Agencies

WPP said Friday it has sold a 60% majority stake in Kantar to Bain Capital in a deal that values the company at around $4 billion. Read the release. The news marks the end of a months-long bidding process that involved Apollo Global Management and Vista Partners. Bloomberg reported earlier in July that Bain had […]

“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 Auren Hoffman, CEO at SafeGraph. Organizations are awash in data. They are creating more and more of their own data, and they are now starting to buy increasing amounts of external […]

“On TV And Video” is a column exploring opportunities and challenges in advanced TV and video.  Today’s column is written by Jay Friedman, president and partner at Goodway Group. Buying connected TV ad inventory is fragmented at best and complex at its worst. Channels we are familiar with from the corded TV days – TLC, HGTV, Bravo […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Audit This  WPP has had enough of Accenture playing agency and media auditor at the same time. So, starting in 2020, it will no longer participate in pitches run by the consulting firm. WPP is concerned that Accenture can use the media and services […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Crab Apples Apple News Plus, the $10 per-month news bundle Apple launched in March, is headed back to the drawing board after a rough debut. Revenue from the service is split 50/50, with half going to Apple and publishers splitting the other half based […]

Ashlen Cherry, Epsilon’s chief privacy officer, would bet on federal privacy legislation happening – just not before the end of the year. “This can be a bipartisan issue, and there’s an appetite for it on the hill,” said Cherry, who joined Epsilon last October after almost a decade as the global privacy program manager at […]

“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 Sarah Rose, vice president of digital ad operations at IPG Mediabrands. Our post-2020 “opt-in” ecosystem includes laws such as the EU’s General Date Protection Regulation, California’s Consumer Privacy Act and […]

Havas isn’t facing the same pressure to grow as other holding companies are. The privately-held agency network, owned by French media mogul Vincent Bolloré’s family empire, The Bolloré Group, isn’t subject to pressures of the stock market. “When you’re privately owned, you can focus on the long term,” said the elder Bolloré’s son, Havas CEO […]

At the Cannes Lions festival, media agencies made it clear that they’re embracing Ads Data Hub (ADH) ­­– Google’s answer to privacy-safe attribution – despite the implications for independent measurement. ADH supplies a clean room environment in which agencies can continue to use their own modeling capabilities and data science within Google’s walled garden. Because […]

Global digital ad spend may be starting to slow, but it’s still growing like gangbusters compared with the rest of the market. IPG-owned Magna Global predicts in its latest spending forecast, released Monday, that digital ad sales will increase by 14% this year and represent more than half (51%) of total global ad sales ($304 […]

The Cannes Lions, the annual advertiser confab celebrating creativity on the French Riviera, is all about the glitz and glamour. But this year, beyond the branded yachts and magnum-sized bottles of rose, proving that creativity drove business performance will be a key ingredient in winning awards as marketers struggle for growth. Creatively, the focus will […]

Facebook, Amazon and Google might be the biggest ad platforms in the world, but as advertisers, they’ve become the heaviest spenders, according to a global ad forecast from GroupM released Wednesday. As an advertiser category, digital natives are fueling the fire on global ad spend growth. Granted, GroupM doesn’t expect the 2019 growth rate to […]

Xandr is making AT&T data available to buyers across all media types through AppNexus’s demand-side platform (DSP), which it has rebranded as Xandr Invest. Xandr Invest launched Monday and allows advertisers to layer AT&T’s first-party data when buying inventory available through the AppNexus exchange as well as inventory from Xandr’s premium video network, Community. Advertisers […]

“The Sell Sider” is a column written for the sell side of the digital media community. Today’s column is written by Jay Friedman, president and partner at Goodway Group. Amazon bought Sizmek’s ad server and dynamic creative optimization (DCO) tool last week. If you’re not a Sizmek customer, this may not seem like a big deal. And […]

Martin Sorrell has harsh words for his successor at WPP Group. During a wide-ranging interview on this week’s AdExchanger Talks podcast, Sorrell sharply questions decisions made by WPP’s current leadership in the year since he abdicated to start his own holding company, S4 Capital. He suggests WPP brass have executed poorly on a well-intentioned strategy […]

