Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief
Mediapost reported yesterday that Kym Frank has resigned from her CEO role at Geopath.
It’s accurate and well worth a read (hopefully) alongside this post but it’s actually a story that harks back to 2015 and one that would be worthy of inclusion in the Game Of Thrones.
Kym Frank joined what was then, the Traffic Audit Bureau for Media Measurement Inc. (TAB) as President in May 11, 2015. Already a well-respected veteran of the media research industry, within a year it was goodbye to TAB – and hello to Geopath – a new name and much needed new brand for the Traffic Audit Bureau.
Kym made great strides in introducing Geopath Insights, a Real-Time Travel Activity Dashboard, a Real-Time Impression Adjustment Metrics, Place based measurement and much more but throughout her six year tenure there always seemed to be tension between her and the OAAA (remember that Nancy Fletcher was CEO of the OAAA up until her retirement at the end of 2019).
Geopath is funded by many industry companies but the bulk of their income comes from Lamar Advertising Company (Nasdaq: LAMR), OUTFRONT Media Inc. (NYSE:OUT) and Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CCO).
These three companies are also the biggest financial contributors to the OAAA.
Lamar were undoubtedly the biggest supporters of Kym and her approach at Geopath and she was probably protected in part by Lamar’s Chief Marketing Officer Tommy Teepell but guess who joined the Lamar board in April 2020, yes none other than Nancy Fletcher.
After a successful few years at the helm where Kym had made great progress in turning around, a staid, unimaginative TAB into a more agile future looking Geopath, in May 2019 disagreements started to make themselves known in public, in Las Vegas of all places. Kym was to present new methodologies, new reporting methods and a new way of doing things at DSE 2019 but the day before at a Geopath board meeting, all hell allegedly broke loose.
Speak to any large North American publisher or media owner and they will tell you that they believed that “Geopath was not giving them what they wanted”, some (and you can guess which companies they come from) will tell you that the ‘industry body’ was not fit for purpose.
On the other hand, Geopath continued to attract new partners; Simon Media & Experiences partnered in December 2020, Swiftmile in March and most recently Road Runner in April and many an independent expert will tell you that the Geopath way was the right way.
We did speak to a few people who said that Geopath really dropped the ball during Covid19 but hey, didn’t we all a little during that torrid time?
So there’s just some of the background to what took place these last 48 hours. I am afraid to say that none of this was handled well. The PR around it has been a disaster. On Wednesday Kim was to start proceedings at the ‘Future Proof: OOH Media Conference‘ with ‘Welcome + OOH Mythbusters’ opening speech – which she did by the way as it was pre-recorded but only hours before that, news was trickling in that she had resigned / been let go / contract not extended and had left the proverbial building.
In May, the OAAA under the leadership of former IAB exec Anna Bager, started issuing their own guidelines; the DOOH Exposure Methodology Standardisation Guidelines, Impression measurement Guidelines (last week) and even a Digital Video Out of Home (VOOH) Buyers’ Guide‘ (this week).
Many of the guidelines were in essence, fundamentally in opposition to Geopath. Industry expert, Tony Jarvis, heavily involved with the MRC argued just that in some well thought out posts and put forward the case that what the OAAA was doing was devaluing OOH’s US currency.
Tony may well be correct, he is knowledgeable and well respected and I am sure that Kym agreed with him but unfortunately I think it is a fight that they both may have lost (one unfortunately with her job). Note that the first PR disaster from the OAAA was not talking to Tony.
Think on this however, the IAB has always published guidelines. Companies in the online industry then bring along or propose their own ‘standards’ – all hoping to be ratified and perhaps be the next industry currency or whatever.
You can see it with Clear Channels RADAR, with Place Exchange’s support for third-party ad server tracking and reporting for video impression and engagement metrics, with the ‘currency’ that VIOOH hope to use going forward and elsewhere.
The OAAA guidelines are definitely not the finished article but I am afraid (for Geopath at least) the notion of an industry body publishing guidelines and then ratifying standards is here to stay. If that is what Mediapost is calling a ‘Coup by Anna’ then so be it, that is what it is. Anna Bager is also much respected and she has played her hand well (apart from the PR).
You have to wonder what the advertisers and media buyers think is going on in our world, you can bet they are confused and that needs to be addressed quickly.
As one publisher told us “I just hope this won’t have advertisers questioning impression data as this gets straightened out”.
I have to say that this is the start of a huge shift in the out of home industry, Sure, it could have been handled much better but because of all this, the OAAA will now probably take ownership of that vital conduit to the omnichannel budgets. Anna wins!
But to return to they story that I started out to tell, in the Game of Thrones Daenerys was hands down the best character and no, it’s not just because she had dragons. It’s because she has the dignity and strength to embrace her true self against all odds. That Ladies and Gentlemen is Kym Frank.
May 27th, 2021 at 15:55 @705
Kym is the real deal, and she will be more than fine going forward.
May 28th, 2021 at 01:34 @106
Anna wins but US OOH loses. Sadly Big Time!! The discounts for the OAAA Impressions are already being established by the media agencies.