Agencies

 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 […]

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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 […]

More brands are bringing the strategic functions of programmatic buying in-house, relegating their agencies to specialized roles. Sixty-five percent of brands are either completely or partially buying programmatic media in-house, according to a white paper released Tuesday by the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s (IAB) Data Center of Excellence. The white paper surveyed marketers at 119 US […]

IPG Mediabrands is the latest agency network to bust silos to offer clients integrated solutions. The company said Wednesday it folded mobile agency Ansible and social agency Society into search agency Reprise. The combined agencies unified under the Reprise brand because it had the broadest footprint, with 60 offices in 40-plus markets, said Tim Ringel […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Sorrell Speaks Martin Sorrell had plenty on his mind as he took the stage at Luma Partners’ DMS conference on Tuesday, so much so that moderator Terry Kawaja could hardly get a word in. Sorrell’s most surprising comments were on Amazon’s ad business. He […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Turmoil At The Top More drama at the top of WPP, as shareholders rally against Chairman Roberto Quarta’s reelection after his handling of CEO Martin Sorrell’s exit last month. The concern was sparked by a report from advisory firm Glass Lewis, which said it […]

When Marla Kaplowitz took the helm of the 101-year-old American Association of Advertising Agencies (the 4As) just over a year ago, a scathing report about agency rebates had just dropped from the Association of National Advertisers (ANA). “There was an erosion of trust when that happened,” Kaplowitz said. “Everyone was guilty without any sort of […]

As holding companies slump, Accenture Interactive grows. The digital experience agency, a subsidiary of the consulting firm Accenture, grew 35% in 2017 to hit $6.5 billion in revenue, making it the biggest digital agency in the world. It’s acquired 20 digital and design agencies since its launch in 2009 to build up its offering. As […]

Martin Sorrell may be out as CEO of WPP, but he’s not done as an entrepreneur yet. “I’m going to start again,” he said at the Techonomy conference in New York City on Tuesday.  “I’m not going to go into voluntary, or involuntary, retirement.” So what’s the next act? Sorrell didn’t say, but he noted […]