2023 Geopath Year in Review
A Message from Dylan Mabin
In what was another challenging year across the advertising landscape, Out of Home continued to cement itself as a highly effective and reliable media channel, helping brands reach and engage target audiences with relevant and timely content. Despite uncertain economic conditions, OOH still saw increases in spending across the first three quarters of the year, with growth driven by digital and retail place based. The industry’s performance has prompted outside watchers to declare OOH as being “fully recovered” from the pandemic with “room to grow.” As expectations for a full advertising recovery increase, OOH is well-positioned to surge to new heights in 2024.
In addition to the typical advances we have become accustomed to seeing year after year in digital, programmatic, targeting, and other areas across the industry, this past year was marked by renewed emphasis on the importance of establishing standards and unambiguous definitions for measuring the performance of OOH campaigns. There is growing recognition that, for OOH to significantly increase its share of the media pie, we must be able to better integrate into the buying and planning systems used by cross media planners. As an industry, we must be able demonstrate the impact of OOH using terms that are clear and consistent, and with data that is easily accessible to all. With updated final MRC measurement standards likely on the horizon, continued efforts of industry leaders, and leadership from Geopath, we expect to make great strides in this area in the year ahead.
For Geopath, 2023 was a transformational year. The 2023 Annual Forecast, released in February, featured a new reach and frequency model for all audience inventory as well as transit station and scheduled fleet media, in addition to the usual measures. We worked closely with members to ensure familiarity and comfort with the new metrics. The team is now working to prepare the 2024 Forecast, which will be available for preview in the coming weeks.
We continued to enhance our infrastructure to ensure all members have unrestrained access to the highest quality data sources, an effort that will continue into 2024 and beyond.
And we saw an increase in Geopath membership. I’d like to welcome the 47 new members to Geopath and thank them all for their support.
The future is bright for the entire OOH industry. We’re looking forward to another year of growth and prosperity.
Wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2024!
Sincerely,
Dylan
See below for more highlights from the past year.
The Year-in-Review | 2023 Highlights
Annual Forecast Launch
In February, we launched our Annual Forecast, which includes impression data for all audited inventory and, for the first time in the current generation of measurement, transit station and scheduled fleet media – all with reach and frequency metrics generated by our new and enhanced model.
The Geopath team worked tirelessly to ensure the data is of the highest accuracy and precision, and to prepare all members to begin transacting confidently once it became the official dataset earlier this year.
Click here to view the 2023 Forecast FAQs.
2023 OAAA/Geopath OOH Media Conference
On March 27-29, the OAAA and Geopath welcomed over 1000 industry leaders and participants in Nashville for the annual OOH Media Conference.
During Dylan’s keynote address, he hailed the industry for its remarkable resilience following years of pandemic-related disruption. He discussed the critical need for the industry to turn its full attention to pursuing the transformation initiatives that will increase the value of OOH media and integrate OOH into the strategic planning, forecasting, and measurement tools used by the broader media community.
Geopath’s Scott Fiaschetti and OAAA’s Steve Nicklin also announced winners of the 8th annual Local Case Study Awards at the conference. The Local Case Study Awards honor OOH campaigns that inspire consumers to make a quantifiable impact on local businesses.
The Grand Prize was awarded to Jenny Cohen at OUTFRONT for Poppi and Ward Farrell at Lamar Advertising Company for Mahalo Heating.
In addition to the Grand Prize winners, four finalists were also recognized:
- OUTFRONT for Fernish
- OUTFRONT for Williamsburg Tourism
- Lamar Advertising Company for St. Patrick Catholic High School
- OUTFRONT for Job Today
Welcome, New Members!
Geopath welcomed 47 new members in 2023.
Member Spotlights
We also held conversations with a variety of members for our Geopath Member Spotlight series. To read any of our prior Member Spotlights, click the image below.
If you are interested in participating in a 2024 Member Spotlight, please reach out to [email protected].
Board of Directors Update
In March, we welcomed Dan Langert, Director of North American Media and Licensed Merchandise at Molson Coors Beverage Company and Gina Stratford, VP of Sales & Marketing at YESCO Outdoor Media.
In November, Tricia Barr, Media Director at Morgan & Morgan; Ali Broback, Chief Client Officer at ODN; and Rick Robinson, CEO at PJX Media joined the Board for three-year terms.
Michael Lieberman, Executive Director, OOH at GroupM was also re-elected as Geopath’s Chairperson for a second two-year term.
For a full list of the Geopath Board of Directors, visit: https://geopath.org/our-org/
Press Highlights
Throughout the year, Geopath was featured across a variety of OOH and advertising trade publications.
Dylan and Scott also shared their POVs on a handful of important industry topics through bylined articles in Adweek, The Drum, Billboard Insider, OOH Today, Digital Signage Today, Chain Drug Review and more.
Please click on the image below to find direct links to these articles.
Looking to 2024
The upcoming year promises to be another year of growth, progress, and developments. Political campaigning is already in full swing with spending expected to reach a record $16 billion by the time the year is complete. Candidates on both sides of the aisle will turn to OOH to reach voters with their message.
Better standards for OOH measurement will help bring greater integration and consistency to measurement processes and approaches.
Finally, in late April, the OOH ecosystem will come together in the San Diego area for the 2024 OOH Media Conference featuring speakers from Sony Music, Olipop, nutribullet, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, and more. Click here for more information or to register.
