IPG Mediabrands Launches Industry’s Most Powerful Delivery Engine Under KINESSO Banner

September 21, 2023
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Mediabrands

Kinesso, Matterkind and Reprise Come Together to Form New Unified Entity

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–IPG Mediabrands, the media holding company within Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG) announced today the launch of KINESSO, a tech-driven performance unit delivering real intelligence that moves brands forward. The new entity is poised for accelerated growth through the integration of three powerhouse brands: Kinesso, Reprise, and Matterkind, now living under the KINESSO banner within IPG Mediabrands.

By the year 2025, the media landscape is set for a profound and irreversible transformation. Three significant trends will shape this evolution. First, 75% of all media will undergo a radical shift towards automation and AI-driven optimization, revolutionizing the way content is created and delivered (Source: Digitalization Concepts – Case Studies: AI-Artificial Intelligence”). Second, an overwhelming 90% of online content will originate from AI-generated sources, redefining the boundaries of creativity and information dissemination. Lastly, the retail media sector will experience a surge, with a remarkable $121.9 billion of investment, making it the fourth-largest media channel globally (Source: BestMediaInfo Bureau, December 2022). Together, these developments mark a significant shift in the industry toward automation, AI-driven content, and substantial investments in retail media.

By bringing together the collective power of Matterkind, Reprise, and Kinesso under the KINESSO banner, the new entity is uniquely positioned to unify the data derived from a brand’s full marketing system into one renowned, intelligent, growth-driving capability. KINESSO performance solutions, end-to-end media activation and optimization, global capability centers and data/tech prowess opens the door for an even more holistic and integrated approach to servicing and ensuring the success of IPG Mediabrands clients.

“KINESSO by definition means movement and change, and that is what we’re bringing to the forefront of this new business. We’re here to help our clients win and make sure those wins stand out above the rest. KINESSO will make up the most efficient and powerful operating system in the market fueled by an infrastructure that allows all our agencies to function with agility and consistency in a global capacity,” said Jarrod Martin, Global CEO of KINESSO.

KINESSO will have extensive offerings spanning performance marketing and data and technology and is poised for digital excellence via advanced capabilities including progressive search engines, digital experience and platform intelligence to media activation, AI, and audience development. With a deep understanding of consumer behavior, KINESSO offers an end-to-end engine of planning and optimization while also delivering on data-driven strategy for social platforms, actionable growth in e-commerce, and creating curated marketplaces specific to each client’s function and needs.

“This is an important time in our history to build upon the collective success of Matterkind, Reprise, and Kinesso. Positioned at the heart of IPG Mediabrands, KINESSO will expand horizons for our clients by prioritizing excellence in the future of media, superior value delivery, and a commitment to innovation breaking down industry barriers. We’re excited to bring this offering to our clients and drive actionable growth for their businesses,” shared Eileen Kiernan, Global CEO of IPG Mediabrands.

For more information about KINESSO, please visit www.kinesso.com

IPG Mediabrands Launches Unified Retail Media Solution

July 18, 2023
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Dedicated Business Unit Unveils World’s Most Expansive Retail Media Network Platform to Address Brand Needs for Advertising in Retail Media

July 18, 2023, New York, NY: IPG Mediabrands, the media holding company within the Interpublic Group of Companies (NYSE: IPG) today announced the launch of its Unified Retail Media Solution, a dedicated business unit that will enable brands to intelligently manage their investment performance seamlessly across all Retail Media Networks, one of the fastest growing advertising channels.

According to the Association of National Advertisers1 2023 study 82% of CMOs find a lack of standardization across [Retail Media] platforms “a challenge” or “a big challenge.”  The second most significant challenge, reported by 68% of respondents, was the walled garden approach used by Retailers.

To help brands navigate this popular retail advertising medium, IPG Mediabrands Unified Retail Media Solution will bring openness and trust to the typically closed world of Retail Media at a time when brand spend in the space is growing rapidly. It is powered by a unique tech platform that operates against four key principles: Unified Audience, Unified Measurement, Unified Optimization and Unified Intelligence, giving brands a clear and holistic view of their performance.  Specifically, the platform can decipher which Retailers are performing best and will automate cross-retailer activation and optimization, moving media spend between retailers to maximize sales and profitability. Brands will have the option to augment their existing audience data via Acxiom data sets and the platform will automatically aggregate this cross-network data using IPG’s proprietary AI-powered tools to enable planning, insights, activation, and optimization.

Led by Glen Conybeare, Executive Lead, and with 500+ multi-disciplinary team members in support, the Unified Retail Media Solution has been beta tested by IPG Mediabrands clients in the CPG, Gaming and OTC sectors, and already has hundreds of bespoke audiences built out with a roadmap to hit over 10,000 by year-end.

“Brands activating in Retail Media face the challenge of navigating through multiple closed garden networks, each with their own data approach, metrics and ROI methods. This complexity is amplified for brands that also sell their products through these retailers. Therefore, it is crucial for brands seeking to maximize their investment to leverage data and insight across networks with an ability to make intelligent decisions in real time about what’s working and not,” said Eileen Kiernan, Global CEO, IPG Mediabrands.

“With this solution from IPG Mediabrands, clients can make optimal decisions both within and across Retail Media Networks based on facts, not hunches. It’s another step forward in IPG’s Total Commerce strategy, along with IPG’s Creative Commerce Labs, helping to ensure brands grow share and do so profitably,” added Jeriad Zoghby, Chief Commerce Strategy Officer at IPG.

“Retail Media Networks offer a huge opportunity for marketers. However, each network operates as a closed-loop system which makes it really difficult to drive ROI effectively. With dozens of retail channels as part of many clients’ investment strategies, it has been difficult to compare their relative performance. With our Unified Retail Media Platform, we have standardized a key part of the process,” said Conybeare.

