Agencies

About five years ago, marketers eagerly launched pilots across all kinds of emerging technology. Now that their digital businesses are maturing, they’re growing out of that shiny object syndrome and are looking to turn projects into revenue streams. For design innovation agency Fjord, that has shifted the focus with clients from experimental work to consulting […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Clear Your Desk The buy-side push for ad tech transparency has changed Xaxis, the GroupM trading desk with a black box ad-buying model. The business has made some concessions, like offering self-service products and disclosing its margins, reports Digiday. Xaxis has also embraced outcome-based […]

Andy Main, head of Deloitte Digital, is a little tired of hearing people say consultancies are trying to muscle the agencies off of Madison Avenue. “I’d actually say the agencies are trying to copy the Deloitte Digitals of the world,” Main said. “And when someone copies you, I guess you should be flattered.” Unlike Accenture, […]

Two years ago, CRM and digital agency MRM//McCann was in a tough place. CEO Michael McLaren stepped down in May 2016, just two months after the agency lost Verizon’s digital account. But things turned around for MRM under global president and COO Kate MacNevin, who led the agency after McLaren’s departure and was promoted in […]

A weekly comic strip from AdExchanger that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem…

GroupM said Wednesday that Wavemaker global CEO Tim Castree has been named CEO of GroupM North America. Castree does not yet have a successor and will stay on in an advisory role at Wavemaker until a replacement is named. Castree’s big task will be to get GroupM back to growth in North America, its slowest […]

Even before WPP’s restructuring announcement Tuesday, the holding company had already merged digital agency VML with creative agency Young & Rubicam, and digital agency Wunderman with creative agency J. Walter Thompson. It’s still unclear what that means for GroupM’s four large media agencies. WPP CEO Mark Read didn’t comment directly about the media buying arm, […]

The new WPP, as CEO Mark Read called it during a Tuesday morning investor call in London, will return to organic growth by reducing headcount by about 2.5%, consolidating agencies and investing strategically in technology. WPP expects to deliver annual savings of $346 million by the end of 2021 thanks to this strategy. Restructuring costs […]

Media agencies, especially those owned by big holding companies, have always relied on economies of scale to get the best pricing for clients. While scale is still important in a digital world, agencies are finding strategy is a better value proposition for brands trying to make sense of data and technology and apply it to […]

What’s a coco de mer? A double coconut, which is what Martin Sorrell is cultivating with S4. The holding company he once described as a peanut grew into a coconut – also his description – when it acquired MediaMonks in June. With its second acquisition with MightyHive on Tuesday, the coconut has doubled up. From […]

After weeks of speculation, S4 Capital said Tuesday it will merge with programmatic agency MightyHive. S4, launched by former WPP CEO Martin Sorrell, will pay $150 million for MightyHive. The agency’s revenues grew 129% at a compound annual growth rate between 2015 and 2017. Revenues for the first nine months of 2018 were $40.7 million, […]

Martin Sorrell’s S4 Capital said Monday it is in advanced talks to acquire programmatic marketing agency MightyHive, five months after it paid $350 million for digital production agency MediaMonks. MightyHive is valued at up to $200 million and brings in $25 million in annual revenue, according to Financial Times. Sorrell launched S4 in April after […]

About seven years ago, DSPs that pitched marketers directly risked losing massive agency contracts. But today, as more marketers influence technology decisions and take programmatic contracts in-house, DSPs are freer to go after brands directly. Even The Trade Desk, which built a $6 billion business by pledging its allegiance to agencies, has signed more than […]

GroupM and Magna both released global advertising spend forecasts Monday with very different findings. GroupM lowered its ad spend growth forecast for this year from 4.5% to 4.3%, reaching $543 billion. Magna, which measured 2018 in retrospect, said global ad spend grew by a record 7.2% this year to $552 billion. GroupM revised its 2019 […]

“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 Simon Harris, head of programmatic activation at Dentsu Aegis Network. Header bidding has made it common for a buyer to see the same impression several times, as most publishers now offer […]

WPP said Monday it will merge digital agency network Wunderman with storied creative agency J. Walter Thompson (JWT), forming a new entity called Wunderman Thompson. Wunderman Thompson will employ 20,000 people in 200 locations across 90 markets, according to Adweek. Wunderman’s newly minted global CEO Mel Edwards will lead the agency, while JWT global CEO […]

