Ensuring Equity in Media Buys. The Partnership Between IPG and Gracenote.

With all of new reserves of data coming into the media marketplace, one of the more fascinating sets is offered through Gracenote which has recently announced a partnership with IPG. 

I must confess, I always think of Gracenote as a traffic log service but I found out, by talking with MAGNA Global’s, Brian Hughes, Executive Vice President, Audience Intelligence and Strategy, that there are great reserves of important audience data contained in their logs that can be applied in a myriad of ways.

Why Gracenote?

One of the major reasons why Gracenote is important to IPG is, according to Hughes, its ability to reveal how certain programs perform with under-represented groups. “We've made commitments to invest in Black owned media in the next several years. Part of those efforts and one of the things that we've seen in our own research in the past is that representation is very important. If we want to connect with very important audiences, then it's important that we are aware of that. Gracenote data allows us to be able to see a relationship to the population,” he explained.

Gracenote parses data in a way that shows, “how different programs stack up in terms of representation, giving us good information to us to strategically use our dollars to connect with those audiences,” he said.

Gracenote Data

Nielsen, which owns Gracenote, has been analyzing the data and has created a product that can register all content whether it is on streaming, broadcast or cable. “They've identified some very key metrics that I think will come in very handy for us,” he began and added, “It's a pretty simple comparison of the most visible cast members on a given show and how that compares to the general population.” Knowing how the percentage of the cast of a particular under-represented group matches up with the population will enable IPG to connect more authentically with that audience.

Gracenote, offered Hughes, “has a lot of metadata around TV programming whether it's the production crew, the staff, similar to IMDb. They have a lot of that information behind the scenes and then what Nielsen does is match that up with the viewing data that they already have so that we can do comparisons.” What can be revealed through this confluence of data is the degree of connection between the program’s attributes and the target audience so the agency can, “put our messaging in front of those audiences and get our brand messaging out to them,” he explained.

The theory behind this is that people are more responsive to content when there are characters that remind viewers of themselves. “We feel that also extends to advertising,” Hughes noted, “So what we'll be able to do is identify programs that are resonating  with a particular audience and ultimately place advertising creative that aligns with that messaging to make it contextually relevant and have that connection for the audience.”

Next Steps

This approach is in the early stages. For now, more research is being conducted. “We are really digging into it now and figuring out the best kind of wholesale way to apply it. It is still early days,” he explained. “But we've definitely looked at, in a general sense, where the video landscape is in terms of this representation and this is where we see the need for improvement.”

As far as Hughes’ clients are concerned, “They have been very supportive of all the other equity work we're doing and I think they will definitely want to lean into this as a component and they're definitely interested in our efforts around spend. This can be an element, a way to do that better and be more effective.”

Equity Upfront

Ultimately, this approach fits in well with IPG’s overall commitment to outreach. “We made commitments to spend with Black owned media partners. We're going to do 5% in over the next three years and we've held the Equity Up front in the spring. The Equity Upfront was designed to focus on minority owned and Black owned specifically media companies to build awareness for them and help them. We've been doing monthly equity sessions to allow different minority owned media companies to come in and present to our colleagues and clients to share what they're doing and put their products out in front of us in order to encourage that spend,” he stated.

While currently specifically within IPG, the plan is to eventually make this an industry-wide effort. “I definitely would like to see the Equity Upfront become an industry wide thing. That is a goal of ours. We would definitely like to see minority owned businesses that are just starting out and that might be underserved right now have an opportunity to be successful. We can put this data to good use in terms of making the video industry in general more equitable,” he concluded.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

Artwork by Charlene Weisler

 

What is the Road to Success for Agencies? A Leadership Conversation with IPG’s Michael Roth

Let’s face it, the agency business was already under stress before the pandemic with consolidation and in-house marketing businesses creating a smaller, scrappily competitive ecosystem. 

Then came the pandemic and advertising budgets dried up as did consumer demand in certain sectors. The need for agencies to change and adapt increased exponentially. In all of this chaos, Michael Roth, Chairman and CEO of Interpublic, remained calm, assured that his company is well placed to not only maintain its industry dominance but also excel. 

Roth sat down with MediaVillage Founder, Jack Myers, and revealed how he is shepherding his company not only through the uncertain economics of the pandemic but also demonstrating his continuing commitment to diversity and inclusion within his company and throughout the industry.

IPG’s Philosophy

When it comes to the state of IPG within the media ecosystem, “I like to view ourselves as the best looking house in a bad neighborhood,” Roth deadpanned. “The bad neighborhood is the marketing and communications companies and we have outperformed our peer groups for the last five years… in terms of share performance and financial performance.” It’s clear to Roth that the industry, “has to change to be competitive with all of the new entrants into the marketing and communications side of the business.” Under his leadership, IPG began to address these challenges years ago. “That is one of the reasons we continue to out-perform,” he noted.

