As a staff reporter at AdExchanger, Alison covers advertising agencies and the digital audio landscape. Previously a copywriter at MarketSmiths, she has written digital marketing copy and produced campaigns across multiple verticals. Prior to that Alison worked in editorial at award-winning travel journalism site Fathom. She has a B.A. in International Studies and Spanish from the University of Michigan.
When Merkle launched as a CRM and performance media agency in 1988, its strong data repository and direct-response focus set it apart from other media agencies. As marketing went increasingly digital, Merkle’s strong data foundation laid the groundwork for a natural evolution into programmatic buying, turning it into a competitor for digital and media agencies. […]
Brian Lesser, CEO of GroupM North America, will speak at Programmatic IO on April 5 in San Francisco. Marketers are under pressure to transform their businesses around digital while keeping costs low, so agencies have to evolve their business models to meet these demands. At GroupM, that evolution has played out with the launch of mPlatform, which […]
This is the third of three stories in a mini-series on how artificial intelligence is affecting the work that agencies do. Read the previous stories about Xaxis and Publicis.Sapient. After years of double-digit growth, global lingerie brand Cosabella suddenly lost momentum in 2016. “We decided we needed to cut ties [with our agency] and change something […]
This is the second of three stories in a mini-series on how artificial intelligence is affecting the work that agencies do. The next installment will publish on Friday. Read the first story about Xaxis. As marketer interest in artificial Intelligence (AI) grows, Publicis.Sapient sees opportunity to provide guidance. It has a dedicated unit that provides AI-related advice […]
As consumer attention continues to fragment, creative agencies are relying more on real-time insights to craft personalized messages and optimize them on the fly. That requires bringing media and creative services closer together. While smaller indie shops are bringing media execution in-house to make messaging more relevant, holding companies experiment with cross-discipline and cross-agency teams. […]
This is the first story in a trilogy on how artificial intelligence is affecting the work agencies do. The next installments will publish on Wednesday and Friday. Xaxis, a partner of dynamic creative platform Jivox, is leveraging the latter company’s newest product, released on Monday: an AI-based dynamic creative content recommendation engine. Xaxis will layer […]
GroupM digital agency Essence on Thursday launched a data strategy unit, its latest shift in an ongoing reorg around audience-based planning and buying. To lead the new unit, Essence has tapped Jon Taylor, previously VP of operations and audience insights at Dun & Bradstreet. The data strategy team will guide clients through platform selection and […]
Snap Inc. is expected to go public on Thursday, leaving many to wonder how the most anticipated tech IPO since Facebook will be treated by investors on Wall Street. While Snap described itself as a camera company during its roadshow, investors know that its success hinges on its ability to monetize successfully as an ad […]
Marla Kaplowitz, named president and CEO of the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As) on Friday, has made mending fences with the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) a top priority. Addressing the rift between the two organizations – and, more broadly, between marketers and agencies themselves – over agency transparency has “got to happen this […]
Pandora’s audio ads are about to get personal. The streaming giant partnered with UK-based dynamic audio creative vendor A Million Ads on Thursday to bring tailored creative and sequential messaging to audio ads in-stream. The capability will launch this year in beta, but Pandora did not state specifically when. Pandora will leverage A Million Ads’ […]
DigitasLBi had started to grow beyond its core purpose: to be the data and insights shop within the Publicis.Sapient family. When global CEO Luke Taylor stepped down two weeks ago, Nigel Vaz, CEO of Publicis.Sapient in AMEA and APAC, also became global President of DigitasLBi. As president, Vaz will have oversight of DigitasLBi’s brand strategy and positioning, […]
Billboards are lighting up with the promise of programmatic. Out-of-home (OOH) is projected to grow almost 12% in spend by 2020 – faster than any other traditional media – thanks to opportunities in digital, according to the Outdoor Advertising Association of America. Digital OOH accounted for $2.7 billion in ad spend in the US […]
On its Q4 and full-year 2016 earnings call on Friday, IPG said it will invest in data and analytics for its global media management unit, Mediabrands, rather than bolting on an acquired solution. “We believe [Mediabrands] will become the data stack and platform that will service all of our clients,” said CEO Michael Roth. Roth […]
Since iCrossing entered the market as a search agency in 1998, digital spend has expanded to social, display and mobile, all of which are table stakes. As a result, iCrossing expanded into a full-service agency, eventually getting acquired by Hearst in 2010. Since then, it’s snagged AOR accounts for clients like Bayer, Church and Dwight and […]
