The Billboard Insider Podcast
00:04:18 · Dave Westburg, Kym Frank
[00:04:18] S0: Kym, you've got some experience on the TV, on the broadcasting side of things. What can we learn from the broadcasting experience? [00:04:27] S1: Yeah. Lots of things. I think broadcast... And I I was working in the channel at the time when digital really started to become a real challenge for broadcast. There was a lot of, I think, sticking the head in the sand going on in the channel and published studies that said... And I still see these now. Published studies that say that, no. TV is doing fine. TV is doing great. And you'll see this a lot now where there's studies that say things like, you know, cord cutting isn't really an issue or a problem. And I don't think that hiding from a problem that's really facing the industry did it any good. Right. They certainly ran off and try... Everybody tried to make their own apps at the time. You know, if you wanted to watch content, you could download the ABC app or the NBC app or the Fox app. And then meanwhile, Netflix popped up, and all of these big networks gave Netflix content. You know, my understanding is that was done in a vacuum without any research behind it. They were just very eager to be the first to be on the platform. And, essentially, they funded their biggest competitor today. You know, it it was just making big decisions without doing the research ahead of times, I think, was a big challenge for them. [00:05:45] S0: Kym, you've been at Geopath for three years since 2015. The organization has changed significantly since you've been in charge. Can you explain some of the changes?
00:05:45 · Dave Westburg, Kym Frank
[00:05:45] S0: Kym, you've been at Geopath for three years since 2015. The organization has changed significantly since you've been in charge. Can you explain some of the changes? [00:05:57] S1: Yeah. And believe it or not, Dave, it's been almost four years. [00:06:00] S0: It's remarkable. [00:06:01] S1: Four years at the conference. It... It's funny because it went by so quickly. Mhmm. I still consider myself someone who's new to the industry, but four years, really, you're not new anymore. [00:06:11] S0: You're right. You're right. [00:06:13] S1: Yeah. The organization has changed in so many ways. I mean, obviously, we changed the name. But I think as part of that name change and that brand refresh, we really changed the entire feel of the organization. I think prior to me coming on board, the people here were really data. Their focus was very much on data, and data are great and data are important. But what's more important than data are our members. [00:06:36] S0: Mhmm.
00:06:36 · Dave Westburg, Kym Frank
[00:06:36] S0: Mhmm. [00:06:37] S1: So we've really increased our focus on providing value to each of our members regardless of their size, and we've put a larger emphasis on providing consultative client service. Part of that was really upping the game on the way that we communicate out, having a social presence, developing a webinar series, a blog where we can, you know, showcase the work that our members are doing. We have provided a research library to our members. Because something that I identified early on when I came here is that ratings are great and ratings are important, but sometimes what our sellers need and our buyers need are other data to help them. [00:07:18] S0: Mhmm. [00:07:19] S1: And we have access to those data here. So just helping people in their day to day, you know, get that meeting or get that deal has been a a big focus for us. [00:07:29] S0: I can think of some posts you've done. For instance, someone wrote about Major League Soccer, was it? And you did a responding post saying, well, let let me just tell you what the data says about out of home, for instance, and Major League Soccer. Or someone says that out of home is not an effective way to sell, for instance, if you're a LASIK or an eye doctor and you're able to say, well, let's say what... Here. Well, let's show you what the data says about selling in this sector.
00:07:29 · Dave Westburg, Kym Frank
[00:07:29] S0: I can think of some posts you've done. For instance, someone wrote about Major League Soccer, was it? And you did a responding post saying, well, let let me just tell you what the data says about out of home, for instance, and Major League Soccer. Or someone says that out of home is not an effective way to sell, for instance, if you're a LASIK or an eye doctor and you're able to say, well, let's say what... Here. Well, let's show you what the data says about selling in this sector. [00:07:59] S1: Right. There's still a lot of legacy thinking out there going on about the channel that I really think, Dave, are just kind of statements that are being made without a lot of data behind them or any data behind them at all. But now we have the data as a challenge, as as a channel to prove our value, our efficacy, our our ability to target audiences. Mhmm. We've really... And this is a Geopath thing, sure, but it goes so far beyond Geopath. We've all upped our game [00:08:27] S0: Mhmm. [00:08:28] S1: When it comes to being considered a cutting edge technologically savvy, and we have to all continue to push that message [00:08:34] S0: Mhmm. [00:08:34] S1: Whenever we can. [00:08:36] S0: Kym, you're almost done with a major redesign of the Insights Suite, the audience and measurement and data systems of Geopath. Can you just do a bring down on what's new there?
00:08:36 · Dave Westburg, Kym Frank
[00:08:36] S0: Kym, you're almost done with a major redesign of the Insights Suite, the audience and measurement and data systems of Geopath. Can you just do a bring down on what's new there? [00:08:50] S1: Yeah. Sure. So the data have been out and have been being vetted by our members for quite some time. We just released a new faster version of our API for any of our members who are ingesting the data directly into their own systems and platforms. And now we're really in the final stages of having our members just look at all the impressions for their inventory, flag anything that doesn't feel right or look right to them so that we can, you know, do QA on them, make sure everything's right. We improved our methodology beyond the measurement. There's a lot that goes on behind the scenes. Like, the way that we audit inventory is significantly more precise now, so there may be secondary or tertiary reads that we weren't giving credit before. So a lot of that has changed on the back end. Mhmm. And, you know, our members have been really great in helping us and looking at the data and saying, hey. Can you flag this? This doesn't look right. And so now we're kind of in the final stages. So it won't be terribly long before we're asking our members to officially vote, migrating to the new data. So [00:09:54] S0: Wow. [00:09:54] S1: Super excited about that. Yeah. [00:09:56] S0: What are some of the features that the new system is gonna have that out of home companies may not be aware of?
00:09:56 · Dave Westburg, Kym Frank
[00:09:56] S0: What are some of the features that the new system is gonna have that out of home companies may not be aware of? [00:10:03] S1: Yeah. You know, it's so funny because I think when we first headed down this path, there was this feeling that the tool was more focused on national buying and planning than it was on local. And I think now that it's in front of everyone, everyone realizes that the opposite is true. It's... You can do great national planning that you could never do in our system before, but the local data are awesome. Someone told me... One of my members told me that they still have this old Arbitron study that they bought, like, decades ago that they reference about where cars were coming from that were passing each of their pieces of inventory. But now because we have the mobile data, we know what neighborhoods audiences are originating from. So you can get, you know, a unique origin study for every piece of inventory you own. And in so many cases, we see that the audience is obviously not coming from the ZIP code in which the inventory is sitting. [00:10:59] S0: If I own a digital sign, for instance, in Sherman, Texas, I can say to an advertiser in Denison, Texas, which is just down the road, did you know that two thirds of the people going by my billboard end up in your neighborhood? [00:11:13] S1: Yeah. Or or live somewhere else outside of the market. [00:11:16] S0: Yep.