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Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. The Zuck Abides Readers might be forgiven for thinking this has been a brutal year for Facebook, given the long string of scandals and investigations the company has faced. But in some important ways, Facebook is humming along as smoothly as ever, according to […]

Programmatic audio has been in desperate need of scale. Pandora hopes its March acquisition of digital audio platform AdsWizz will bring that scale to a growing marketplace. Pandora’s inventory won’t be available programmatically until later this year (there’s no official date yet). When it does, AdsWizz will become the largest programmatic audio exchange on the […]

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

Summer Of Our Missed Consent Google is causing consternation and potential GDPR violations by delaying its implementation of the IAB Europe Transparency and Consent Framework, a collaborative model for publishers to gather consent and transmit that consent up the supply chain, Reuters reports. Google promised to fully integrate with the industry framework by August, but […]

Times are changing at IPG. The holding company used to tout its neutrality around data and technology, with CEO Michael Roth using the phrase, “Why buy it when you can rent it?” But IPG’s $2.3 billion acquisition Monday of Acxiom Marketing Solutions changes all that. “What’s interesting is the world has changed,” Roth said on […]

Looks like Acxiom Marketing Solutions (AMS) is an agency business after all. Interpublic Group said Monday it acquired Acxiom’s legacy data management business for $2.3 billion. AMS represents about three-quarters of Acxiom’s total revenue. Dennis Self and Rick Erwin will serve as co-presidents of AMS, which will remain a standalone unit aligned with IPG Mediabrands. […]

Consultants, in-housing and other negative talk about the agency business doesn’t bother IPG CEO Michael Roth. Rather, he sees it as a validation of his sector. “Clients are faced with disparate questions about how to navigate their dollars,” he said. “Our job is to help them do that.” IPG, which outperformed its peer set in […]

 Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. The GDPR Pipe Cleaner Programmatic ad spend has rebounded a bit in Europe after contracting a month ago when GDPR came into effect. Clients cut programmatic by as much as 50% in the days following enforcement, since many publishers lacked consent technology and advertisers […]

Ebiquity shook the industry when it dropped its report on media transparency two years ago. Advertisers and agencies alike still reel from its impact. As a consultancy Ebiquity isn’t as flashy as others, like MediaLink or Accenture – both of which plastered the Croisette with their branding. Still, some of Ebiquity’s activities after the K2 […]

It’s been two years since the Association of National Advertisers, working with  consultancy Ebiquity and investigative firm K2, dropped a damning report on agency transparency. And everything’s better now, right? Quite the contrary, said Bill Duggan, the ANA’s group EVP, during a Cannes rooftop panel hosted by Mastercard. “Trust between clients and agencies is at […]

It’s been a heck of a couple of months for Mark Read. The Wunderman CEO was promoted to co-chief operating officer of WPP in April after then-CEO Martin Sorrell stepped down amid an investigation into misuse of company funds. Read shares his role with Andrew Scott, WPP’s COO for EMEA, who focuses on the commercial […]

Cannes is reaching peak consulting firm. After steadily acquiring small digital and design agencies for the past decade, the agency divisions of major consulting firms, such as Accenture, PwC and Deloitte, are making their presence known on the Croisette this year. Deloitte Digital had a far lighter touch at Cannes last year, with a cabana […]

As media agencies become more skilled at programmatic buying, they’re working with fewer demand-side platforms (DSPs) than ever before. According to Pathmatics, advertisers have cut the number of DSPs they work with by 40% over the past two years, to about four per month on average. In part, that’s because the market is consolidating. Big-name […]

MDC Partners CEO Scott Kauffman runs his agency network a bit differently than his peers. While the agency founders’ culture has come under fire recently by some, Kauffman, who has been CEO at MDC since 2015, actively facilitates it. MDC takes a majority stake in agencies and lets its entrepreneurs drive their own growth rather […]

Last year, when Publicis Groupe said it would pull out of the Cannes Lions festival and awards show and reinvest the funds in an artificial intelligence platform, it sparked other holding companies to rethink their presences. Many had become concerned that the festival, which takes place every June along the beach in the south of […]

