressing key topics, such as:

media opportunities inside leisure centres

geographic coverage and network configuration

leisure centre audience facts, figures and images

analysis of leisure centre users using TGI survey data

new proof-of-posting services

new post-campaign research services

client success stories and case studies

glossy images of client campaigns


Exhibit 3 –Sales and marketing presentation (2011)

Sales proposals also drew from this library, and were

further enhanced by the development of a robust new

Audience Delivery model, which blended fresh footfall

data supplied by leisure centres with TGI consumer

survey data and In Situ’s panel location data.

An Audience Estimation Toolset facilitated access to this

dataset, helping In Situ’s operations team design

bespoke packages to suit client’s objectives and/or

budget. It also gave the sales team ready access to

estimates of a campaigns reach and frequency at

different weights – all critical inputs to most clients’

media evaluation and planning software.

Exhibit 4 – Audience Estimation Tool

To help the sales team add value to individual customer

interactions in face-to-face meetings, we developed a

system to acquire, summarise and distribute facts about

advertisers’ strategies. We subscribed to media industry

databases and news websites discussing brands and

their media strategies, and assembled Summary

Briefings focused on individual advertisers’ news, their

communication strategy and recent campaigns.

We also analysed the habits of Frequent Leisure Centre

Users in great detail using TGI consumer survey data.

Investigations were undertaken and findings socialised

which described their demographic profiles, centre

visiting behaviour, category purchasing repertoires,

brand preferences and main media consumption habits.

Exhibit 5 – Analysis of Leisure Centre Use, by Lifestage


Post Sales Service Enhancements

Customers had also told us that In Situ needed to do

more to assess the effectiveness of client’s campaigns,

and prove leisure centre media works in an integrated

media mix. We responded by creating a new Campaign

Research Service which initially provided clients with key

advertising performance metrics such as awareness,

consideration, persuasion and intention to purchase.

We appointed an independent media research specialist

to help us design and implement a robust research

methodology and deliver an objective assessment of

each client’s campaign performance.

Fig 3 – Early campaign effectiveness results

Source: Clark Chapman 2011

While the initial results showed impressive levels of

campaign awareness, we were also building a body of

evidence to help us describe how different segments of

the audience interacted with advertising inside leisure

centres. For example, a campaign for the Twentieth

Century Fox film Mr Poppers Penguins delivered

spectacularly high levels of unaided recall among mums,

who told us they were always on the lookout for ideas to

keep their kids entertained during the school holidays.

Another opportunity to modify the company’s post-sales

service proposition arose alongside changes to the

posting process.

Regional posting contractors were now providing time

and date-stamped images from each posting event

showing a client’s campaign in place and on time. To

present this to clients in a modern context, we decided

to organise all aspects of the company’s post-campaign

reporting activities around an easily accessible,

password-protected client microsite. We called the

system Verify and it provided ‘hard’ evidence of a

client’s campaign in the form of a ‘site visit’ from their

desk! Posting images were presented alongside posting

reports, high quality photographs of the campaign

(another known client bugbear) and research studies.

Exhibit 5 – Verify: proof-of-posting microsite

13%

38%

17% 17%

56%

29% 36%

67%

46%

Nokia 20th Century Fox E45

Spontaneous Prompted Recognised


Reaching Out to Media Planners and Buyers

To broadcast In Situ’s revitalization story among the

wider population of people with responsibility for or

influence over large advertisers’ media expenditure

decisions, we developed a series of tactical campaigns

promoting product and service quality enhancements.

The company’s customer database was analysed and

segmented by value and a ‘Platinum List’ of customers

identified on whom we would concentrate scarce

resources. Targeted Direct Mail, Email and Personal

Selling campaigns showcased the modern leisure centre

media experience, and featured major brands currently

showing ads in leisure centres.

Exhibit 7 – Extract from Email

When we’d accumulated fresh campaign imagery,

audience profile data and post-campaign research

results, we designed a new media pack which reflected

the enhanced quality of the new proposition and the

characteristically ‘time-poor’ nature of media life. A

minimalist design approach was adopted, giving imagery

a high level of salience in the presentation while copy

was kept to a minimum.

Exhibit 8 – Extracts from new media pack


Results

When we arrived at In Situ, we found a company which,

through a combination of misfortune and mistakes, was

struggling to adapt in a rapidly changing environment.