According to MAGNA’s 2023 report on the matter, Retail Media revenues will increase to $121bn in 2023 (+13%YoY) representing 20% of total digital advertising revenues across search, video and display.

For more information on the Unified Retail Media Solution, visit Unified Retail Media Solution – IPG Mediabrands Commerce

IPG Mediabrands Wins GEICO’s $1.4B Media Review

February 23, 2023
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It marks an end to the insurance brand’s nearly three-decade relationship with Horizon Media

IPG’s Mediabrands won Geico’s business following a competitive review that began last fall and concluded this week.

The account is worth more than a billion dollars. By COMvergence’s estimates, it spent $1.38 billion last year on measured media. Of that, Geico funneled $827 million into offline spend, including TV. It spent $553 million on digital investments.

The decision follows a shakeup within the brand’s marketing department. Last April, the former Estee Lauder marketing leader Damon Burrell became Geico’s new CMO. By October, it reduced its marketing department’s headcount. Insurers are struggling, according to Insider Intelligence’s eMarketer data, which notes layoffs in the insurance industry ballooned between July and August last year from 12,000 to 23,000.

Appointing IPG Mediabrands will modernize Geico’s media approach, according to a brand statement.

“We are excited to work alongside IPG Mediabrands to transform how Geico designs integrated marketing strategies connected to customer needs and measured by business outcomes. The partnership marks a milestone in Geico’s marketing evolution, and we look forward to reaching many more milestones with our new agency,” Burrell said in a statement.

The end of a three-decade relationship

Ending its relationship with Horizon Media is another significant change for the brand. It has maintained a 29-year relationship with the independent media agency, which defended the business.

“I have been personally blessed and professionally honored to have built a 29-year relationship with Geico—quite rare for this industry—and for Horizon to have made the tremendous business impact that we’ve made in that time, driving astronomical growth that took them from No. 8 to No. 2 in the auto insurance industry,” Bill Koenigsberg, CEO and founder, Horizon Media said in a statement provided to Adweek.

What this illustrates is media is increasingly a holding company proposition.

Jay Pattisall, Forrester principal analyst

Dentsu Media also participated in the review, sources familiar with the matter told Adweek, although the holding company declined to comment for this story. Geico declined to reveal which other agencies it considered. However, other holding companies and independent agencies were part of the lineup, a source confirmed.

“By incorporating the full breadth of the contemporary, data-infused expertise at IPG Mediabrands, we can support the GEICO team as they go to market with an audience-led approach that will increase the value of each customer interaction and also drive growth,” said IPG’s CEO Philippe Krakowsky.

The “audience-led” approach Krakowsky referenced will hinge on IPG’s Acxiom subsidiary. Of the three agencies Adweek learned were vying for the business, Horizon is the only one that does not own a data company. Dentsu, for its part, leverages its Merkle acquisition.

Group-level wins at IPG are not usual

Pitching at the group level is highly unusual for IPG Mediabrands, although it has been done before. Last year, the group crafted a bespoke team to service the Dyson account. Mediabrands will also craft a bespoke team for Geico, a source told Adweek.

Mediabrands competitors, including Publicis Media and Dentsu Media, often pitch at the group level. But Mediabrands commonly handles business at the individual brand level. It veers away from the single P&L model other holding companies tend to present as a benefit to clients. Integrated models allow holding companies to pull from across their agency subsidiaries to staff a single client account.

At their best, group-level pitches allow holding companies to be more efficient and leverage more of their talent to address a broader range of challenges. In some circumstances, however, models like this can create account staffing issues. To avoid staffing issues, many large clients ask for custom-designed teams composed of fully-dedicated staff.

According to Forrester principal analyst Jay Pattisall, Mediabrands’ integrated offering might include Reprise Digital’s precision media skills, the tech and data capabilities inside Acxiom and Kinesso. It may also include Mediahub’s creative media approach.

Mediahub announced just last week it’s officially joined IPG Mediabrands, having previously operated separately from the group. It is unclear how much the Geico review influenced that business change, although the brand stands to benefit from it.

“What this illustrates is media is increasingly a holding company proposition because of the level of integration required to coordinate all the required components to execute audience-first media management today,” Pattisall said.

With Mediabrands’ appointment, the insurance brand is consolidating more of its marketing budget with IPG. Its creative agency of record is the IPG subsidiary, The Martin Agency.

“We’re honored to extend our long-standing relationship as their creative partner and excited that we’ll now have the opportunity to bring to bear a range of media and precision capabilities on their behalf,” Krakowsky added.

Read more in Adweek.

Ad Firms Predict Slower Advertising Growth for 2023

December 5, 2022
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Consumer-packaged goods and finance marketers could see flat ad spending in 2023, while entertainment, travel and betting will enjoy tailwinds, according to a Magna forecast

Major advertising forecasting firms say global advertising growth in 2023 will be slower than previously predicted.

Media owners’ ad revenue will grow 4.8% to $833 billion next year, according to a new forecast from Magna, a media investment firm that is part of Interpublic Group of Cos.’ Mediabrands. Magna predicted in June that 2023 would produce a 6.3% increase.

Magna said 2022 growth will total 6.6%, partly reflecting a boost from spending around the midterm elections in the U.S. That is down from the 9.2% it predicted in June because nonpolitical spending was weaker than expected in the second half of the year.

“The economy has slowed down more than expected six months ago, which was partly mitigated in the U.S. because political spending was even stronger than expected six months ago,” said Vincent Létang, executive vice president of global market research at Magna and author of the report. “Of course, it’s not going to help when it comes to 2023. We’ve reduced the growth expectation for almost every media category for next year, but we still expect that the market will stabilize and not fall.”

