Encino Company Forged Success Out of Internet Opinions of Thousands

On first meeting Gerry Philpott, the founder of Encino-based, E-Poll Market Research, customers are often surprised to find not a numbers-crunching researcher and poll taker, but a 25-year entertainment industry veteran with insider knowledge.

It’s that grasp of the business side of entertainment that Philpott, an ex- ABC TV sales and development executive, has parleyed into a specialty business serving up data about how people react to celebrities, athletes, brands, music, commercials and TV shows.  E-Poll focuses on the entertainment industry with TV networks, ad agencies and movie stars and athlete agents among its clients.

“I love the entertainment business,” Philpott said recently during an interview in his office, which is decorated with director chairs and movie posters. “When I worked at ABC, I was in a position to learn things, not on the creative side of entertainment, but how it operates as a business.”

That love of the business side of entertainment began early for Philpott. As a 16-year-old, he ushered at a Redondo Beach movie house and went on to become its manager. During his college years at Santa Clara University, he worked at a local TV station which earned him an ABC network job in New York. He later moved back to Los Angeles, working for a company that sold syndicated talk shows—Donahue, Jerry Springer and others—to television stations.

But in 1996, Philpott could see the Internet posed huge potential to market shows online and survey viewers about those shows. When the company he worked for was sold, he opted to start his own business and try some of his ideas about the Internet.

He was a bit ahead of the curve, he said. Websites, social media, Internet campaigns and advertising were yet to be widely used, but he added, “People were paying for research, good reliable data.”

So, his company focused on research. Over 15 years, it grew from himself alone working out of his home to 30 employees today with offices on Ventura Boulevard and in New York.

He developed three main, E-Poll assets to grow and strengthen the company. Affordable products like E-Score Celebrity and E-Score Brand that enable customers to tap into existing information; customized research; and the “panel,” more than 250,000 people willing to be sampled for their opinions.

“It used to be phone surveys were used to generate information and it was very expensive to get 1,000 people to respond within a certain demographic,” Philpott said.

Now, with his panel, he can tap into specific demographics and get fast responses. He can use text messaging, tap into E-Poll’s list of 10,000 iPad users or use other online methods. E-Poll maintains a separate site (www.epollsurveys.com) for those interested in becoming a panel member and provides small cash and rewards for participation.

Philpott says other companies are finally catching up and using the Internet for market research and the number of competitors is increasing. His early start and industry expertise put E-Poll a step ahead, but he credits the success of his small business to his workforce, many of whom have been with him for more than 10 years, despite downturns caused by 9/11 and, more recently, the recession.

“We almost had to close shop a couple of times, but they stayed with us,” he said. “We couldn’t do what we do if we had employee turnover.”

Now his company, which in its early days was leagues away from global giants like the Nielsen Company, has begun partnering with Nielsen on sports marketing and endorsements. Philpott foresees further growth for the company, but says E-Poll will stay focused on entertainment.

“We don’t have to branch out and generate hundreds of millions of dollars in other industries,” he said, “because we’re specialized and small enough so that we’re able to serve only media clients.”

E-Poll Market Research, 16133 Ventura Blvd., Suite 905, Encino, CA 91436