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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