In the 6 months prior to our engagement, the company

had lost a major customer, the support of a key channel

to market, and a large leisure centre operator from their

network.

Reality Digs revealed how decisions taken cumulatively

had eroded the appeal of leisure centre media. A focus

on cost-minimisation had resulted in an ageing network,

relatively low service standards and a perception that

the business was unresponsive to customers’ concerns.

Within six months though, there were visible signs of

improvement. In listening and responding to high value

customers, In Situ’s team and its proposition were

undergoing a transformation. The physical panel

network was being upgraded, and their systems had

been successfully re-modelled to the point where the

changes were now embedded in day-to-day operations.

Most importantly, quality was driving decision-making.

In Situ were heading in the right direction. Their strategy

of boosting the appeal of leisure centre media through

incremental improvements was beginning to drive buyer

preference once again. The core proposition, supported

by value added service enhancements, was attracting

interest from Britain’s biggest advertisers and their

intermediaries.

Sales leapt by more than 1200% immediately after the

proposition was re-launched, followed by an increase of

152% in the next quarter. Seasonal effects contributed

to a decline in the Q4 comparison before growth

resumed again in Q1 2012.

Source: Internal Accounts, April 2012

The quality of the brands choosing leisure centre media

was striking too. Advertisers’ with a vast range of choice

in their media selections were selecting leisure centre

media to extend the reach of their campaigns. In Situ

and leisure centre media were back on the path to

growth.

Exhibit 9 Major Brands choosing Leisure Centres, 2011

-33% -53%

372%

-74% -93%

152%

-64%

74%

Q1 '10 Q2 '10 Q3 '10 Q4 '10 Q1 '11 Q2 '11 Q3 '11 Q4 '11 Q1 '12

Fig 4. In Situ Media Income, 2010-12 % Change in Quarterly Gross Media Revenue

Re-launch Mar 7 2011

1206%


APPENDIX A

Source: Outdoor Media Centre 2012

Source: Outdoor Media Centre 2012

Source: AA/WARC Expenditure Report 2012

50,000

60,000

70,000

80,000

2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010

Fig 5. Growth in UK 6-Sheet Universe Members of the Outdoor Media Centre

897 933 976 939

782 881 886

3% 3% 4% 7% 9% 11% 14%

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

Fig 6. Rise of Digital OOH Out-of-Home Revenues, £m Out-of-Home Digital as % of total

1,367

2,016

2,813

3,350 3,541

4,097

4,784

8% 12%

16% 20% 24% 26% 30%

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

Fig 7. Rise of Online Media Revenues, £m

Internet Advertising Internet as % of All Advertising


Appendix B

Table 1 Comparison between Private Health Clubs & Leisure Centres: 6-Sheet Products

Private Health Clubs Leisure Centres

Panel Specifications ……………………………..… Illuminated, Scrolling, Static Static

Main Panel Locations ……………………………..… Inside Gym, Foyer Foyer, Poolside, Walkways

Basis of Audience Data ……………………………..… Membership, Footfall Internal Estimation

Posting Process ……………………………..… In-House Courier

Medium Self-Bolstering ……………………………..… Regular independent research Intermittent

Marketing ……………………………..… Simple, Clean Busy, Data Rich

Table 2 – Operational Processes and their Impact on Customers Assessment of Quality

Process Design Flaw Impact on

Assessment of Quality

Panel Assessment Leisure centre staff telephoned in if a panel was a danger to

patrons; panel assessment was 100% re-active Hygiene factor

Posting Posters sent to leisure centres by courier along with posting

instructions informing staff when/where to display posters

Lacks transparency and

accountability

Audience Estimation Footfall data supplied by leisure centres on an ad hoc basis

quantifying use, frequency, activity and customer profiles

Data recency and

accuracy

Proof-of-Posting Sales staff telephoned leisure centres to ask if a client’s

campaign was on display Lacks ‘hard’ evidence

Campaign Evaluation Infrequent assessment of the impact of clients’ campaigns Lacks evidence


APPENDIX C

Exhibit 10 - In Situ Media’s previous logo

Exhibit 11 - Media Pack Cover2009

Exhibit 12 - Sample sales presentation (2010)

Exhibit 4 – Samples from In Situ’s previous website

1994-2010


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