Yesterday Toni Short, Piper Wirth and Bobby Gorczakowski talked about why they joined the Geopath Futures council. Today they talk about the future.
The future of the Futures Council and the OOH industry
Toni: I hope to continue to build on the momentum from training individuals at InSite Street Media. Now that everyone is trained, it will be an ongoing process because we have new employees coming in all the time. What’s great is that we’re prepared because we have the Best Practices document and the Learning Lab curriculum that explicitly guides us all to be on the same page.
The Geopath staff continues to improve the platform and increase efficiencies, therefore everybody needs to stay up to date on all the changes. Because of this, the council has already discussed the need to provide more advanced training for people that have already completed our existing materials, so I look forward to hopefully seeing the development of that curriculum come to life. I cannot stress enough how important it is to now have the training that we do for onboarding.
Piper: Adoption is key right now. I would love to see not only the buyers and media owners using the platform, but also their strategy teams or even clients. I want everybody to have an understanding of the platform and the insights available. I agree with Toni, we absolutely want to build on that momentum going forward.
Bobby: It’s true – education and adoption will always be a driving force for our council. I’m really excited to hear the different ideas and opinions that will be shared from individuals with backgrounds and experiences across the industry. We will be able to use those ideas to help better the OOH industry. The new Geopath Insights data is a great opportunity to not only better use OOH, but to increase opportunities for spend in OOH. We want to make sure that we’re able to help educate people on this new information so they can use it properly and effectively – that will absolutely be at the core of all future work for the council.
Piper: I would also love to see better collaborations between media owners and agencies because a lot of times we get in the habit of sending an RFP to a media owner that doesn’t include a lot of detail. I would love to see us all work together to come up with smarter recommendations. We need to give the media owners as much information as we possibly can so they can use the Geopath Insights Suite and come back with a recommendation that matches our RFP goals.
Toni: I agree with Piper. I recently received an RFP from an agency that was asking for the basics and I asked if they wanted me to provide more information on the specific demographic – of course their answer was yes. It takes a little bit more time but it absolutely helps the overall process.
Bobby: I think that having better collaboration now, with more understanding from both the agency and operator sides, is going to be really beneficial for everyone. There have always been questions surrounding the RFP process and the targeting capabilities of OOH, and with the Best Practices document we’re now able to have smarter conversations with clients/agency partners. This is a great opportunity for new advertisers to enter into the industry. It’s not just about getting advertisers to increase their OOH advertising budget, it’s also about new opportunities and great new audience targeting. There’s a lot of potential there.
Final thoughts
Toni: I have been working with InSite Street Media, which was Signal Outdoor Advertising until earlier this year, for 11 years. I just love everything about selling outdoor advertising, and these truly are exciting times now that we have extremely useful audience data to offer.
Piper: I started my advertising career in media 18 years ago. For half of my career, I worked across various media formats, but I always gravitated toward OOH because it’s so creative. It’s so amazing to drive down the street and see something that you played a role in creating. There are always budget restrictions, but it’s really cool to see something that was just an idea in your head come to life though OOH, and that’s what I love most about it.
Bobby: I think OOH is a really unique and interesting advertising medium that offers many creative opportunities. There are always new innovations coming to the industry, and while there is a lot of focus on TV and digital media formats, I think there should be more of a spotlight on OOH and all that the medium has to offer. With the new insights we have from Geopath, I think it’s going to be an even more effective medium for advertiser, and I look forward to playing a role in advancing the conversations throughout the industry.
If you would like a copy of the latest version of the Best Practices, Standards and Protocols document you can download a full copy here. Geopath’s Learning Lab is also available to all members and can be accessed from the Geopath website or by clicking here.
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