Kantar is facing a lot of speculation about its future at WPP. Since Martin Sorrell resigned as CEO of WPP in April, analysts and investors have buzzed about how the holding company can unlock value for shareholders in a period of slow growth. Many say selling the Kantar market research business, whose growth has lagged […]

WPP reelected its board with 84.5% of shareholder votes at its annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday, despite concerns about slow growth and leadership. Reported revenue was down 3.4% for the first four months of the year to roughly $6.4 billion. Some investors, however, expressed concern and discontent about how the company handled CEO Martin Sorrell’s […]

When WPP Group-owned GroupM opens its doors at the brand new 3 World Trade Center building in downtown Manhattan next month, it’ll be more than just a symbolic new beginning. The face of GroupM is changing. In addition to the shocking exit of WPP CEO Martin Sorrell in April, two longtime GroupM executives, Chairman Irwin […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Cannesultants Cannes Lions kicks off next week, but without the hometown hero. Last year, the French holding company Publicis Groupe said it would forgo Cannes and other award shows in 2018 and reinvest savings in an AI platform. In a press release on Monday, […]

According to Nate Woodman, the new chief data officer for Havas Media, the media agency’s job is all about controlling data flows. “How do you take information, move it and connect it to activation?” he said. Woodman joined Havas Media in May, taking the reins from North American Chief Data Officer Michael Kaushansky, who now […]

Vista Equity Partners’ plan to buy a majority stake in Integral Ad Science – valuing the company at $820 million, according to AdExchanger sources, or up to $850 million, according to Axios – underscores the ongoing importance of ad verification and the pressure these vendors face to grow their product offering to remain competitive. “There’s […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Playing Nice As he throws his energy into a new marketing investment vehicle, Martin Sorrell has no plans to undermine WPP Group, where he remains the eighth largest investor, Reuters reports. Reuters spoke with another big WPP stakeholder, Jupiter Asset Management fund manager Alastair […]

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

Deloitte Digital is a fast-growing consultant-owned agency making waves in the industry. Deloitte’s agency subsidiary has more than 10,000 global employees from acquisitions such as creative shop Heat, creative agency Acne, Polish agency Digital One, design agency Flow and consultancy Daemon Quest, and grew 31% year-over-year in 2017. With $4 billion in 2017 revenue, Ad […]

As many expected, former WPP Group CEO Martin Sorrell isn’t quitting without a fight after being boxed out of his company in April. Sky News reported late Tuesday that the longtime CEO and industry legend had acquired Derriston Capital, a so-called “cash shell” listed on the London Stock Exchange, with plans to turn it into […]

Varick Media Management said Wednesday that former Xaxis executive Paul Dolan will join the company as its first-ever CEO. Varick, launched in 2008 as one of the first agency trading desks, has always had a president reporting into to senior leadership at parent company MDC Partners. Now with its first CEO, Varick is establishing a […]

Dentsu Aegis Network said Tuesday it has added Index Exchange as a tech partner for its people-based marketing initiative, M1. M1 typically targets precise audiences. The Index Exchange wrapper will find more of those needles in the haystack. Publishers already using the Index Exchange wrapper must sign a contract with Dentsu Aegis Network before tapping […]

“The Sell Sider” is a column written by the sell side of the digital media community. Today’s column is written by Jay Friedman, COO at Goodway Group. In the past two weeks, I’ve been to two supply-side platform (SSP) summits and spoken in depth to more than a dozen publishers. I’ve learned a lot. In short, […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Cleaning The Nest Twitter debuted a set of political advertising policies it will have in place for the 2018 US midterm elections. Read the blog post. Political advertisers will have to verify their identities and that they are based in the US, either by […]

It wasn’t a surprise to most in the industry when Accenture Interactive said Wednesday it would formally launch a programmatic services unit as part of its offer to clients. The Accenture subsidiary has been steadily wading into agency territory for years by acquiring creative and design shops. While it hasn’t made any major acquisitions in […]