Objectives of the service
As Space-as-a-Service has grown, so to have subscription services with monthly or annual recurring revenues. There is a major issue in this; many users simply cannot afford to pay for services. Ad Astra will tested the value and potential, for brand’s Corporate Social Responsibility budgets to be used via the Ad Astra ad-tech platform, to provide “sponsorship” of critical data in disaster relief, environmental and societal services. The solution allows the monetisation of critical services for users who need but cannot pay and connects to brands who care about their corporate social responsibility and would be willing to pay, allowing these brands to uniquely support challenges on Earth.
Users and their needs
Astrosat worked with three user organisations who represent three thematic domains – Societal, Flooding and Forestry. On the customer side, We worked with an award winning Marketing Advisor to specifically analyse the potential to move to trial with one lead test brand. A Major media buying agency who are experts in programmatic ad-tech campaigns, lent their expertise by helping to refine the customer landscape and validate the Cost-per-Mille (CPM) “price” that the platform connection could generate from multiple willing brands
Targeted beneficiary communities for the system included:
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A forestry management organisation requiring vital deforestation data in Central America as part of their role in protecting the Earth’s biospheres
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Several organisations in SE Asia who need to provide data to local authorities during flooding events
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Leading charities in the UK engaged in the solution of fuel poverty and mental health
Customers of the system expected to be large corporate brand organisations who would pay for Ad Astra through ad-tech platforms, and media buying agencies who advised brands on the best way to spend marketing budgets.
Service/ system concept
As a Kick start project, the service/system concept for Ad Astra is still in its early stages. The system will be developed as additional capabilities of Astrosat existing Orbis geospatial visualisation platform. New capabilities will be developed to allow the serving of appropriate adverts to targeted users as well as the tracking of adverts served and billing where appropriate.
Development of these capabilities will allow Astrosat to provide the following services:
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Serving of targeted adverts to Orbis users based on the specific use case or data they are viewing
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Allowing brands to target sponsorship at specific use cases (applications) or types of data being displayed within the Orbis application
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Accounting for, and billing for paid adverts within Orbis
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Supporting the monitoring and evaluation of CSR budget spend
Space Added Value
The KPMG Sustainability Reporting Survey in 2020 demonstrated that the vast majority of companies were now linking corporate activities to UN SDG’s in their corporate reporting and that climate change is the first sustainability or SDG issue which is now being seen as financial risk – Earth Observation data plays a key role in that fight against climate change. More spend is being directed towards CSR initiatives and there is also recognition that that spend needs to tie in with business activities. What Ad Astra allows brands to do is have a direct interface with CSR beneficiaries and choose to support a CSR initiative that ties into their business activity, one which is trackable and has tangible outputs. It makes sure that CSR advertising spend goes directly to those who need it most and can have the most impact.
Current Status
Extensive consultation has now taken place with advertising and marketing experts to assist in the identification of a suitable service delivery mechanism and viable economic model. The project has now completed KickStart activities and Astrosat is considering how best to implement the proposed system.
Prime Contractor(s)