Marketing sectors such as consumer-packaged goods and finance could see flat ad spending in 2023, while entertainment, travel and betting will continue to be driven by regulatory relaxation and pandemic recovery, Magna said. Automotive advertising could grow again after a period of moderate decline as the industry gradually emerges from the supply-chain crisis, the firm added.

A separate forecast from media and data giant GroupM, part of WPP PLC, predicted that global advertising revenue will grow 5.9% next year, a downgrade from its 6.4% estimate in June.

GroupM said global advertising revenue this year will grow 6.5%, excluding political advertising, down from its June forecast of 8.4%. Growth in China will be less than expected because of that country’s pandemic-related lockdowns, the firm said.

“I think we’re feeling some of that deceleration into the end of this year, and maybe it’s feeling a little bit more gloomy, even though we’re still seeing growth, especially among digital players,” said Kate Scott-Dawkins, global director of business intelligence at GroupM.

Certain trends appear promising for the ad industry, GroupM said.

Although executives at some of the largest global advertisers are concerned about inflation and cost of living, their revenue has remained relatively resilient as they passed on added costs to consumers and sales held up. And though fears have swirled around a digital ad slump, GroupM said it expects advertising on digital platforms and digital extensions of traditional media to each grow by 9% globally in 2022.

“One could make the argument that we are in a global post-Covid 19 ‘war’ period marked by the after-effects of government fiscal policy and major supply chain disruptions, and not in a dot-com bubble type recession,” GroupM’s report said. “That’s why we are not seeing the universal downturn—not yet anyway—of 2008 or even 2001, despite most companies reminding us that they are proceeding with an abundance of caution.”

Read more at The Wall Street Journal

IPG Mediabrands to Offer Clients Net-Zero Media Buying

November 15, 2022
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Mediabrands, Sustainability and Purpose

Partnering with emissions data standard company Scope3, Mediabrands agencies will help clients measure, compensate and reduce emissions from the digital advertising supply chain.

IPG Mediabrands has formed a new partnership aimed at measuring and reducing the carbon footprint of digital advertising. Working with Scope3, a company that specialises in media supply chain emissions, Mediabrands’ clients will be offered the ability to measure, offset and reduce their CO2 levels from digital ad activity.  Mediabrands will now be able to use Scope3’s emissions data for every digital ad impression to provide measurement and reporting services while still also using its own existing media consumption carbon calculator. It will also offer Scope3’s Green Media Products, which factor factor the cost of carbon into the price of advertising to give brands carbon-neutral alternatives for campaign activations. In a release, the media agency noted that brands are increasingly leaning on agency partners to cut emissions resulting from digital advertising. Mediabrands says it plans to engage the digital supply chain to promote lower emission ad delivery paths and will ultimately “shift media investment to partners that demonstrate a commitment to continuous emissions reductions.” “Our partnership with Scope3 is one of many commitments Mediabrands is making to take intentional steps in support of climate action as part of our broader Media for Good efforts. For action to be taken, access to accurate data and reporting is an essential first step,” says Mediabrands global CEO Eileen Kiernan. “Scope3 provides critical insights and information that enable us to make smarter, cleaner investment choices.”

Read more in Campaign

IPG Mediabrands Expands Signature Media Responsibility Index, Finds Global Social Platforms Making Most Progress, and Benchmarks Broadcast & Cable, CTV/OTT, Digital Video and Display

October 13, 2022
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Pre-eminent industry barometer transforms into an actionable tool for brands to evaluate responsibility of multiple media types across 150+ global partners  

NEW YORK (October 13, 2022)—IPG Mediabrands and its intelligence arm MAGNA, today unveiled the 4th issue of its signature Media Responsibility Index (MRI 4.0), an initiative that strives to raise industry awareness and standards around harm reduction for brands and consumers in advertising. MRI 4.0 has transformed from an analytical study of 10 social platforms into an actionable toolset, now assessing 150+ partners from a variety of formats across 15 countries and establishing four new ESG-aligned priorities for partner accountability.

The index allows for teams and clients to incorporate brand and consumer safety priorities into their investment decision-making for a variety of media types, from the largest global social platforms to local broadcast media outlets.

The original MRI, the first-of-its kind, was launched in August 2020, in response to concerns about social media platforms not taking steps to acknowledge, measure and reduce their contribution to online and real-world harms. In effect supersized, MRI 4.0’s evaluations now encompass 80% of Mediabrands’ global investments and allow for clients to identify and invest in the media outlets that support their values without compromising ROI.

MRI 4.0 assessed each outlet across four priorities of partner accountability—Safety, Inclusivity, Sustainability and Data Ethics—in alignment with industry-adopted ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) frameworks so businesses can easily extend how they are measuring their impact in these spaces to include media. Previous versions of the MRI had ranked the platforms upon Mediabrands’ 10 Media Responsibility Principles, which are now consolidated within the four priorities.

More than 150 major partners were surveyed, expanding into the realms of Broadcast & Cable, Connected TV, Online Video, and Display. Across Broadcast & Cable, the traditional-first networks also span several subsidiary companies across Connected TV and Online Video properties; The findings illuminated that strict, longstanding federal regulations within Broadcast & Cable have had a trickle-down effect to their digital properties, in effect enhancing safety standards when compared to digital-first counterparts surveyed.

“We developed our first media responsibility index in 2020 to determine exact protocols of the major platforms, as people started questioning the impact of social media in their lives, from the prevalence of misinformation to hate speech and data-collection practices,” said Elijah Harris, EVP Global Digital Partnerships & Media Responsibility at MAGNA.“We have always believed in the need to bring the lens of media responsibility to a broader set of media types. Consumers digest content and opinions from an ever-increasing list of mediums. It only made sense that this rigor we’ve developed for social platforms would be translated for a more diversified mix of media partners. With each iteration, the MRI is becoming more robust and establishing itself as a mainstay in driving industry accountability and powering responsible advertising investment.”

