The technology landscape is a quickly evolving beast – and in some cases, that can feel quite literal. “The volume of vendors is expanding so fast, it’s a bit like the movie ‘Gremlins,’” said Rachel Pasqua, practice lead for mobile and emerging technology at MEC Global, North America, a GroupM agency. But while clients expect […]
The TV ad makeover is gaining steam, judging by comments on the ground this week in Cannes. Cablevision and NBCUniversal/Comcast are talking up the data granularity and addressability of their millions of set-top boxes, and agency buyers are crowing about results they’re seeing from programmatic TV activities. For example, Modi Media, GroupM’s addressable TV agency, […]
The fox can’t guard the chicken run. GroupM is not down with Facebook and Google’s reticence around third-party verification tags. “You can’t measure yourself,” said John Montgomery, COO of GroupM Interaction, North America, speaking at AdExchanger’s Clean Ads I/O conference in New York City on Wednesday. The fact that Facebook is working closely with the […]
John Montgomery, COO of GroupM Interaction, North America will appear at AdExchanger’s upcoming CleanAds I/O conference on June 3, an event addressing inventory quality and supply chain issues in the digital advertising ecosystem. GroupM’s stance on viewability is clear: “If an ad can’t be seen, then we can’t expect clients to pay for it,” said […]
Viewability and fraud will be addressed at AdExchanger’s upcoming CleanAds I/O conference on June 3, along with a host of other inventory quality and supply chain issues in the digital advertising ecosystem. Screening out fraudulent and non-viewable ads has never been easier or more popular. Last summer AdExchanger reported that the number of marketers running viewability […]
A programmatic API for cable television? Cablevision, a telecom and cable systems company reaching 2.5 million households in the New York tristate region, claims it has developed one. It launched Total Audience Application (TAPP) last Thursday, an audience-planning tool that allows marketers to apply first- and third-party data to optimize addressable or linear TV campaigns. […]
The divide between publishers and advertisers around viewability sharpened during a Tuesday morning panel “Inside The Mind Of The Advertiser,” hosted by analytics provider Integral Ad Science. This wasn’t much of a surprise considering one panelist was Ari Bluman, GroupM’s chief digital investment officer for North America. GroupM has taken a notoriously hardline stance around […]
One hundred percent desktop ad viewability sounds like the simplest thing and an easy standard to meet. But advertisers still are in want, publishers wish they could provide it and this demand has generated frothy press releases from the ad tech community with “100% viewable” bolded in the header. The problem is that “100% viewable” […]
A global consumer packaged-goods giant and specialty automotive company have very different digital aspirations. For toothpaste brand Colgate-Palmolive Co., its target demographic is everyone. “How many teeth exist in the world?” said Jack Haber, VP of global advertising and digital for Colgate-Palmolive Co., during Simulmedia’s Salon series panel event Thursday with MediaLink. “For some brands, […]
Privacy compliance consumes more attention in agency-land thanks to the rise of data collection, the proliferation of vendors that support it and new catchphrases like “people-based marketing,” which was coined by Facebook a few months back. GroupM has created a new position to centralize its institutional knowledge and activities regarding privacy, and it has hired Rachel […]
Although addressable TV advertising commands an estimated $200 million-$300 million in spend compared to linear TV’s $70 billion annual ad market, according to some TV industry execs, it promises a targeted buy down to the household level either through a set-top box or other IP-enabled device. However, the inherent challenges of addressable TV – which include […]
Rentrak defended itself late last week against rival measurement firm Nielsen, whose global president Steve Hasker claimed Rentrak “never lets the facts get in the way of a good press release.” Hasker, in a Friday media briefing regarding errors Nielsen had discovered in its national networks ratings going back to March 2, opened fire on […]
What’s the hottest new digital toy? If you’re Facebook and Twitter, it’s the buy button. To recap: Facebook published a blog post explaining its experimentation with a buy button – currently with select small and medium-sized businesses – with which users can purchase goods directly through the Facebook platform. This announcement followed Twitter’s own dalliance with […]
While native advertising is this year’s digital buzzword, it’s not clear how one can measure its effectiveness. AdExchanger ran this question past a number of agencies: “How do you measure native advertising?” Click below or scroll down to read their responses Cary Tilds, chief innovation officer, GroupM Lisa Penelton, VP of marketing science, Critical Mass Andrea […]
When The New York Times discontinued in February its director of programmatic advertising position, held by Matt Prohaska, partners and advertisers wondered how this would affect the publisher’s programmatic initiatives. Certainly the Times sought to alter its structure, saying in a statement it was “re-imagining and growing [its] programmatic organization and strategy with a focus […]
WPP Group-owned media agency GroupM’s launch Monday of spinoff Modi Media, intended to improve targeted television ads, expands WPP’s authority on addressable and interactive TV tools and services. Michael Bologna, GroupM’s former director of emerging communications who was named as Modi’s president, said Modi will operate as a separate business unit with access to clients […]
Consulting businesses are popping from the foliage like so many munchkins in Oz, eager to guide bewildered marketers – lost, perhaps dealing with head trauma – through a fragmented and hallucinatory media landscape to the yellow-brick…well, you get it. Last month, Starcom MediaVest Group took the wraps off a new advisory business called Zero Dot. The […]
Notice how the cover-up of scandal is often worse than the original misdeed? The same is true when it comes to the appearance of a conflict of interest – if it looks like a conflict, you’ve got a conflict. That’s ultimately what led Starcom MediaVest Group CEO Laura Desmond to resign from the board of […]
GroupM has lowered its global ad spending forecast for the second year running. The media investment arm of WPP cited Eurozone weakness as the main reason why it expects 2013 ad growth of 3.4%, instead of the 4.5% it previously predicted. Argentine currency volatility, a wobbly Japan and Egypt’s chaos were secondary reasons. The five […]
The time when the blanket label “video advertising” will replace references to TV, PC, mobile, or tablet ads is still a long way off, but a new marketplace offering from Videology promises to advance that cause by letting buyers and sellers unify guaranteed and non-reserved ad deals. Dubbed “Descartes,” the system is named for the […]
For major publishers that built their businesses on print and glossy magazine pages, there is a clear sense that programmatic ad sales methods are becoming mainstream. What’s less clear is how to address the problems that programmatic has forced on them, namely, the struggle over developing a common metric and how to define terms like […]
Marketers worldwide are pouring more money into digital ads, according to a new report from GroupM. Internet ad spending is expected to reach $113.5 billion worldwide this year, a 14.6% increase from last year and representing more than 21% of advertising budgets, reports the media buying agency, which polled marketers from 28 countries. North America […]
The old thinking: social media channels like Facebook and Twitter will be the death knell of traditional publishers. The new thinking: they need each other desperately. And just maybe, they can actually generate a worthwhile amount of ad dollars and audience engagement through mutual benefit. That was the consensus at the opening panel of the […]
When you think of big consulting firms operating at the intersection of technology and marketing, names like McKinsey and Deloitte come to mind. GroupM? Not so much. But WPP Group’s media investment arm aims to change that with a new consulting unit led by Ernie Simon, previously the chief strategy officer at Omnicom’s OMD. Unlike […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
Rob Norman is CEO of of North American operations for GroupM, the parent organization for WPP Group media agencies Maxus, MediaCom, Mediaedge:cia and Mindshare. Norman sat down with AdExchanger.com during last weekend’s Association of National Advertisers annual meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona. AdExchanger.com: What is happening with the brand marketer and their digital strategy today in […]
