Agencies

Ad buyers aren’t thrilled about Google Chrome’s decision to phase out third-party cookies, but they’re thankful it’ll take about two years; Safari and Firefox didn’t extend such a courtesy. During that time, most buyers intend to rebuild their targeting and measurement strategies. But Google’s proposed Privacy Sandbox solution is still too theoretical for there to […]

Dentsu Aegis Network said Tuesday it has acquired E-Nor, a California-based consulting firm that specializes in Google Analytics and is a major reseller and sales and service partner of Google Marketing Platform. E-Nor and its roughly 45 employees will fold into Cardinal Path, the marketing and analytics consulting group Dentsu acquired in 2016. Cardinal Path […]

If there’s one thing that gets Martin Sorrell’s goat, it’s the accusation that he doesn’t care about creativity. “People say I’m a bean counter or an accountant, and I don’t mind that, they’re just having a dig,” said Sorrell, executive chairman of S4 Capital, the digital-focused holding company upstart he founded on his exit from […]

When it comes to data, IPG CEO Michael Roth has said in the past: “Why buy it when you can rent it?” But that thinking changed last year when Acxiom went up for sale. When IPG bought Acxiom, it was able to build new offerings around first-party data management. In October IPG launched Kinesso, a […]

S4 Capital, Martin Sorrell’s scrappy new holding company, acquired Mexico City-based multicultural digital content agency, Circus Marketing, on Wednesday – its 11th deal in just over a year. Here’s why: an expanded footprint, more capacity in existing markets and data, data, data. “It’s a smart deal that makes sense for their strategy,” said Jay Pattisall, a […]

Last decade saw a spate of data broker acquisitions by agency holding companies. But are these deals too focused on owning data, rather than using it to derive insights? “You have to look at broad groups of data to understand consumption,” said Jonathan Nelson, CEO of Omnicom Digital. Rather than purchase a data broker, Omnicom […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. It’s Vox’s Forte Are you an advertiser in need of publisher first-party data? Then Vox has a holiday gift for you! The company, which made a big-scale play in 2019 when it merged with New York Media, has launched an advertising platform called Forte […]

The advertising industry today is largely the product of tremendous M&A activity. AdExchanger looked at the acquisitions that made the biggest impact in the past decade. Impact can mean many things. Some of these startups flourished under their new owners, showing worth far more than their deal price. Others, purchased during their downfall, reflect the […]

The 2010s was a decade of tectonic shifts for the TV industry. Linear TV networks can no longer avoid the digital revolution. As eyeballs shift to streaming platforms and buyers demand more automation and better measurement, new players, like Hulu and Roku, have risen as prime media sellers, while broadcasters evolve their businesses to capture […]

It’s almost 2020, and data and technology have revolutionized media. So why has the industry still not been able to crack data-driven creative? After six years at media agencies, Oleg Korenfeld asked himself that same question. In December he left Wavemaker, where he was global chief platforms officer, to join LA-based branding and experiential agency […]

Nick Brien, CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network in the Americas, will leave at the end of the year after 2 1/2 years on the job, the company said Friday. He will be replaced by Jacki Kelley, who joined Dentsu in March as president, chief client officer and CEO of creative in the United States. Kelley […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Welcome To The Club Sam’s Club has agreed to acquire advertising technology and some executives from Triad, its retail ad tech partner and sales rep, Ad Age reported. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Along with the technology, Sam’s Club will pick up […]

The programmatic industry is known for its breakthroughs in data and media. But when it comes to creative formats, innovation has fallen short. Programmatic ad units are largely still the same banners and pre-roll videos of 10 years ago, which don’t perform as well as the in-feed native ads consumers see on social. Instagram and […]

“Data-Driven Thinking” is written by members of the media community and contains fresh ideas on the digital revolution in media. Today’s column is written by Jay Friedman, president and partner at Goodway Group. Some kids go straight from high school to Harvard. Others take a gap year ­to “find themselves,” tinker in their friend’s garage or simply […]

The linear world is going programmatic, and agencies need to start applying audience strategies to their traditional buys. To instill that mindset at Omnicom, agency Hearts & Science said Tuesday it has elevated its Chief Data Officer Megan Pagliuca to chief data and media officer. The title change might seem nominal, but her new purview […]