Key highlights include:

  • Social media platforms showed continued improvement across the four priorities (averaging +3-point in overall performance). Partners attained a ~10% increase in Inclusivity, driven by increased focus on internal accountability and creator equity.
  • Safety is a standout priority for broadcast & cable, based in part on federal industry regulations forcing uniformity and 3rd party enforcement in safety standards – including children’s safety rules and advertising approvals.
  • Tech proficient digital-first CTV partners are driving higher Data Ethics performance than their traditional-first counterparts, in part due to their origins and operating in a more tech-oriented space, versus a TV-first space
  • In a mixed marketplace for Sustainability practices, online video platforms showed strength in their ad-business emissions measurement + setting net-zero goals.

Advertising environments remain under the microscope as brands pursue ESG commitments and consumers become more critical of where brands choose to advertise. A Mediabrands survey found that one-quarter of clients adjusted their media mix based on MRI findings, and 90% said they were interested in finding new methods to assess media value beyond price efficiency alone.

“The MRI is an important underpinning of our Media for Good positioning, putting responsibility at the heart of every media decision, as concern over the interplay and societal impact of advertising, media and misinformation increases,” said Eileen Kiernan, Global CEO of Mediabrands. “Our clients are increasingly pursuing ESG criteria within their own businesses and we are providing a resource to support these goals along with advocating for stronger, safer standards in media.”

Examples include Snap achieving a 6-point lift YoY, outperforming all platforms in its efforts to protect people and combat misinformation and disinformation due to their robust publisher diligence; TikTok continuing to raise the bar, gaining an 8-point lift on brand safety practices and 24-point lift in children’s wellbeing; and YouTube setting the benchmark for online video across all categories, most notably in Inclusivity for delivering 60% diversity in behind the camera casting for owned and diverse content, and Safety for their policy and enforcement tools to manage UGC.

“Looking back at the strides made by social-media platforms since 2020 not only validated the need for a media responsibility monitor, it motivated us to expand the lens of media responsibility to more media types and markets,” said Harris. “We are proud to be a part of the greater journey to make social media safer for all and excited about the opportunity to improve our industry for all.”

“The 4A’s has been proud to endorse the Media Responsibility Index as an important tool for advertisers to assess how the big social-media players are handling safety issues on their platforms,” said Marla Kaplowitz, President and CEO, 4A’s. “Expanding to include other media types and global markets is a welcome next step.”

To compile MRI 4.0, MAGNA surveyed 150+ global media partners on a dynamic assessment, customized by media type, covering the most pressing safety issues of the day facing consumers and brands and specific accomplishments made by these outlets to help alleviate them. Scores were analyzed based on the varying weights of each question, as well as nuance within the individual platform, against the four brand-safety priorities.

Read more here.

 

MAGNA Advertising Forecasts (U.S. Fall Update)

September 29, 2022
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MAGNA, Mediabrands, Uncategorized

Innovation Keeps the Ad Marketing Moving

KEY FINDINGS

  • In the wake of a historically strong 2021, U.S. media owner’s advertising revenues grew by +11% to $151 billion in the first half of 2022, based on financial reports.
  • Media channel performance varied greatly in the first half with strong revenue growth in out-of-home (+30%), and robust growth in keyword formats (search, retail media) (+19%), contrasted against stagnation in social media (+3%).
  • The weaker economic environment will cause several industry verticals to reduce ad spend in the second half, but stronger-than-expected political spending will mitigate the impact on revenues of media owners.
  • Full-year media owner revenues will thus cross the $300bn market for the first time, to reach $323bn. That’s +9.8% above 2021 levels (+8.1% if we only consider non-cyclical ad spend and exclude political dollars).
  • For 2023, the continued economic slowdown and the lack of major cyclical events led MAGNA to reduce its growth forecast to +4.8% from +5.8% in the previous report.
  • MAGNA expects Entertainment (Movies, Streaming), Travel and Betting to grow advertising spending next year, possibly joined by Automotive as the car market finally stabilizes.
  • Keyword search formats (+13%) and OOH (+8%) will continue to outperform, while long-form AVOD spending will be driven by the addition of ad-supported tiers from Disney+ and Netflix (+33%).

Vincent Létang, EVP Global Market Intelligence at MAGNA and author of the report, commented: “Following a strong first half, non-cyclical advertising spending is slowing down as several industries are facing an uncertain economic environment. There are several growth factors that will help stabilize media owner ad revenues in coming months, however. In the short-term (2H22) cyclical factors: Billions of ad dollars will be spent by political campaigns in TV, direct mail, and digital media. In the mid-term (2023) there will be multiple organic growth factors, driven by marketing technology innovation: Retail media networks bringing below-the-line marketing budgets into digital media, programmatic spending in digital audio and digital OOH formats, and the expansion of AVOD and CTV advertising with new ad-supported tiers from Disney+ and Netflix.”

FIRST HALF RECAP: A STRONG START FOR AD SPEND
Based on the analysis of media owner’s financial reports, MAGNA estimates that total net advertising sales grew by +11% year-over-year in the first half of 2022 to reach $151 billion. Ad sales grew by +14% year-over-year in the first quarter, and by +7% in the second quarter (+4% above first quarter).

OOH was the fastest growing ad format (+30% year-over-year). OOH media is driven by the recovery of consumer mobility since January and return of national and local advertisers following the deep COVID decline in 2020. MAGNA just published a detailed report on global OOH trends, looking at the growth of OOH ad sales in the U.S. and internationally. Cinema advertising grew by +430% in the first half, as both blockbusters and moviegoers finally returned en masse into theaters.