From when he first joined the IPG board, he saw some disturbing fissures in the agency model that didn’t make economic sense. “The holding company model was structured as a series of roll-ups… Because of conflicts, the holding companies went out and bought up more agencies because with more agencies you could have less conflicts (because) you use a separate shop,” he explained. But, “If I can field the best team in the business and put it up against my competitors why isn’t that a better proposition than having three agencies of our own competing with the others.”  This change in outlook led to an open architecture, putting in place an IPG team, “comprised of the best brands we have that can meet the needs of our clients irrespective of what brands they were,” he stated. The success in that philosophy is evident in the overall business success of the company including the share price.

The Importance of Synergies and Partnerships

The commitment to an agency model of open architecture has proven to be the competitive solution to attracting and retaining business. “What better relationship can you have with a client if the client knows that you are looking out for their interests not just yours,” he stated. If McCann World Group, for example, knows that sister agency FCB has a better offering that fits for the client, “how powerful it is to say, ‘let me call FCB into the picture and let them come in and provide their expertise to work with us.’ We are not giving up the relationship to solve your problem.” When Roth brought this idea of open architecture to the agency world, he met with some pushback. “But think about it,” he posted, “if we don’t have, which is unlikely given the size and depth of our company, a resource, then we would bring in an outside resource to help.” This demonstrates a real commitment to high quality agency service from the client perspective.

Data is Central to Success

Media has historically been a simple transaction type of business. But technological advancements and the proliferation of screens has made it more complicated and, in some cases challenging. According to Roth, for years, strategy discussions with the board included the need for data and analytics. “First party data management and data is critical to finding the right consumer where and how,” he explained.

“If you start with the premise that you are looking at the client first, we are in a marketing and communication business and we have all these other assets that we can bring to the table. We have PR, sports marketing, experiential, media, digital capability. The question is, how do you find the consumer that’s relevant to the client and how do you create a message that is relevant to the consumer that is trustworthy and relevant to what they are looking for?”  For Roth, his company has all of these resources, but, “the missing ingredient was the data and analytics part of it.” To solve for this, the company acquired Axiom. “When Axiom came on the market, I said to the board, we’re going to kick the tires. The more we looked, the more we realized that this is what we’ve been looking for,” he noted, “Two thirds of the Axiom business is first party data management so it wasn’t just info-based, the third party data that people use to locate consumers.”

Data Adds to the Creative Juices and Content

Data also informs the creative process at IPG. For Roth, just knowing where the consumer is doesn’t give the full picture. “You have to know what their likes and dislikes are, what their habits are and the data and analytics provides this insight into the consumer,” he stated. Instead of buying audiences, he added, “we are able to buy consumers, real people.” By adding motivational purchasing insights into the creative process, “it resonates and brings the messaging to life,” in the form of, “data driven marketing.”

Throughout the process, creative juice is vital. Priceless for Mastercard, for example, “is the billion dollar idea,” Roth noted. But, he added, “What do you do with that once you have it? You have to reach the consumer. You have to have a relationship with the consumer.” As the media landscape expands with a myriad of new ways to reach the consumer, it is the creative juice that demonstrates why that brand offers greater value and preference to offset price considerations. 

For Roth, it is vital to remain agnostic when it comes to media. His agency doesn’t own any media companies. “Some of our competitors take equity positions in media so they’re not agnostic,” especially when they advise clients to allocate dollars to a medium where they are using their own inventory. “The future of this business is value proposition,” he added. He warned that, “If you don’t have transparency, forget it… We are supposed to be agnostic. We are supposed to be an independent arbiter of where our clients should spend their money. And if we are not transparent then how can they rely on us that we are getting them the right answer.” He added that, for media choices, “Content is king. People are going to go where the content is.” He predicted that those media companies that offer, “the best content, best analytics, best pricing and transparency will prevail.”

The Focus on Diversity and Inclusion

Roth explained his long term commitment to inclusion and diversity to his childhood upbringing. Brooklyn born, he grew up in a diverse neighborhood. “It was part of the way I lived,” he explained, “It resonated with me in terms of how well it could work.” So the importance of bringing diversity and inclusion into the workplace figures prominently in his goals. Also, as the son of a working mother, there is the “desire to see women also advance in business.”  To that end, “the initial movement in IPG was the focus on women’s representation,” and currently 40% of IPG’s board is female.

