Agencies

Agency holding companies met stronger headwinds last quarter, as clients postponed or cancelled campaigns in Europe and North America. This statement from WPP Group sums up the picture at the three global agency groups that reported Q3 results this week: “Each quarter in 2012 has ratcheted down from a relatively strong first quarter. Provisional forecasts for […]

Compared to the U.S., Japan’s programmatic buying space is in its infancy. But to Rocket Fuel, this is the perfect time to stake a claim for its demand-side platform in that country, as the ad tech firm has been working on building a bigger global presence this year. But instead of just opening up its […]

On yesterday’s Omnicom Q3 earnings call with CEO John Wren and CFO Randall J. Weisenburger, the ad agency’s digital media and analytics efforts through Annalect were highlighted…. -and that’s news in itself as trading desk-related business has rarely, if ever, made an appearance on a holding company earnings call. A trend to watch for the […]

Ari Bluman was an important figure in the evolution of 24/7 Media, and later after its sale to WPP, in the formation of the holding company’s aggressive ad technology strategy. He recently left 24/7 Media to join WPP’s GroupM as Chief Digital Investment Officer, a newly created role. AdExchanger spoke with him about the new […]

Top dogs from the four dominant agency trading desks took the stage at the BB King Blues Club this morning. They hit on a bunch of topics new and old, including “education” fatigue, incursions made by DSPs, and making audience trading part of the “fabric” of all agencies. We’ll present this one lick-by-lick in honor […]

Kurt Unkel, President of VivaKi Nerve Center, has been giving Phileas Fogg a run for his money lately as he travels the globe looking to ignite client solutions emanating from his Publicis-owned research and development unit. Last week, he discussed a range of topics with AdExchanger including his group’s agency trading desk solution, Audience on […]

Tracking agency adoption of data-driven strategies is pretty easy in the media planning sphere. Media agencies partner with trading desks, data platforms, demand side platforms, and others to launch and optimize audience buying programs. With creative and “general” agencies, the adoption curve is more obscure. But if you squint, you can see it. Take Cheil USA, […]

Agency trading desks are understandably eager to ramp up with the Facebook Exchange, which promises to broaden the reach and frequency of their programmatic buying efforts. But right after the FBX launch they weren’t equally able to use it — which has led to some hand wringing. WPP’s Xaxis had a direct seat, while Publicis’s Vivaki […]

The ad industry has moved well past the experimental phase of audience buying. But where programmatic media has proven most effective are still primarily around direct response objectives. Many in the space agree it’s only a matter of time before brand marketers get serious. But is that true? To answer that, we asked three senior […]

WPP sees a tough environment for the rest of this year and next, and as a result has lowered its forecast for 2012 from anticipated 4% growth to 3.5%. In its mid-year spending report, the holding company says a cyclical spending downturn related to the absence of Olympic games and U.S. elections is a contributing […]

Here’s some new evidence that digital marketing technology in Europe may be catching up to the U.S. Last week Ari Bluman, North America President at Real Media Group, left for a new job as chief digital investment officer of GroupM N.A. (press release). In the wake of his exit, WPP-owned 24/7 Media has changed the […]

It was three months ago that Jack Bamberger joined GroupM agency MEC as president, digital for North America. He was in some ways an unusual choice, having far more experience on the media than the agency side. Of his last 20 years, 13 were spent at Time Inc., Meredith Corporation, and Ashton Kutcher’s Katalyst Media. […]

GroupM has promoted North America CEO  Rob Norman to run its digital kit and kaboodle on a global level. Among his objectives is closer management of dealings between GroupM’s thousands of digital specialists and the spangled array of ad technology partners. The WPP-owned media agency network has never had a Chief Digital Officer before. Speaking […]

Dentsu-owned 360i is well known for “earned” and social media strategies, but about half its revenue comes from paid media billings, search, and analytics. The agency has solved complex data problems for the likes of Capital One, J.C. Penney, and NBC Universal, and it’s positioning for a future of ballooning analytics requirements. EVP Jared Belsky […]

Earlier this month WPP bought a majority stake in Acceleration, a 13-year-old consulting and services firm that helps marketers and publishers implement digital ad technology. (press release) The company employs 148 marketing technologists in London, New York, Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Dubai, and Johannesburg. AdExchanger spoke with Cameron Hulett, who leads Acceleration’s consulting and sales […]