TV viewership is now decreasing faster than linear TV inventory prices are increasing, according to Magna’s latest forecast. This shift is causing the TV networks’ revenues to slip. Global linear TV ad spend was down 4% year over year to $289 billion in 2019, according to Magna. This year for the first time, TV represented […]

“On TV and Video” is a column exploring opportunities and challenges in advanced TV and video. Today’s column is written by Maggie Zhang, executive vice president of video research and insights at Dentsu Aegis Network. Nowadays, anyone can easily find enthusiastic advocates for TV attribution at every turn, myself included. As we celebrate the newfound capabilities to […]

The United States advertising market is inching up to the quarter-trillion dollar mark. Total ad spend in the United States will reach $244 billion this year, a 6.2% bump from 2018, according to GroupM’s annual media forecast. That’s a very strong growth rate – the highest since 2000 – but it could also be the […]

Google is officially getting out of the managed services business in the United States, the company said earlier this month. The company shared the news at its Google Marketing Partners summit, an event that caters to agencies, consultants and other service providers. Google has long offered managed services across Google Display & Video 360, Search […]

Regulation and an increased demand for user privacy has slowed the flood of money into programmatic advertising globally. Sixty-nine percent of all dollars spent on digital advertising will be transacted programmatically by 2020, up from 65% in 2019, Zenith predicts. And programmatic spend will surpass $100 billion globally for the first time this year. But […]

Most agencies are myopic in their approach to Amazon. They might only focus on retail optimization or just concentrate on search. But Amazon also offers an array of opportunities across OTT, audio, social and branding, said Travis Johnson, global CEO of Amazon consultancy Podean. “What Amazon is doing is very broad, [and] nobody is thinking […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. China Who? TikTok wants to distance itself from its Chinese ownership as it faces scrutiny from US lawmakers and regulators. Its senior-most executive, Alex Zhu, gave an interview to The New York Times, dismissing concerns that the social app could help China spy on […]

Kinesso, the data and technology unit IPG launched in October, announced the formation of a Digital Responsibility Practice on Monday. The group will be led by Sheila Colclasure, a 20-year Acxiom vet who was most recently SVP of global public policy at LiveRamp. In her new role, Colclasure will help Kinesso technologists, data scientists and […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. MPlatform No More GroupM is disbanding mPlatform, the unit it launched in 2016 to centralize client access to data and technology across its agencies. Newly minted CEO Christian Juhl wants to create more consistency across the group’s four media agencies, and the mPlatform brand […]

Red Antler, the agency known for creating brands such as Casper, Allbirds and Brandless, launched a performance agency on Thursday called Good Moose. Good Moose debuts with a team of 12 and performance marketing capabilities across search, social, programmatic and ecommerce. Daniel Romano, Red Antler’s head of performance marketing, will lead the agency as CEO. […]

MDC Partners is the latest holding company to place its programmatic, search and social talent into a team that spans across its media network, MDC Media Partners. The group, which doesn’t have a name, was announced internally on Thursday and contains roughly 100 experts across biddable media and digital planning from agencies Assembly, Unique Influence […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Castree Out GroupM North America CEO Tim Castree has stepped down from his role after less than a year on the job, Business Insider reports. Castree was promoted to CEO in late 2018, after leading the merger of media agencies MEC and Maxus, with […]

WPP has struggled to grow in recent years, as key clients in fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) reduce spend and its traditional creative agencies underperform. While the tech vertical and its media business are relative bright spots, they aren’t big enough to buttress the entire holding company. WPP’s Q3 performance, which the company reported Friday, […]

When Roku bought dataxu for $150 million on Tuesday, it said the deal would make it easier for buyers of all sizes to access OTT inventory at scale, and use Roku’s ID off platform. Roku is basically trying to make more inventory, powered with better data, available to advertisers, said Frank Sinton, president and founder […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Power In Numbers Attorneys general from 31 additional states have joined New York AG Letitia James’s probe into Facebook, bringing the number of states involved to 46 (not including the territory of Guam, which is also hopping aboard). James first launched the probe, which […]