Agencies

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 […]

Among the first wave of digital agencies launched in the early to mid ’90s, Razorfish may be the strongest survivor. Through several acquisitions that ultimately placed it in the stewardship of Microsoft, then Publicis Groupe, the agency retained a distinct identity while continuing to innovate and expand globally. Last week it grew its China headcount […]

Bret Leece knows analytics. He got his start in 1995 creating econometric time series models to track and predict Sprint’s call center activity, before moving on to CRM and database marketing roles including at MarketShare. Currently Initiative’s EVP of performance analytics, he has a long view of where advertising performance has been and where it’s […]

“Ad Agents” is a column written by the agency-side of the digital media community. Chris Tuleya, vp of Direct Response at Underscore Marketing, a boutique, digital marketing agency Who am I to criticize a multi-billion dollar company? On the other hand, criticism is the back-bone of the internet, specifically Facebook, so why not… Facebook has […]

It’s early days for audience-based media buying in China, but e-commerce spending is already huge and has the potential to outstrip the U.S. by 2015, per Forrester (paid report). To prepare for this future Publicis Groupe has acquired 12-year-old digital marketer Longtuo (release). The Beijing-based firm serves the e-retail needs of marketers like 360buy, Kohler, […]

Our series continues as AdExchanger reached out to several executives from the agency side of the ecosystem and asked the following question: “Given the increasing complexity of ad technology needed to service clients – particularly in digital media buying -, and ad tech companies need to build a service layer to activate its tech, where […]

Our series continues as AdExchanger reached out to several executives from the agency side of the ecosystem and asked the following question: “Given the increasing complexity of ad technology needed to service clients – particularly in digital media buying -, and ad tech companies need to build a service layer to activate its tech, where […]

Building digital consumer products for clients – in contrast to marketing campaigns – is a growing discipline for agencies, but they have to get the data right. That means embracing analytics and A/B testing from the outset; tapping customer databases; and using targeted ads to spread awareness among both existing customers and prospects. “Clients are […]

In spite of the automation that technology continues to bring to media, the services layer remains as valuable as ever – maybe more so – as talented people put the technology over the proverbial finish line. For some ad tech companies with complex offerings, a robust service layer has been the natural outcome of selling […]

Both the following are true: It’s a brave new world for holding companies. New competitors, fee structures, and technology requirements are forcing change to the old service models. The fundamentals of agency groups are as strong as they were before the digital disruption. Tech fragmentation is helping rather than hurting. At the Association of National […]

Mike Cassidy is CEO of Undertone, an advertising technology and services company. Cassidy recently spoke to AdExchanger about his company and industry trends. Click below or scroll for more: Is Undertone An Ad Network? The Agency Client and Blurring Lines Programmatic Buying’s Effect On Building “The Stack” Momentum and Milestones AdExchanger.com: People think of Undertone […]

Last week, JWT announced it would rebrand its Minneapolis office to become part of Digitaria’s growing network. The Minneapolis outpost is a dedicated digital operation with clients including UnitedHealth Group. San Diego-based Digitaria was founded as a digital design firm in 1997 but has extended to website development, search, analytics, and even digital product invention […]

Miami-based Media 8 is one of a growing number of indie digital shops to dabble in programmatic ad buying. Since mid-2011 the Hispanic and travel-focused agency has brought exchange-traded display media to clients including General Mills and Dish Latino. It has done so courtesy of a relationship with trading desk partner Accordant Media, which provides a […]

“Ad Agents” is a column written by the agency-side of the digital media community. Alastair Cole, Head of Creative Services of Essence Digital, a global digital marketing agency based in London and New York. Do you like to be challenged? You should: problem-solving is human nature and our brains have evolved to reward us when […]

Depending who you ask, momentum for an online GRP measurement standard is either the best answer the online video business has to unlocking billions of TV ad dollars or it’s a menacing hand from the past come to smother web video metrics in the cradle. The latest major player, and first publisher of size, to […]

