Agencies

Independent media agency Harmelin Media, whose clients include BET and Blue Diamond Almonds, is constructing its own in-house trading desk. Working with TubeMogul, Harmelin, which used to work with a dozen vendors, will commit programmatic video buys to a single platform. Harmelin is doing this so it can be a better steward of client campaigns. […]

When one thinks about media planning, one does not think of Omnicom-owned agency RAPP. This is understandable. RAPP built its reputation as a creative, CRM and digital agency. But the confluence of advertising and marketing means that the media planning and buying disciplines are increasingly areas RAPP hopes to build out. AdExchanger spoke about this, […]

The road to “programmatic premium,” once a cow path, has become a highway (OK, maybe a county road) cutting through the heart of ad land. And Google can’t take its foot off the gas pedal. The company on Wednesday rolled out a programmatic video marketplace called Google Partner Select and announced support for direct deals through the DoubleClick platform. The […]

Agencies and vendors are teaming up to tackle the tech and organizational challenges associated with aligning real-time media with trending topics. Publicis-owned agency DigitasLBI, for example, during its digital NewFront rolled out a series of publisher and vendor relationships to improve its real-time offerings. The agency developed a Brand Content Index in conjunction with the […]

Full-service digital agency Primacy began in 1994 as Acsys Interactive. In 2012, it rebranded to emphasize its presence in digital. Also, prospects weren’t always clear how to pronounce Acsys. (It was “Access”, for the record.) The agency, still independently owned by President Stan Valencis, has traditionally gotten traction via word of mouth. “We get a […]

Just a few years ago, brands needed to be educated around the messaging and measurement technologies available in the digital age. That imperative has since shifted as marketing departments try to figure out how they take that technology and maximize results. As a side effect, the line between data and marketing services providers like Experian […]

Agencies and holding companies are pointing to customized algorithms as a way to differentiate from the competition. Tech providers, too, claim that algorithms developed in-house offer better optimization capabilities than those that are more generally available. But as these algorithms become more popular, the parameters of what entails customization are loosening. In most cases, agencies […]

There’s a new guy in charge at Essence, the 9-year-old agency best known as a key partner to Google on its programmatic and other marketing activities. London-based Essence has promoted Christian Juhl, previously in charge of its North American operations, to run the company as global CEO. With his promotion, founder and previous CEO Matt […]

The line between enterprise software and digital agencies is blurring. As the merger between Publicis and Omnicom came to a screeching halt last week, the growing demand for data and tech prowess within the agency environment was all too apparent. In the case of computing giant IBM, developing an in-house agency has been a (lesser-known) […]

With the collapse of the proposed merger of agency holding companies Omnicom and Publicis, former agency exec and Vertere Group’s Tim Hanlon provided his take: “Much of of the logic I laid out last year when the deal was announced still holds. If anything, it only exacerbates the questions that brand marketers have about how to best […]