Digital ad veteran JP Maheu recently made the jump from agency land to the startup realm, assuming the post of CEO at social TV analytics provider Bluefin Labs last week. Read the release. Maheu spent six years at the independent Razorfish, retiring in 2003 after guiding the sale of the company to SBI (before its […]

WPP-owned Mindshare has a lot of love for its digital ad partners, but it’s tough love — especially on the first date. For one client, new ad networks, data providers, and other platforms must prove their worth within a week of testing. “Every test partner for this client has seven days to perform, and if […]

Internet advertising is growing everywhere  – even in economically bedraggled countries like Greece and Spain. So says GroupM in its new global report looking at measured media spend in 70 countries. The surge comes amid lower than expected growth in overall measured ad spend, both globally and in the U.S. Futures director Adam Smith spoke […]

Japan-based, agency holding company giant Dentsu has agreed to buy UK holding company competitor giant, Aegis, in a transaction valued at $4.9 billion (£3.2bn). The Guardian writes: “The importance of the deal to Dentsu can be seen in the sale multiple, which at 12 times earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation is more akin […]

As AKQA’s media team stares into the maw of WPP and its Xaxis audience buying unit, what does it see there? Scott Symonds, Managing Director of AKQA Media, is certainly aware of Xaxis’s reputation as the most controlling of the holding company trading desks – an entity that has been known to force its solution […]

For agencies and marketers, there’s a pervasive lack of synthesis among available consumer data. It would seem particularly frustrating for Steve Plimsoll, chief technology officer, Mindshare Worldwide, but he sounds much too excited about the next eight years, when he believes that problem will be solved. Plimsoll is taking steps to position his media shop […]

The U.K. is rapidly catching up to the U.S. in programmatic media, with DSPs servicing about 30 percent of GroupM’s display ad spend this year compared with 20 percent in 2011. WPP’s global media arm issued its measured ad spending report for the country this week (press release), and while the overall picture is stagnant, […]

Social Customer Relationship Management – or Social CRM – has been increasingly on the minds of many marketers, their agents and ad tech companies as the use of social media proliferates and acquisitions of Vitrue by Oracle and Buddy Media by Salesforce signal a changing media landscape. Consumers are spending a large part of their […]

Nick Pahade is a veteran of digital agencies and ad startups, having founded or led Beyond Interactive, Denuo (Publicis), GSI Commerce, and Traffiq. Two months ago, he was named North America CEO for global media planner Initiative, which is owned by Interpublic Group. This week at the Cannes Lions ad festival, he spoke with AdExchanger […]

WPP Group just scored a win at the intersection of social and programmatic display. Facebook has confirmed to AdExchanger that it added the holding company’s Xaxis audience buying unit to its list of approved real-time bidding partners for the new Facebook Exchange. Xaxis is the only one of Facebook’s RTB partners to hail from within […]

The acquisition of AKQA, the largest remaining independent interactive agency, by WPP sent waves through the ad sector today. Read: the French Riviera was buzzin’. Numerous senior agency people attending the Cannes Lions global ad festival have either worked for AKQA or competed with it dating back to its founding in 2001. The deal was […]

WPP Group has added digital agency AKQA to its holding company corral as the digital, pure play agency remains a highly-sought-after prize. Read the release. It was rumored that AKQA would be acquired by Dentsu for $600 million in 2010. Though today’s acquisition did not include terms of the deal, and considering time has passed […]

Last week, media communications agency Starcom USA announced that former Hill-Holliday executive Phil Geyskens has been hired as EVP/analytics & development director. He will join Starcom’s Managing Board and report to CEO Lisa Donohue. According to the press release, Geyskens’ new role is “to find and tell data stories, which includes inventing new interfaces, visualizations, […]

In 2006, Planning Group International partners Patrick MacDougall and Gaston Legorburu sold their agency to Sapient for $36 million. Today PGI’s core technology offering, the 12-year-old online marketing platform BridgeTrack, is still at the heart of the parent company’s ad optimization regime. Both MacDougall and Legorburu are still with the company – Legorburu as global […]

Looking inside today’s digital advertising ecosystem, you could say that the banner ad has helped spawn a new offshoot in today’s display business. Known colloquially as “native advertising,” advertisers, publishers and technology companies are looking for better ways to engage with the consumer beyond a 728×90 ad unit, for example. Companies like Facebook, Twitter and […]