Powered by Meshh and Virgin Media O2, the new system offers unmatched insight into audience behaviour, transforming how ROI of immersive experiences is measured.
Outernet London, the innovative media and entertainment district located at the intersection of Tottenham Court Road and Charing Cross, has launched a pioneering audience measurement platform, PIAMS (Public Immersive Audience Measurement System), developed in collaboration with Virgin Media O2’s O2 Motion platform and spatial analytics leader Meshh.
The collaboration represents a significant step forward in measuring audience behaviour in real-world environments. For event organisers, venue and brand managers and experiential marketers, the ability to quantify the impact of content, footfall, and dwell time in real-time is an industry first and a game-changer for those responsible for proving the return on investment of live experiences.
PIAMS combines anonymised mobile data from O2 Motion and real-time spatial analytics from Meshh. With data captured every five minutes via strategically placed sensors throughout Outernet’s spaces, the system delivers the most detailed and responsive behavioural dataset available in any public-facing entertainment environment.
Through its high-frequency measurement capabilities, the system tracks footfall and movement across multiple zones, captures arrival and visit dwell times at five-minute intervals, identifies engagement patterns in response to specific content or times of day, and distinguishes between transient passers-by and audiences demonstrating deeper levels of interaction.
The data is then aligned with live screen content schedules, enabling Outernet and its brand partners to validate exactly what audiences saw, how long they engaged, and where they lingered, providing granular, campaign-specific metrics at a level previously unavailable.
“We are incredibly proud to launch PIAMS. It’s a major leap forward in understanding and quantifying public engagement with media in physical spaces,” said Dan Patton, Director of Digital Publishing & Operations at Outernet.
“By bringing together cutting-edge technology from Virgin Media O2 and Meshh, we’ve created a system that tells a powerful story about how audiences move, dwell, and interact with content in real-time. For our clients, that means smarter campaigns, clearer ROI, and insight at a level the industry has never seen.”
Since its deployment, PIAMS has delivered a suite of actionable insights that enable Outernet to optimise content strategy by targeting verified peak traffic and engagement periods, enhance ROI reporting with validated audience reach and dwell time data, improve operational decisions around visitor flow, staffing and logistics, and support long-term strategic planning by replacing assumptions with robust, real-time behavioural evidence.
“The results from this partnership are genuinely groundbreaking,” said Caroline McGuckian, CEO of Meshh.
“This is the culmination of 9 months of research, planning, testing and validation. The data generated is extremely robust because it is measured in real-time.”
For an industry still reliant on estimated impressions and footfall projections, PIAMS offers clarity, precision, and performance intelligence that reshapes what’s possible in live environments, from concerts and brand activations to exhibitions and retail installations.
Andrew Gillham, O2 Motion Business Development Director at Virgin Media O2 Business, said: “Outernet’s new audience measurement system showcases the strength of anonymised and aggregated real-time data when applied in digital advertising. With O2 Motion’s Real Time Location Insights data combined with Meshh sensor data in this way, the platform will provide useful audience insights for this unique location.”
With over 80 million annual visitors passing through the wider Outernet district, this capability doesn’t just measure success; it unlocks new potential for data-led storytelling, commercial strategy, and customer experience design.
Emily Alcorn, Chief Effectiveness Officer UK, Talon said “Outernet have taken a comprehensive approach to their PIAMS, leveraging spatial sensors and mobile data to accurately measure the audience engagement of their inventory. This is no small feat to combine technology and methodology at this level…. very impressive”
