Creating a New OOH Standard Measurement. An Interview with Kym Frank

I remember Kym Frank when she worked at Zenith. But her background expands across every media channel, “always with,” she notes, “a focus on data and insights.” 

Frank is currently President of Geopath, an out-of-home trade organization formerly known as the Traffic Audit Bureau. Charged with leading the charge to advance OOH measurement through data and analytics, she is using the GeoPath platform to, “drastically improving the industry’s standard currency.”  Here are the details:

Charlene Weisler: What is the state of OOH measurement today? How does it compare today to the way it was measured before?

Kym Frank: Until recently, the OOH industry measured audience exposure using a combination of somewhat static data sources, such as traffic counts that were gathered from the Department of Transportation, US Census data and information from the American Community Survey.  This solution provided the industry measurement of audience exposure for an average week of the year across standard age, gender, income, ethnicity demographic breaks. 

With the migration to Geopath, the industry embraced new, more granular data sets, such as mobile location data and speed data harnessed from in-dash navigation systems and connected cars.  The new measurement provides anonymous, aggregated, privacy compliant audience exposure at the hourly level that is dynamic throughout the year.  We also integrated thousands of incremental audience segments that encompass purchase behavior, psychographics and even usage of other media channels. 

Weisler: What is the advantage of OOH vs other media?

Frank: OOH is a unique channel that is immune to many of the issues faced by other media.  It cannot be blocked or skipped.  It is not subject to ad fraud and it is relatively immune from brand safety issues. It is not dependent upon a media platform for delivery. And it is ubiquitous – present when and where consumers are making purchase decisions.  

Weisler:  Tell me about GeoPath - what is it and how was it developed?

Frank: Geopath, is an industry trade association for OOH advertising that was founded in 1933 – a joint initiative from the ANA, the 4As and the OAAA - the Out of Home Advertising Association of America.  It was established to provide transparent, responsible measurement of the medium.  We are governed by a tripartite Board of Directors that equally represents the interests of media operators, agencies and advertisers. In fact, the ANA, the 4As and the OAAA still hold seats on our board today!  

Weisler:  How do you collect the data and which data is most important?

Frank: The core of our measurement solution is harnessed from mobile devices.  It is all aggregated and anonymized by our partners at AirSage and then modeled to represent the population movement of the entire US by our partners at Citilabs.  Those data are provided to Geopath, which we match against our proprietary database of audited OOH inventory to convert population movement to audience impressions. 

Weisler:  Is other data merged with GeoPath data and if so what and how?

Frank: Yes! We are partnered with Claritas to layer audience targeting information on top of our impressions. This allows our users to optimize their OOH spend by identifying the best placements to reach people in the market for a new car or individuals who frequent fast food restaurants.  The coupling of big movement data with granular audience data maximizes OOH’s potential – in that it can provide both broad reach and targeted advertisements. 

Weisler: How are advertisers and brands responding to GeoPath and how are they using it?

Frank: The support that we have received from the advertising community has been overwhelming.  Since the beta launch of the new measurement system last spring, our membership has grown to record levels, up more than 50%!

Our members are thrilled with the ability to use the data so that they can provide audiences as a basis of transactions rather than locations.  This type of granular, sophisticated data is helping to propel growth in the industry and increase the value of the inventory that is available.

Weisler:  Do you incorporate other media platforms and if so what and how? Any insights from this?

Frank: Thanks to our partnership with Claritas, we are able to understand the media consumption of the audiences that interact with OOH advertising.  For example, we can use our data to understand how to reach consumers who don’t have a cable subscription or who don’t visit social networks or watch YouTube.  This empowers buyers to amplify their spend in other channels by reaching consumers they may be missing.  

Weisler:  Any surprises from the new GeoPath data?

Frank: Because we are measuring people as they move throughout their day, we are often delighted to see that the profiles of audiences are much different than the people who actually live near a piece of OOH inventory.  For example, we have seen that a billboard may be physically located in a geographic location where there is a greater concentration of lower income HHs, but the resulting audience exposure actually among higher-income individuals, just due to commuting patterns.  

Weisler:  Are you working with other organizations on these measurement initiatives? If so who and what?

Frank: Certainly.  Because we are a non-profit, all of our member organizations are involved in the development and evaluation of our methodologies.  They loan us their best and brightest minds to sit on our Insights Committee, for example.  We are working very closely with the MRC, developing OOH Measurement Standards.  We are also streamlining all of the industry’s best practices with the key trade bodies for OOH. This includes the OAAA, the DPAA, the DSF, and the IAB.  

This article first appeared in www.Mediapost.com