O2 Customers’ Browsing Data Harvested For Targeted Tube Adverts

Outdoor advertising firm Exterion Media will use information about O2 customers’ Tube journeys and their browsing habits to target passengers on the London underground with more relevant adverts and offers.

The information will be used to power Abi, or Audience Behavioural Insights, a platform which provides advertisers with information about passengers and their journey habits by aggregating data from three main sources – the activity of devices on the O2 network, CRM data from O2 customers and app use and web browsing.

O2 tube advertising

This is then used to deliver adverts on digital boards on tube platforms that are relevant to the type of passenger likely to be passing through a particular station at the time. Exterion says all the data is anonymised to protect privacy and that none of its advertisers can see information about a specific person.

“The power of actionable data is now available to brands like never before. Understanding the actual, persistent – and not claimed – behaviours of groups of consumers over time with a tool like Abi allows for more effective decision-making,” said Mick Ridley, Exterion’s head of data and technology, Mick Ridley.

“The level of insight to be gained from analysing behavioural data just does not exist in the highly modelled, static data that has up until now been applied to dynamic environments like the London Underground. We’re in a very transformative, but hugely exciting time in Out-of-Home.”

“We have a unique understanding of the transport sector from this tool, and sharing it means we’re giving Exterion and its customers the best opportunity to get the right content, to the right people, in the right location and at the right time,” added Robert Franks, managing director of digital commerce at Telefonica UK (O2).