Publicis will write down its digital arm, Publicis.Sapient, by roughly $1.5 billion – almost half of its initial valuation – the company told investors during its earnings call Thursday. Sapient, for which Publicis paid $3.7 billion in 2014 to expand its digital assets, has become a drag on the overall business. While Sapient grew 7% […]
Revenue from Omnicom’s trading desk Accuen grew $33 million in Q4 and $86 million over the full year in 2016, the company said in its Q4 earnings call on Tuesday. Q4 marked the highest incremental growth Accuen saw all year. In the two preceding years, Accuen’s contribution to Omnicom’s overall revenue fluctuated between $20 million and […]
Digital captured 72 cents of every new ad dollar in 2016, compared with TV’s 21 cents, according to GroupM’s Interaction report. In 2017, the report estimated, the ratio will be 77:17. But as digital becomes ubiquitous, so do concerns around data and compliance in a totally connected world. 2016 “was an alarming year for the […]
IPG Mediabrands has rolled content-creation arm Mediabrands Publishing into social media agency Society. Thursday’s merger will tie content creation closer to distribution and targeting across platforms. “You can’t just push content organically anymore,” said Rob Bernstein, managing director at Society. “You need two bookends: smart targeting and really good messaging. It’s not about taking a […]
In the 16 years since it launched in 2001, Propel, Gatorade’s fitness-focused water brand, has slipped from top-of-mind presence for its audience to out of mind. “Consumers would say, ‘I love Propel. I kind of forgot about it,’” said Gina Hardy, senior marketing director of Gatorade at PepsiCo. To get its brand back in action […]
Snapchat parent Snap Inc. added partners to its Ads and Custom Audience Match APIs on Tuesday and introduced a new API category for Creative. It also did something marketers have been wanting for a while: letting them license Ad Partners’ tech for self-serve buys. Before the update, buyers could only purchase Snap Ads via a managed service, which was basically […]
When Epsilon parent Alliance Data reported full-year 2016 earnings last Thursday, CFO Charles Horn said “the old ValueClick business” was “a three-point drag on Epsilon’s revenue growth.” Horn was referring to Conversant’s ad network business before it rebranded to pivot toward ad tech in 2014, said Epsilon and Conversant CEO Bryan Kennedy. “It’s probably 4% […]
Marketers across the globe are adapting their relationships with agency trading desks to gain greater transparency into programmatic buys, according to the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA). Ninety percent of members belonging to the European trade body are reviewing their contracts with agency trading desks to gain more control and transparency, the organization said in […]
Publicis Groupe’s creative chief, Arthur Sadoun, will succeed Maurice Levy as its chairman and CEO, the holding company announced Thursday. Sadoun will step into the role June 1 and Levy will transition to chairman of the company’s supervisory board. Publicis Media CEO Steve King will also join the Publicis Groupe Management Board. Sadoun’s appointment comes […]
The rapidly growing podcast industry is struggling with a dearth of listenership data. To help shed light on how listeners engage with podcast ads, iHeartRadio is joining forces with Art19, a platform that partners with publishers to host their podcasts and measure ad performance via API integration. Art19 will now syndicate its hosted podcasts on […]
Holding company trading desks this year are putting the focus on data and the ability to identify a customer across screens and platforms. That focus made owning data mission critical, and it’s shifted the focus away from programmatic as a silo and toward data management and activation across the board. As a result, “trading desk” […]
With half of all product searches starting on its platform, Amazon is giving Google a run for its money. “There’s an expectation from people who visit Amazon [that] they’re going to find anything they want,” Seth Dallaire, VP of global ad sales at Amazon Media Group, said Wednesday at AdExchanger’s Industry Preview conference in New […]
TV buying is becoming more data-driven, even on the linear side. But buyers and sellers are questioning whether audience targeting works on the medium. “’Should TV be bought on an audience basis?’ is still an outstanding question,” Donna Speciale, president of ad sales at Turner, said Wednesday at AdExchanger’s Industry Preview conference in New […]
Agencies and consultancies are looking more and more alike. Tammy Soares, Accenture Interactive’s newest West Coast lead as of Tuesday, brings nine years’ experience as CEO of Publicis Groupe’s digital agency, Rosetta. There, she gained experience embedding consultants into agency culture. At Accenture Interactive, she’ll be tasked with doing the opposite. “I’m used to working […]
It’s high time programmatic became available to the budding cannabis industry, which is projected to hit $8 billion by 2020, but regulatory hurdles have kept it from lighting up. Instead of examining the legal ramifications around cannabis marketing, many advertising platforms simply fall back on a blanket ban, said Paris Holley, chief technology officer of […]
Arun Kumar, global president at Cadreon, will take the stage Jan. 19 to share Cadreon’s full vision for the future at Industry Preview in New York City. Walled gardens are cropping up across the digital ecosystem. “It’s just the way the world is going to be for the foreseeable future,” said Arun Kumar, global president at Cadreon. […]