When nutritional supplement company Transparent Labs ran a video on social media as its first-ever marketing campaign, it didn’t expect to go viral. But the five-minute video raked in 21 million views and 18,000 shares across social media, translating to a 4:1 return on ad spend. Through the campaign, Transparent Labs was able to grow […]

Interpublic Group’s $2.3 billion purchase of Acxiom Marketing Services in 2018 shook the industry. And it reverberated into 2019 with Publicis Groupe’s follow-up acquisition of Epsilon. This week on the podcast, IPG Chief Data and Technology Officer Arun Kumar comes into the studio for a frank discussion of the deal and the larger trend of […]

“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. Accenture Interactive’s recent purchase of creative agency Droga5 presents a fundamental question of whether consulting and creative can be combined effectively. Can a creative […]

Facebook, Google and Amazon all possess near monopolies in their respective markets. Is there anything wrong with that? The presiding view has been that monopolies don’t matter as long as the consumer is better off, according to Rishad Tobaccowala, chief growth officer at Publicis Groupe. “All of us get these platforms for free,” he says […]

As the industry evolves, media agencies are no longer set up to work with their clients in a financially viable way. In reviews, client procurement departments still evaluate their agencies against historical cost benchmarks, such as commissions or number of full-time employees (FTE) charged by its previous agency. But that often precludes the agency from […]

With its $4.4 billion acquisition of Epsilon/Conversant, Publicis Groupe becomes a data controller – and that ups the regulatory ante under the General Data Protection Regulation and, likely, any other privacy legislation that comes down the pike. Controllers, in GDPR parlance, determine how and why personal data is processed. Controllers are also required to establish a […]

Dentsu Aegis Network’s media billings grew 28% in 2018, according to benchmarking firm RECMA, making it the fastest-growing media group among the holding companies. The company now has $13 billion under management across Carat, dentsu X, iProspect and other agencies. This week on AdExchanger Talks, Dentsu Aegis’ media chairman, Doug Ray, describes the agency’s growth […]

Despite ad tech consolidation, the Lumascape isn’t shrinking, and it’s tough even for agencies to help their clients find the right tech partners. So GroupM launched a startup accelerator program on Monday to streamline that process. GroupM will select four US-based startups to participate in the three-month mentorship program, called AdVentures, with clients including Mike’s […]

Publicis acquired Epsilon on Sunday primarily for the latter’s expertise in working with first-party client data. But Publicis got a lot more with Epsilon’s hefty $4.4 billion price tag. Epsilon is best known for its services related to data management, email marketing and loyalty platforms. But Epsilon also gives Publicis an affiliate marketing network (Commission […]

When Publicis acquired Epsilon for $4.4 billion on Sunday, it put a big emphasis on the value the company brings to the group around first-party data. But while Epsilon has deep experience working with its clients’ first-party data and managing their CRM databases and loyalty programs, it doesn’t actually own first-party data – depending on […]

Publicis Groupe’s $4.4 billion purchase of email marketing and data company Epsilon on Sunday comes down to three words: first-party data. “What is really important for our clients is to build their first-party data,” said Publicis Groupe CEO Arthur Sadoun on an investor call Monday. “If not, they will be killed by direct to consumer […]

“On TV and Video” is a column exploring opportunities and challenges in advanced TV and video. Today’s column is written by Maggie Zhang, senior vice president of video research and insights at Dentsu Aegis Network. As the timeless tale of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” goes, the young girl tastes three different bowls of porridge […]

Agencies have a “can’t live with it, can’t live without it” relationship with Facebook. The world’s second-largest ad platform, which reaches roughly 2.4 billion people, is a must-buy for brands. But a stream of issues around brand safety, misinformation and election integrity have made Facebook a precarious place for a brand to expose itself. Facebook’s […]

Dentsu Aegis Network launched Sellwin, an Amazon-focused consultancy, on Wednesday. The business is made up of six consultants, with access to another 130 specialists across Dentsu’s US agencies for things like ecommerce search, creating product page content and Amazon voice skills, said Sellwin President Travis Johnson. The consultancy model is new for Dentsu, Johnson said, […]

Accenture Interactive, the agency division of the global management consulting firm, said Wednesday it will acquire independent creative agency Droga5. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, though Accenture Interactive claims Droga5 is its largest agency acquisition to date. The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, Accenture Interactive said in a press release. Droga5, […]