Last year Geopath formed a futures council to help Geopath and the out of home industry prepare for the future. In December 2019 Insider interviewed 4 members of the council: Scott Fiaschetti, Gina Stratford, Matthew Noll and Mike Buongiovanni). Today Insider talks with three more council members: Toni Short, Piper Wirth and Bobby Gorczakowski
About the Futures Council Members
Toni Short: I am a council member representing the media owner side. I have been with InSite Street Media (previously Signal Outdoor Advertising) for 11 years, with roles spanning across Orlando Market Manager to VP of Local Sales and now, Director, National Sales & Strategic Marketing. In this capacity I oversee national accounts, government advertising, new business initiatives and am the company’s master user for Geopath. Prior to Insite Street Media, I was Advertising Manager for Tampa Historic Streetcar, Inc. and Publication Manager at CJ Publishers, Inc., where I was responsible for sales, customer interface, research, marketing and operations of the In-Town Tampa Guide & Map.
I also served as Sergeant in the USMC and worked for Hillsborough Area Regional Transit in Tampa (HART) where I was responsible for special projects and business development activities. I hold a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from NOVA Southeastern University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from Southwest Texas State University.
Piper Wirth: I am a council member representing the agency side and have extensive cross-media experience, with almost 18 years in the business. I began my career as a media planner across all channels, at agencies including RPA, Carat, and Starcom. I also worked on the client side at Warner Bros, where I had the opportunity to work on campaigns for some of my favorite films such as Batman Begins, Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, and Million Dollar Baby.
Mid-career, I decided to focus on my true passion – OOH. During my recent time at Kinetic and Macdonald Media, I led the OOH teams on accounts across many different industries and on major clients such as Universal Pictures, Facebook, Mazda, Lionsgate, Chevron, Starz, and AMC, and have recently taken on the role of Group Director managing OOH for all of Amazon’s lines of businesses at RapportWW. My favorite award-winning campaigns include helping Minions dominate every OOH format on La Brea Blvd, and bringing roaming zombies to the streets of New York to promote The Walking Dead.
Bobby Gorczakowski: I sit on the council representing the media owner side. I joined OUTFRONT Media in our Research/Insights department almost 5 and a half years ago. My team assists our sales teams across the country with requests relating to audience targeting, industry/category insights, media expenditures and anything else to help guide a media plan recommendation. This is my first job within the outdoor industry and with each year I am finding OOH media to be more and more interesting.
Prior to OUTFRONT, I worked in SEO (search engine optimization) at an online retailer, Quidsi, for various product categories. It was my first job after graduating from Loyola University Maryland, where I received a Bachelor of Business Administration Degree specializing in Marketing.
Inspiration to join the council
Toni: I have been working with Geopath for a few years, and was asked to be part of its Insights Suite beta test back in 2018. Following this process, I started using the Insights Suite regularly. Earlier this year I was appointed to the Futures Council by our Vice President at InSite Street Media, who sits on the Geopath Board. I was inspired to join the council because I am a daily user and was very interested in getting involved with the council to act as an ambassador inside my company and across the broader industry.=
Piper: I was nominated for the council by my previous agency, Macdonald Media, where the CEO sat on Geopath’s Board of Directors. I’ve always been very involved with my team, trying to change the way people think about OOH especially when it comes to measurement, so the Futures Council was a really great opportunity for me to help set new rules around this. I want to be an ambassador for this at my new agency, Rapport, and make sure everybody is utilizing Geopath to power smarter OOH plans. I have always been very passionate about OOH and finding ways to get advertisers to use more OOH, therefore, the Futures Council seemed like the perfect place to increase the impact of my advocacy.
Bobby: I was nominated for the council by OUTRONT’s CMO, who sits on Geopath’s Board of Directors. My team at OUTFRONT have always been heavy users of Geopath’s insights, tools and enhancements, which made me an ideal candidate for the council. Using my knowledge, I am able to help educate our teams internally and guide them on leveraging Geopath data in their day-to-day business. The Future’s Council has given me the opportunity to communicate with other representatives across the industry and collaborate on how we can help grow OOH overall. I’m excited to get more involved and listen to everyone’s opinions and feedback. The council members are great resources with great minds.
Current initiatives
Toni: Following the launch of our Best Practices document last Fall, a continued focus for the council will be making updates as the Geopath Insights change. Anything we find while working through the platform will be reviewed on whether or not to include it in the document. I consider the last year to be the year of learning when it comes to showing the industry what Geopath Insights had to offer. This year, we’re still in the learning stage, but will also work on helping the industry with implementation at the same time.
We are currently ensuring that everybody is trained and knowledgeable about the platform. It is very important as a council member that I educate my staff and others on the insights that are offered. We trained all of our employees at InSite Street Media through the online Geopath Learning Lab, and are at 100% completion. I feel it is also my job to keep people active on the platform. At InSite Street Media, I have actually implemented a Geopath community group internally called “Selling Audience and Movements,” where we will be able to share employee success stories using the insights from Geopath’s platform. Each week I upload a use-case to provide ideas on strategic selling.
Piper: While at MacDonald Media, I worked on the Futures Council to help develop the Best Practices document, and was very involved in making sure that everybody at MacDonald Media was trained and understood the Insights Suite. Now that I have transitioned to my new role at Rapport, I have a new team to train.
I’ve found that the training is very informative, but you need to start applying it to campaigns immediately, so I’m currently working with my team to figure out how we can best utilize the platform for our clients. The media owners I work with who know I’m involved in the Futures Council ask me questions frequently, so my goal is to educate as many people as I can.
Bobby: What was big for us last year, and will remain important this year as Toni mentioned, is the idea of education. We want to ensure everyone is educated on the changes to the new platform, not only at our respective organizations but also across the industry, which is something we’re continuously looking to do. I think the Best Practices document and our Future’s Council advocacy is definitely going to help us grow the industry and provide us with some really great insights. As the Geopath Insights expand and grow the Future’s Council will be pivotal in educating the industry about these updates.
Tomorrow each of the Futures Council member will talk about the future. 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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