After 25 years at BBDO, John Osborn jumped to the media side as the US CEO of OMD last year. He joined the media agency at a time when it was trying to bring content closer to media, and parent Omnicom was encouraging more collaboration among its agencies. “The work we’re doing creatively has to be […]

Global programmatic advertising will grow by more than $13 billion next year and the year after, but its growth rate has stalled and it’s making slower-than-expected headway in taking share from non-programmatic media, according to Zenith’s 2018 Programmatic Marketing Forecast published Monday. Programmatic display advertising will clear $70.2 billion this year, according to the report, […]

Martin Sorrell’s self-proclaimed “peanut” of a holding company has officially graduated to a coconut. S4 Capital reported its first-ever earnings as a public company Wednesday, following its reverse takeover of Derriston Capital in April. Q3 revenue grew 45% to $33 million and rose 48% to $94 million for the first nine months of the year. […]

Dentsu Aegis CEO Jerry Buhlmann will step down at the end of the year, after eight years on the job. He will be succeeded by Dentsu Aegis chairman Tim Andree, a former professional basketball player, who has been with the company since 2006 and will combine the chairman and CEO roles. Buhlmann – who will […]

The Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) released a study on Thursday that found an 84% drop in fraud compared to the industry average when all members in the supply chain are vigilant, badged and on the level. TAG analyzed 75 billion display and video impressions across desktop, mobile web and in-app channels to look for sophisticated […]

Horizon Media wants to be at the forefront as broadcast radio buying becomes more automated and data-driven. On Tuesday, Horizon said it would use programmatic radio platform Jelli for all of its radio upfront planning and buying – typically where advertisers spend at least half of their annual budgets. The media agency, one of the […]

Fifty-year-old direct marketing agency RAPP plays an increasingly relevant role in a world where personalization is key. Rather than expanding beyond its core value prop like some competitors, RAPP is doubling down on its strength of knowing individuals and augmenting that expertise through partnerships. “We’ve always had the customer at the center of everything,” CEO […]

The TV ad buying ecosystem is getting even messier, according to GroupM’s second-annual “State of Video” report, released Thursday. Some of the report’s revelations are familiar: Linear TV ratings are still dropping and, as eMarketer predicted in September, Amazon is a “likely third force” in the struggle for ad spend between Facebook and Google. GroupM […]

AdExchanger Talks is a podcast focused on data-driven marketing. Subscribe here. This episode of AdExchanger Talks is supported by StackAdapt. On the podcast this week, Unruly Media CEO Norm Johnston talks about the evolution of video ads – how they’re bought, how they’re sold and who gets to sell them. Unruly’s value proposition is to provide high-quality audiences […]

Something is wrong with WPP Group – or, perhaps, many somethings. On its Q3 call with investors Thursday, management detailed a list of ailments longer than that of a septuagenarian overdue for his physical. North America? “Further weakening.” Creative agencies? “Doing poorly.” Account losses? As bad as you’ve heard. Revenue was down .8%, and the […]

After stagnant growth in 2017, holding companies are getting rid of assets that aren’t related to their core focus on digital transformation, programmatic, data and technology. Omnicom, Publicis Groupe and WPP have significantly pruned their portfolios this quarter. IPG and Havas, on the other hand, have disposed of smaller and less strategic agencies in the […]

“On TV And Video” is a column exploring opportunities and challenges in advanced TV. Today’s column is written by Jay Friedman, president and partner at Goodway Group. The goal of every marketer is to spend the least amount of money possible to achieve the best possible results – to spend right to the point where […]

IPG’s $2.3 billion acquisition of Acxiom Marketing Solutions will transform the holding company’s services around its clients first-party data, said CEO Michael Roth said on the company’s Q3 earnings call Friday. “Acxiom is a world-class data asset,” he said. “As all companies look to make their first-party data work harder for them, and do so […]

Martin Sorrell is bullish on Amazon. The platform will eventually reach $100 billion in ad spend, Sorrell, the CEO of S4 Capital and former WPP honcho, predicted Tuesday at AdExchanger’s Programmatic IO in New York City. He did not mention a timeline. In Amazon’s Q3 earnings in July, the company said it brought in $2.5 […]