Other growth formats in 1H22 included Search (+19%), Digital Audio (audio streaming and podcasting, +19%), AVOD/CTV (Hulu, Peacock, etc. +18%) and short-form digital video formats (YouTube, Twitch, etc. +14%).

On the other hand, social media ad sales continued to slow down dramatically, from +38% in 2021 to +7.5% in the first quarter and -1% in the second quarter, to end the first half up by just +3% to $30 billion. Social media apps continue to suffer from the reduced access to user data in the iOS environment, which impacts the attractiveness and pricing power of social ad formats, while total social media usage has reached maturity.

Meanwhile, traditional linear ad sales slowed down in the first half. National television sales increased +2% to $20bn, partly thanks to incremental ad sales around Beijing Winter Olympics. Local TV sales rose +10% to $9bn in the first half, thanks to political spending, or +2% on an underlying basis.

SECOND HALF AND FULL YEAR 2022: CYCLICAL DOLLARS HELP MITIGATE THE IMPACT OF ECONOMIC SLOWDOWN
Economic uncertainty and rising inflation are affecting several industries and driving brands and local businesses to moderate their marketing expenses in the second half. CPG verticals (food, drinks, personal care, and household goods) are especially at risk as they are forced to increase product prices and face the possibility of consumers trading down in favor of cheaper brands. Restaurants and retail face a similar business challenge while some industries, like mortgage lenders, see their businesses suffer from the rise of interest rates.

As a result, MAGNA anticipates non-cyclical ad spend will slow down to +6.6% in the second half. This will be offset by the record influx of cyclical ad spend around the mid-term elections and the soccer World Cup in November. Based on unprecedently large fund-raising year-to-date, MAGNA expects political advertising spending to grow by +63% over the previous mid-term cycle (2018) and generate $7.3 billion in incremental advertising revenue for media owners, with 70% of it concentrated in the second half. Local television will attract almost two-thirds of that total, as political ad sales will account for 25% of total local TV ad revenue this year (and more for stations in “battleground” markets). Digital media formats will receive $1.3 billion from political campaigns, with sales up between +150% and +200% for search, digital video, and social formats.

With a strong first half and political advertising mitigating the slowdown in the second half, MAGNA expects full-year, all-media advertising revenues to surpass the $300bn mark for the first time and reach $323bn this year. That represents an increase of $29 billion over 2021 (+9.8%), with non-cyclical underlying growth at +8.1%.

On a full-year basis, cross-platform video will grow by +8% (linear television -3%, local TV +22%, AVOD +22%). Cross-platform audio (radio, audio streaming) will increase by +7%, OOH by +22% and cinema by +138%. Among “direct” media formats, search will grow by +17%, direct mail by +8% and social media by +4%.

2023: ORGANIC FACTORS KEEP THE AD MARKET GROWING
The lack of major cyclical events and the weakness of the economic outlook has led MAGNA to reduce its advertising forecast for 2023.

In terms of industry spending, MAGNA anticipates below-average growth for CPG verticals, Finance and Retail. On the other hand, Entertainment ad spend will grow from the continued recovery of moviegoing and re-ignited competition in the AVOD/SVOD industry. Travel will continue to recover, and Online Betting will develop further as more large states (Ohio for sure, possibly Texas, California and Florida) may legalize the activity at some point during the year. Finally, there’s hope that the Automotive vertical may start to recover in 2023 after two years of decline in car sales and advertising activity. Car sales have stabilized since August, mostly due to a comparison effect (they had started to fall a year before), and, as soon as the supply-chain conditions and production capacities improve, manufacturers and car dealers will compete again to meet the pent-up demand.

Nevertheless, MAGNA still expects total ad revenue to grow in 2023 (+4.8% vs. +5.8% in our prior forecast) thanks to organic drivers, many of them derived from innovation in media offering and media technology. Among these:

The rise of retail media networks. Retail media advertising will increase from $31 billion this year to $42 billion in 2023. The bulk of it comes from Amazon’s product search but all other large retailers are now developing advertising sales through keyword search or display ads on their apps and websites. Retail media is mostly fueled by consumer brands reallocating below-the-line, trade-marketing budgets from in-store towards digital retail networks, as a greater percentage of retail sales comes from e-commerce. Furthermore, retail-owned media networks are mostly immune from the privacy-based limitations on data usage and targeting, that display or social media owner’s face, because they can leverage their own first-party data.

The expansion of AVOD. The transition from linear to on-demand, CTV-based television has been going on for 10 years, and it has been mostly SVOD-centric until now. The imminent launch of cheaper, ad-supported tiers from both Netflix and Disney+ will expand the reach and ad inventory offered by AVOD. While the two new offerings may take ad budgets from other media properties (AVOD or linear TV) MAGNA believes these new offerings will “grow the pie” rather than cannibalize existing budgets or incumbent vendors like Hulu, Peacock, Paramount+ and “FAST” channels, which will continue to grow. As a result, the long-form AVOD/CTV segment will accelerate from +22% in 2022 to +33% in 2023, to reach $6.3 billion in total advertising sales.

Next MAGNA forecast (U.S. and Global): December 2022

Source: MAGNA Ad Forecast September 2022

ABOUT THE RESEARCH
The MAGNA research is media centric. It monitors net media owners advertising revenues based on a bottom-up analysis of financial reports and data from media trade organizations; other ad market studies are based on tracking ad insertions or consolidating agency billings. The MAGNA approach provides the most accurate and comprehensive picture of the market as it captures total net media owners’ ad revenues coming from national consumer brands’ spending as well as small, local, “direct” advertisers. Forecasts are based on economic outlook and market shares dynamic. The full report contains more granular media breakdowns and forecasts to 2025, for 70 markets. Next Global Forecast: December 2022 – Next U.S. Forecast: September 2022.