Vivaki’s Nerve Center may have been the brainchild of Curt Hecht, but Kurt Unkel has done as much as anyone to help make it a reality. Unkel, who has worked for Hecht for more than a decade, will now run Publicis’s automated media buying unit as president in the wake of his boss’s departure for […]

“Ad Agents” is a column written by the agency-side of the digital media community. Chris Tuleya, vp of Direct Response at Underscore Marketing, a boutique, digital marketing agency. Everyone who works in our industry has been in this situation before; you get a call from the client/agency/boss that they want your big ideas. And let […]

The U.S. has had  26 straight months of job creation, the stock market has held on to the 13,000 point for a few weeks and expectations for the coming TV upfront season are practically exuberant. That said, unemployment is high, the economic recovery is anemic, the housing market is still in the doldrums and the […]

Mark Miller is SVP and CRM Practice Lead at Publicis agency Digitas. Miller is also the author of two recent articles: “The Three Tenets Of New CRM” and “Three Steps To Dealing With Data Paralysis.” He recently discussed the world of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and its implications for audience buying with AdExchanger. AdExchanger: Does […]

The talk of the agency business the last few years has been “tear down the silos.” That has usually meant putting digital media buying at the center of a hub that can be tapped for more traditional disciplines like TV, print and out-of-home. In a sense, GroupM, WPP’s media unit, has served that function. But […]

Baiju Shah is Partner & Managing Director, Digital Media at Accenture Interactive. Shah recently discussed his company, and the data-driven ecosystem and how it’s impacting the marketer with AdExchanger. AdExchanger: There’s a lot of talk in this space about building a “marketing stack” or “end-to-end solution.” Is Accenture the agency that’s going to take care […]

As part of the breakout sessions on the first day of sessions at the 4A‘s “Transformation LA” conference,  agency trading desks and their competitors gathered on stage for a frank discussion on the use of trading desks and demand-side platforms (DSPs) at the agency. Joe Apprendi, CEO, Collective JT Batson, President, Mediaocean Quentin George, Chief […]

The use of data has created a bunch of scammers. The auction is killing us. And then – the Internet has destroyed more value than it has created. These were the suppositions from Microsoft Research’s Jaron Lanier that challenged advertising agency executives attending the opening panel of the 4A‘s annual conference titled “Transformation LA.” The […]

Autumn Christiano works as Director of Analytics for The Portal Group (TPG), a boutique consultancy. Among other companies, TPG services Toyota and Toyota Motor Sales within three main categories as it relates to website strategy: technical, project management and analytics. Christiano spoke about her company and data-driven marketing with AdExchanger at the recent Adobe Digital […]

Tim McAtee, Research Director, IPG Media Labs, and Brian Monahan, Managing Partner, MAGNA Global Intelligence Practice, recently worked on research for the IAB Rising Stars ad units and the expansion of the IAB’s standard ad unit portfolio. Read the release, and see the units. Monahan and McAtee discussed large format, display advertising with AdExchanger including […]

Ronald Paul is CEO of QUISMA, a European performance marketing agency and a subsidiary of WPP Group’s GroupM. AdExchanger: How do you define a performance marketing agency today? RP: Whereas performance marketing was once a single online marketing channel, with brands only paying for leads or sales generated via advertising on third party publishers’ sites, […]

“Ad Agents” is a column written by the agency-side of the digital media community. Chris Tuleya, vp of Direct Response at Underscore Marketing, a boutique, digital marketing agency. In order for audience-based buying to move forward, digital advertisers need to break free from the offline media shackles that come with demographic buying. Audience-based buying is […]

Of many holy grails, the one involving effective cross-channel, digital media buying (let alone traditional channels) seems to remain elusive for the most part. Sure, you can capture a few search-ers who are showing intent for a blue Buick and then retarget them through display ad exchanges, but that’s hardly the scalable motherlode for effective […]