A group of independent out of home operators is asking for change at Geopath. Billboard Insider talked with one of the group’s members, Chris Tavlarides, to learn more. Tavlarides is the co-founder of Capitol Outdoor, an independent out of home company with thousands of digital and static billboards and kiosks around the US.
Chris, what’s going on?
So I’ve been in the business for 35 years. Our group is frustrated with the current impressions audit system. Several of the larger independents have formed a group to engage Geopath and the OAAA. Our members are reporting a disparity between independently owned billboards. Ours should be getting much higher ratings and are being underreported against the big 3. We also have problems with obvious disparities between signs that should be getting audited much higher using common sense practices like opening your eyes! One member went to two separate locations within minutes and stood in the middle of the street and did not see a car and went to the lower rated sign and it was a parking lot of activity. Why was one rated higher than the other when common sense indicated otherwise?
Another problem we have had is that I have a kiosk with heavy everyday foot traffic and it barely gets a passable Geopath audit even though the location gets millions of yearly visitors…we went to another vendor and got impressions data and were able to sell two perm contracts on the kiosk network. The agencies just needed the data and did not care that Geopath wasn’t used. That was the AHA moment for us.
You’ve also been frustrated by outdated impressions data.
The impressions audit for this year has not been released because we requested a delay. It’s already months old by the time the audit is released anyway. Some recent impressions audits came back with a 50% reduction in impressions from the year before despite the fact that people are returning to the office. How is that possible?
Chris what is your group trying to accomplish?
We’re trying to get better measurement to get additional revenue. We want an accurate audience count enhanced by practical and obvious new technology solutions that will enable us to go into 2026 with a confident metric system that gets us in the planning room at the major agencies. If Geopath is not up to the task of delivering reliable data to the industry that gets us in the planning windows at the agency and client level then there are other options out there…, the major independents bill 90 percent of their revenue on national ad dollars and we control most of the downtowns. We are not small as a group, we are as big as some of the big 3.
What’s been Geopath’s response
We had a group call with Geopath. They froze the audit for this year and I think they think that they can fix the holes that are out there in two years’ time and that’s not good enough for us.
We need an immediate resolution to this issue and most importantly prominent standing to get on national media plans day 1. More media dollars committed to outdoor will result in increased plans and rates helping the ENTIRE industry.
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