Read More at MAGNA GLOBAL

Key Leaders Elevated to CEO Roles at McCann Worldgroup and IPG Mediabrands

July 21, 2022
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Daryl Lee to Lead McCann Worldgroup and Eileen Kiernan to Lead IPG Mediabrands

Bill Kolb Moves to Chairman Role at McCann Worldgroup

Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG) announced today senior leadership changes that will see a number of outstanding, tenured executives assume significant new responsibilities within the holding company.

At McCann Worldgroup, Daryl Lee, previously the Global CEO of IPG Mediabrands, has been named Global CEO. Eileen Kiernan has been named Global CEO of IPG Mediabrands, succeeding Lee in that role. Bill Kolb, the current CEO of McCann Worldgroup, will remain Chairman of the division. While these changes take effect immediately, the three executives will continue working with their existing teams and clients over the next month to ensure that all necessary transitional actions related to their new roles are complete by September 6, 2022.

IPG CEO Philippe Krakowsky noted Daryl Lee’s long record of leadership success, across both the media and creative agency landscape, as catalysts for his being named to helm the company’s flagship creatively focused global network. Krakowsky also noted the depth and breadth of Eileen Kiernan’s experience and exceptional results helping brands achieve long-term transformation goals as key drivers for her being elevated to lead IPG’s media assets. The new role will see her become one of the senior-most female executives in the advertising sector.

On Daryl Lee:
“Daryl is an exceptional thinker, business-builder and leader, who is as passionate about helping our clients achieve success in the marketplace as he is about building organizations where our people can thrive. During his time leading both Mediabrands and UM, he has proven that he can build capabilities and inspire agency cultures that are fully focused on our clients, deliver growth and innovation, as well as invite diverse perspectives into the conversation. In a previous stretch at McCann Worldgroup, Daryl served as Global Chief Strategy Officer and Global Chief Integration Officer, working directly with many of the network’s current clients and much of the global leadership team, so he is familiar with the agency and the ways in which it is evolving its offerings to combine creative ideas with emerging communications channels. This combination of skills and experience, leading a strong team already in place across Worldgroup, means that Daryl is well-positioned to advance the success of the network and drive it to further achieve its ambition of being the global leader of creativity that drives growth for our client partners,” commented Krakowsky.

On Eileen Kiernan:
Additionally, Krakowsky indicated that “Eileen is deeply strategic and equally pragmatic, delivering outstanding work while inspiring the broader organization. She is a great collaborator, never losing sight of client needs, and how we can most effectively continue to evolve our offerings. Her depth of experience working across the media landscape makes Eileen the ideal executive to lead IPG Mediabrands as it continues to set standard for innovating in ways that help clients’ businesses win in today’s digital economy. As we continue to seek to drive more integration across media, data and technology, and as we combine those offerings with the work that’s being done across the IPG portfolio, I am confident that Eileen can play an integral leadership role on that important journey.”

On Bill Kolb:
“Bill has been a colleague for over 20 years and has a deep understanding of the marketing services landscape. As Chairman of Worldgroup, Bill will support Daryl and the senior leadership team, engage in important areas such as ESG and continue to partner with certain clients. He will also work with me on IPG initiatives, where we can draw on his operational experience and knowledge of evolving areas of the business, such as production and marketing technology platform offerings,” said Krakowsky.

Daryl Lee experience:
Since 2019, Lee has served as Global CEO of IPG Mediabrands, a client-first, consultative community of 13,000 media and marketing solutions specialists in 130+ countries. During his tenure, Mediabrands has been known for its winning culture and integration of data and technology to power audience-led marketing that delivers business results. Lee has also been a champion of inclusion in media investment, notably through the industry’s first “Equity Upfronts,” which Mediabrands introduced in 2020. For the previous six and a half years, Lee was Global CEO of UM, a global media and advertising agency within the IPG Mediabrands family. In 2016, Adweek named Lee “Executive of the Year,” citing his record at UM in winning major global new business and fostering a culture of diversity and inclusion. He is a long-term member of the Board of Directors of the Effie Awards, having previously served as its Chairman, and most recently served as President of the Media Jury at the 2022 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Lee initially joined Interpublic as Global President and Head of Global Strategy at UM, before moving to McCann, where he served in two key global roles before returning to UM. Hailing from South Africa, Lee earned a Doctor of Philosophy at Oxford University (which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar) and began his business career as a consultant at McKinsey & Company.

“I’m excited to combine McCann Worldgroup’s exceptional strategic and creative strength with the ways in which we’ve harnessed data and technology in the media world to accelerate growth for our clients. A hybrid mindset that understands both content and distribution is something that many clients have been demanding and it’s what is required for growth in the 21st century. I am thankful for the opportunity to help make that a reality in the marketplace. All the agencies within McCann Worldgroup are world-class and together we have the power to unlock unstoppable momentum for brands. It’s an honor to come home to McCann in this role, and I’m very much looking forward to working with Bill and the entire McCann Worldgroup family again,” commented Lee.

Eileen Kiernan experience:
For the past nine and a half years, Kiernan served in a succession of increasingly senior global leadership positions at UM, rising from CMO of the agency to Global President to CEO. She was a key driver of the development of a dedicated agency model that for nearly a decade has incorporated data-led decision-making to media planning and buying for Johnson & Johnson, was a key member of Lee’s team that differentiated UM through its “Better Science, Better Art, Better Outcomes” positioning, and most recently launched the agency’s “Future Proof” business model, which incorporates close collaboration with other Mediabrands units and Interpublic’s Acxiom and Kinesso offerings to uncover new sources of growth for clients. Last year, Campaign named UM its “Global Agency of the Year” and recognized Kiernan as a finalist in the “Agency Leader” category. Prior to UM, Kiernan held leadership roles at media agencies, as well as on the client and media-owner sides of the business.

