Gail Chiasson, North American Editor
Joe Philport, former president and CEO at the Transportation Audit Bureau for media measurement, was awarded the top marketing award Tuesday from the Out-of-Home advertising industry.
The Marketing Award of Merit was presented to Philport by the Outdoor Advertising Association of America at the 2015 OAAA\TAB National Convention + Expo in San Diego.
Philport led the development of TAB OOH Ratings, which were initially released in 2010 to measure audiences that see OOH ads rather than count cir¬culation. A leading researcher and educator, Philport joined TAB in 2002. He retired from TAB in December, 2014, but continues to provide technical advice.
“As Joe exits TAB for a well-earned retirement, I can think of no one more deserving to receive this honorable award,” said Nancy Fletcher, OAAA president & CEO. “His diligent efforts over the last decade have transformed OOH, ensuring our industry has reliable audience metrics, thereby allowing OOH to compete side-by-side with other advertising media channels to attract a broader, more robust client base.”
Under Philport’s leadership, TAB modernized ratings to help transition the industry from a sales model based primarily on circulation and locations to one that measures each OOH panel based on the audience it actually delivers. Since Philport helped launch the system, hundreds of thousands of OOH sites across the country have been audited and are now measurable using TAB OOH Ratings.
Mary Sheehan, senior director of media strategy and planning at ESPN and chairperson of the TAB Board of Directors, praised Philport for his 12 years of leadership at TAB, saving, “Joe has been the steward and strategic force behind TAB OOH Ratings, making it the official currency for OOH measurement and his contributions cannot be overstated.”
Established in 1933, the Traffic Audit Bureau for Media Measurement Inc. is a non-profit organization whose historical mission has been to audit the circulation of out of home media in the United States. Recently TAB’s role has been expanded to lead and/or support other major out-of-home industry research initiatives.
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