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Naren Patel and Matt Teeman, the former Primesight bosses, have returned to the media industry with a start-up that aims to clean up mobile-based campaigns.

The pair are back in business together to launch GeoProve, a mobile location verification platform that helps advertisers ensure campaigns are reaching the right customers with accurate data.

Patel is a very well-known figure in the UK out-of-home industry, having worked for Primesight since 1991, and was latterly chief executive before it was acquired by Global in 2018 and underwent a restructure.

Teeman was managing director at Primesight until the Global sale and has more than 25 years’ media experience, having worked in commercial roles at Bloomberg Media, Metro and the BBC. 

GeoProve works in a similar way to online verification tags. It offers brands and agencies a self-serve platform that should be able to detect any campaign configuration issues and bad data points. There are two scoring metrics that act as a “health check”: a Location Health Score and a Location Supply Score. 

GeoProve is a member of the IAB, has been independently verified and has signed up Blis, the programmatic advertising specialist, as its first launch client. 

Patel said he and Teeman were drawn to the power and potential of location data and the concerns about the accuracy of some of the data in the ecosystem.

He told ��������pk10: “In the trials we’ve been running we’ve seen 3-4% where we can’t pinpoint where the device is real or not.”

“The issue is often with smaller advertisers who want to be really targeted with their customers, they might only want to reach people within 500 metres," Patel went on.

"But the biggest issue is then finding [which platforms] to place the ads with. A lot of platforms start increasing the area so they can get the ad served and therefore get paid. Mobile companies will sometimes flex the area in which ads are supposed to be served. Let’s say McDonald’s wants to target with one kilometre of all its stores, but a vendor may increase it to two kilometres to increase the chances of getting the campaigns away faster. 

“The other problem is that certain publishers out there, like an app on someone’s phone, are in effect hiding or creating fake location data within the app. Our tech is also able to screen whether the phone is a real phone or an app misbehaving in order to generate more revenue.”

GeoProve has also appointed former Primesight colleague Nigel Clarkson as a non-executive director, following his time in senior leadership roles in digital and data businesses, including Weve, the mobile location specialist.