“I am so pleased to take the helm at Mediabrands at a time when we are experiencing tremendous momentum as a network and great change as an industry,” said Kiernan. “Like Daryl, I am a true believer in Media for Good – media that is responsible, equitable and ethical – and I look forward to doubling down on our commitment to make media a positive societal force through relentless innovation and new industry standards. Our people and connectivity as a community are what drives us all forward, and I will continue to champion global initiatives that improve our internal processes, inspire our people and reflect our values.”

For an initial period, Kiernan will remain in her UM role, in addition to her new IPG Mediabrands responsibilities. A new CEO for the UM network will be named later this year, though a timetable for that appointment has yet to be finalized.

Bill Kolb experience:
Prior to his role as CEO for McCann Worldgroup, Kolb served as COO of the network, where he was responsible for overseeing business operations across all agencies and markets. Kolb’s long and successful history within McCann Worldgroup spans over two decades, inclusive of client leadership roles, as well as operating leadership at MRM and Momentum.

“I’m proud of all that we’ve been able to accomplish here at Worldgroup over the last two decades. Being part of the leadership teams at Momentum, MRM and here at Worldgroup, I’ve seen firsthand the magic and business results we can create for our clients when we help their brands play a meaningful role in people’s lives. I look forward to working with Daryl as he carries our work forward, and with Philippe on broader group initiatives,” said Kolb.

Read the press release here.

How Mediabrands Is Recruiting DE&I Talent Through Social Media

July 13, 2022
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Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Mediabrands

‘We See You’ social media push aims to attract talent from non-traditional and underrepresented backgrounds

Mediabrands is launching a talent recruitment campaign for a new client: Mediabrands.

The Interpublic Group of Cos. network is taking a consumer marketing-style approach, using social media and digital video, in an effort to lure talent from non-advertising fields and “historically excluded groups,” according to the agency.  The effort, titled “We See You at Mediabrands,” begins running this week on TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, Google with a series of 2-minute and 15-second videos that showcase the personal and professional stories of Mediabrands’ employees at UM and its other brands. Alongside these personal videos, the campaign features graphics-driven videos that highlight the media careers available within the company.

The ad push is notable in an industry that puts most of its focus on promoting clients rather than itself. But Hermon Ghermay, Mediabrands’ global chief culture officer, said that when the company was looking to recruit prospective employees without a traditional creative background, they decided to treat the process as if they were working for a client. “We are uniquely positioned to use the same strategies, tools and resources that we use to build our clients’ businesses to help address the challenge of attracting new people, and especially those from historically excluded groups, in a tight talent market,” Ghermay said.

Creating a safe space

The resulting videos stand out from dry recruitment ads with a series of personal interviews of Mediabrands’ employees whose career trajectories began outside media companies. In the two-minute-long video of Jim DeBarros, for example, the Mediabrands Content Studio’s executive VP and group creative director described his creative career, which began in the entertainment industry. He recalled initially joining Mediabrands’ UM because he needed more personal time following his mother’s diagnosis of dementia and said he felt supported by his current employer. He added that following the murder of George Floyd, Mediabrands’ Black leadership quickly “used it as an opportunity to reach out to all of the Black individuals, working to create a safe space.”

“We were privileged to interview so many people for this campaign,” said DeBarros, who also serves as the creative director on the effort. “People of a certain age coming back to work for the first time in a couple of years who were not sure if they have the necessary skills and if their experiences would have value, and were pleasantly surprised that their experiences did have value; People who, for the lack of a better term, were bullied in their workplace elsewhere because they were LGBTQ and were made to feel unwelcomed, and discovered that [at Mediabrands], they could be their whole self. Every story was illuminating in different ways about the culture of inclusivity, about [the employees] not just wanting to be here, but thriving here.”

DeBarros said there is a practical reason for the campaign. “A lot of People [of Color] simply don’t know [about the creative industry],” he said, “I didn’t know before I started there. I knew about advertising, but I didn’t know about the other sides of the business. It’s just a matter of exposure.”

Social media was a logical choice, said Ghermay, for “meeting people where they are”—for the “We See You” campaign. “There’s a very intentional choice of picking a video-form platform,” she said, “and then be part of conversations. The way we think about work and career has blurred so much that, [for topics like] who we are, how we interact, it’s not compartmentalized anymore … We intentionally wanted to talk to and try to reach people who have all of the amazing raw skills needed to be successful in this industry, but may not have the practical experience or the knowledge … Instead of expecting them to find out about us, we’re trying to go to them.”

Support network

After acquiring talent from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds, Mediabrands will implement mentorship programs to keep them. “[We want to] make sure there’s a support network, there’s education, formal and informal on the job, and there’s a sense of safety and belonging,” she said, to give people “access and visibility to navigate this industry.”

Ghermay said that the “We See You” strategy was to show respective candidates that Mediabrands is  focused on “both representation and inclusion,” and live up to it.  “Do we have the right culture that’s actually going to allow them to be successful? That’s an important part of the equation, and that’s the hard work. We got to look inside at individual leaders and organizations, and question our assumptions, norms, behaviors.

The Mediabrands campaign comes as agencies struggle to hire fresh talent that will allow for more diversity of thought.

“Across the board, recruiting is difficult in this day and age,” said Debra Sercy, managing partner at Grace Blue, who applauded the idea of using consumer marketing techniques to reach people without a traditional creative background. A campaign of this kind deserves a “huge ‘thank you’,” she said, “because the investment in this campaign will benefit the entire industry.”

