What You Should Know About the Geopath Rebrand
Over the past few months, the Geopath team and Brand Council have worked tirelessly to make the transition from the Traffic Audit Bureau for Media Measurement to Geopath. We’ve revamped our presence and embraced our new identity as a team of driven, fun, and energized geeks. The 83-year-old audit bureau is now transformed into a more powerful, future-proof brand. We are still a not-for-profit governed by a tripartite board of advertisers, agencies and media companies, but we have the look, feel, and energy of a startup.
Here’s a recap of our rebrand process:
THE CHALLENGE
Conduct a Benchmarking Study
In 2015, the TAB’s newly elected President, Kym Frank was on a mission. She reached out to our members and journeyed across the country to meet with them. In addition to in-person meetings, she launched a survey which evaluated how the TAB’s members perceived the organization. Although the results revealed that members viewed the organization as being “progressive” and “informative”, a few responses were quite alarming. The TAB was not only perceived as being “outdated” but was also described as “slow”, “confusing”, and “inconsistent”– descriptors that were unacceptable for a market research company.
We realized that there was a lot of work that was needed to refresh our members’ perception of the organization. Less than a year later, Kym expressed in her BIG Picture speech that in order to get clients, investors, and others to see the organization in a new light, the rebrand was necessary.
THE EXECUTION
Coordinate a Brand Council Committee
We sought OOH influencers who could help us make this change. We hired a seasoned branding consultant, Lee Rafkin of Rafkin & Company and elected a group of 7 amazing industry folk to our Brand Council Committee including, Andrea MacDonald, President, MacDonald Media; Dan Levi, EVP/CMO, Clear Channel Outdoor; David Krupp, CEO, Kinetic US; Jeff Tan, VP, Director of Strategy, Posterscope; Jennifer Seickel, President, OOH Pitch; Jodi Senese, EVP/CMO, Outfront Media; and Matt Leible, CMO, Billups.
Our mission was to create a completely new brand. We wanted to change the perception of the TAB from an old-fashioned billboard rating bureau to the experts in audience location measurement, insights, and research innovation. Our goal attributes include agile, strategic, trusted, and client-focused. Armed with our stellar council, we spent weeks positioning and developing a new name, a new logo, and more importantly, a new vision.
We successfully created our new brand and it was time to introduce the out of home community to Geopath.
Make a BIG Announcement at a Major Conference
With the support of our Board of Directors, we made the rebrand announcement at The BIG Picture TAB/OAAA Out of Home Media Conference & Expo 2016 at the stunning Boca Raton Resort & Club. Kym addressed an OOH industry audience of over 800 and announced the new name. The teal “O” illuminated the stage screens and was met by a welcoming audience. @GeopathOOH became one of the top five most mentioned usernames for #bigpic16.
After The BIG Picture, we relaunched our annual benchmarking study. We surveyed over 230 of our members in July 2016 to assess our progress. Overall, our members’ satisfaction with TAB Ratings increased by 25% post our BIG Picture conference!
Develop a Launch Campaign
Our next move was to ensure that the word was out – TAB is now Geopath, an audience location measurement organization.
We took a hands-on approach, visiting as many members as possible, introducing them to our new brand and vision. We held webinars and launched a video highlighting the changes.
In addition to creating Geopath’s Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter profiles, we revamped our blog and did monthly features on our members. We adopted a new vision which was more accountable, proactive, and client-focused. We also developed and implemented a social rebrand launch campaign, focused on promoting our official rebrand launch day, September 19.
Here’s how we did it:
Conduct a Social Media Audit
We took a closer look at our social media presence and assessed the purpose of each platform and how they individually contributed to our new vision. We utilized social media to present our new brand and to introduce Geopath’s new voice to the industry.
Develop Social Media Goals
We revisited the July 2016 benchmarking study and highlighted the areas we needed to further improve including, “state of the art”, “agile”, and “fun”. Our prominent goals were to increase brand awareness, drive website traffic, and increase our following. We then developed specific and measurable goals and strategies that would enable us to improve these areas.
Implement a Campaign
We teased our followers about our upcoming rebrand launch and invited our members and the industry influencers to subscribe to our newsletter to learn more. We shared countdown graphics on each social media platform and created a Snapchat account at “geopathooh” with the intent to invite our members to host account takeovers and “A Day in the Life” stories.
THE END GAME
We’ve successfully revamped what was once known as the TAB by embracing an innovative, client-centered, startup look and feel. Over the past few months, our social media handles saw a 42% month on month growth.
There is so much more to come for the members of Geopath, including a new website and our geekOUT library!
We’ve received overwhelming support from the OOH community, and we wish to thank you. Thank you for your patience and dedication to our organization. We are humbled, honored, and look forward to cultivating our continued relationship.