Read the full article in AdAge.

A view from Daryl Lee: Media is Getting Creative as an Awards-worthy Force for Good in Troubled Times

May 3, 2022
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Media Responsibility, Mediabrands

The president of Cannes Lions media jury says the sector has been making a greater social impact since the Ukraine war.

As we start the countdown to the first in-person Cannes Lions festival for three years, we face a time like no other – with a global pandemic persisting, a brutal invasion of a nation under way and many trusted media platforms once again becoming highly contested arenas between truth and lies.

There is seemingly very little space for the niceties of creativity when media is a battle zone for survival.

It is in this fraught context that my colleagues and I will be gathering to award this year’s Cannes Media Lions.

Typically, we look for work that is exceptional, that transcends the bounds of what media conventionally does in terms of reach and scale, and celebrate, instead, the most creative examples of game-changing channel strategies in action that create a deep connection with people and deliver real business results for brands.

This year, we will do the same, of course, as we seek to recognisze the most creative media work in the world. But we will also be paying new attention to the ways in which media is being hacked to unleash its potential as a force for good in the world.

We are seeing a flourishing of a brave new world of media creativity from the crucible of the battles around truth and lies that should alert us to new opportunities for the future.

What is changing, out of necessity, as we watch media narratives and social media memes get twisted with vaccine misinformation, conspiracy theories and Russian propaganda, is our passive pose towards the most powerful media sources in our world. We are no longer prepared to sit idly by and be the good students of social media any more.

We have spent the past years understanding the nuances and rhythms of every new social media platform as it emerged, learning to understand the uniqueness of each and finding ways to test the special properties that make audiences trust brands on those platforms as welcome.

We have played with the reality reframing lenses of Snap, the aesthetic perfection of Instagram, the quick retort of Twitter and the addictive musical sampling of TikTok. Our creativity in media has meant learning the codes of each environment and finding ways to express them authentically and imaginatively.

We have seen the power of these platforms exemplified by those people and brands who followed the rules and gave purest expression to the deepest intent of each new media property.

The viral sensation of 420doggface208 on TikTok sipping Ocean Spray cranberry juice while skateboarding to Fleetwood Mac, the Snapchat Vogue Noir filter that makes everyone a cover model or an ironic version of one and, of course, the epic Oreo Super Bowl blackout tweet “You can still dunk In the dark” in 2013 that showed the power of Twitter to cut through chaos and get everyone’s attention.

A shift in media creativity

However, something has shifted recently in media creativity, and it is something we should all celebrate.

Along with the amazing courage and resilience shown by the Ukrainian people in the face of a brutal military attack, we have also witnessed the flowering of tremendous creativity in the use of media to speak truth to power.

These extraordinary times have yielded a new frontier of media creativity where the urgent aspiration is to twist and mold the platform to serve the moral purpose of the creator. Otherwise known as the media hack.

The most recent ones are already globally famous:

  • In a brilliant subversion of Tinder, pictures of the atrocities of the war in Ukraine were sent to young adults in Russia. When they swipe right, instead of a fresh-faced potential date, they see someone who has changed their location to Russia and replaced their profile picture with a real, uncensored picture from the conflict. This media hack, from Slovakian agency JANDL, tapped into the deep hunger to speak to young Russians and have an honest conversation with them. And the best way to do this was on Tinder, where all pretence is dropped. Apparently, the conversations that were started, while not all cordial, were all conversations that had not happened before, and are centred on depictions of the truth about the war.
  • Reporters Without Borders and DDB Germany ingeniously hacked Twitter to create The Truth Wins project, using publicly available numbers from national lotteries. On Twitter, people drop winning lottery numbers (that are continually updated) into the search bar to unlock uncensored news in Russia, Turkey and Brazil, including news about the Russian invasion. If Twitter is blocked, then news journalists email links to the block-chain domain news sites that are unlocked by the winning lottery numbers.
  • There has been brave hacking of Russian-owned media directly: these include the Russian news producer who photo-bombed a live news programme on Russian state TV’s Channel One with a placard that said, simply, “No war”, the numerous hacks of Telegram with fact-checks against the Russian state propaganda that is circulating on it and the specific use of Telegram to showcase to Russian parents that their captured Russian soldiers are still alive.
  • Lastly, while not technically media, there has been the maverick use of Airbnb as a mechanism to send funds to Ukrainians by booking accommodation in Ukrainian cities from people around the world who don’t intend to stay but rather to support Ukraine, is so creative and inventive that it might well turn Airbnb into a medium for messaging and support in all war-torn places in the future.

These are all intensely creative, viral in all the right ways, signs of the times. The creative use of media for immense social good, which is a refreshing change.

Until now, we seemed to be living in a rather depressing era when media seemed to have become weaponised, driven by the terrifying power of social media to make lies, misinformation and disinformation swirl with ease, masquerade as truth in a “news feed” and where at least one social media algorithm has been shown to prioritise rage-inducing stories for viral sharing above all others.

But instead of feeling helpless, what the most creative media thinkers in our business are doing is striking back. Making “neutral” platforms find space for the truth and making us all feel empowered to bend technology to our human needs, rather than be lab rats in a vast social experiment created by computer science nerds.

Media hacks are happening everywhere. And they are only going to get bigger and more creative. They are the hope for a better future for all of us, where media is a force for good and a source of creativity in the world. Humans are fighting back in media. Let’s all pay attention and celebrate. I know we will be when we meet in June as the 2022 Cannes Media Lions jury.

Daryl Lee is chief executive of IPG Mediabrands and president of the media jury at Cannes Lions 2022

Read the full article in Campaign.

IPG Mediabrands
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