In order to enforce the commitment to diversity, Roth hit upon an idea. “I knew that the only way I was going to get our organization to pay attention was to hold them financially accountable,” he remarked. “So starting in 2006 all of the CEOs of IPG had in their incentive targets diversity and inclusion goals. They weren’t quotas. They were goals.” Roth added that he thought his was the only company that held its agencies financially accountable for diversity. “But we have to go deeper,” he admitted. “This is critical to the future of our business and our society.” 

Agency hearts may be in the right place but there are obstacles to those who might otherwise enter a career in advertising. Entry level low compensation and the unclear path to upper management are two that, Roth agreed, need greater consideration. 

The Road Ahead

For Roth, the future of the business relies on open architecture. This works, “because we are working together to solve problems. We are not working to sell product,” he explained. “In the consulting part of the business we are developing business solutions. All of these come together to help our clients solve business problems, not just create an ad. It is that partnership, that relationship that will sustain our industry going forward. But you have to have the goods, the people who can do it, understand it and the compensation has to be appropriate,” he concluded.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

IPG’s Michael Roth Reveals Advertising Truths in a Leadership Conversation with Jack Myers

Shepherding a global company during a time of evolutionary and seismic change is a challenge that Michael Roth, Chairman and CEO of Interpublic is well prepared to tackle. This week he sits down with MediaVillage’s Founder Jack Myers as part of the Leadership Conversation series to talk about a range of issues that his company and the industry at large are facing and solutions that can have great future impact on the business. 

Topics to be discussed include:

     >  Going beyond mere “lip service” to make substantive changes in company policies regarding stereotypes and other forms of bias and cementing internal and external policies that effectively drive equality.

     >  Internally, how companies can best recruit a diverse workforce, especially at the senior levels, and drive employee retention and satisfaction through something like IPG’s Talent Management Program.

     >  Focusing more on data in media planning, buying and execution as an objective, critical tool to differentiate audiences in an unbiased fashion based strictly on performance.

     >  How IPG is navigating addressable advertising, programmatic and cross platform to decide which products and services are best served on these platforms considering the audiences these platforms attract.

     >  Moving IPG forward with open source architecture systems that are not only breaking down silos within the company but also spur industry wide adoption and collaboration. 

     >  The impact of the changing advertising landscape that is increasingly digital streaming and in many cases non-ad supported. What is the advertising pivot in this environment?

     >  The inherent challenge of the cost of quality content versus the desire of audiences for free content requires some form of ad supported advertising model. But what?

     >  The IPG playbook to get employees comfortable going back into the office after weeks of remote working from home. Further, finding ways during the pandemic to celebrate creativity in an industry that often functions in networking and large social brainstorming gatherings.

     >  Considering all of the societal twists and turns nowadays, how to best forecast and position IPG in 2021 and beyond. 

Is there a bold, productive, profitable future for the advertising industry? The answer is yes. But tune in to see how.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com 

The Impact of Pandemic Behaviors on Out of Home. An Interview with Mike Cooper, Global President and CEO, Rapport

Many aspects of our current lives are undergoing a transformation as habits developed to cope with the pandemic are altering otherwise ingrained behaviors. In some respects, this is especially so in media where thirst for information, entertainment, escape and confirmation is causing shifts. 

How permanent or landscape-altering are these shifts?  Mike Cooper, Global President and CEO for Rapport, offers some insights. Rapport is part of IPG Mediabrands focusing on Out-of-Home (OOH) media planning.

Charlene Weisler: How have consumer behaviors changed during the pandemic and how have they stayed the same?

Mike Cooper: I guess the first and obvious response, is that consumers are staying home, a huge, unprecedented and never before seen state of affairs. Couple this with an understandable sense of insecurity, holistically across a population, then people are going to spend less on things they don’t ‘need’, and indeed, the word ‘need’ becomes completely redefined, or returns to its actual meaning.

Therefore, the ‘need’ to buy groceries remains the same, lets avoid the pattern changes/ hoard mentality here which seems to be ebbing quickly, but the ‘need’ for a new pair of jeans, has vanished. Everyone is more cautious; therefore, the main body of the population will spend less.

We’ll likely see a renaissance of things as simple as cooking, Arts & Crafts and DIY projects too. Etsy and Pinterest have both reported huge YOY growth, and you would expect a long tail on this as consumers harness and build skills during this time. You may see a decrease in the consumer desire for Ikea furniture moving forward or things of the like. 

Weisler: How strong is brand loyalty now?

Cooper: It’s a strange concept, brand loyalty is a result of many things. A home keeper may be 100% loyal to washing liquid, as it does a better job than any other, therefore as a low-cost item, that ‘loyalty’ may ride this wave. However, the hedge-fund guy, that can no longer afford the Ferrari, that he is loyal to as it fuels his ego, is no less loyal to the brand, in fact he likely craves it more than ever, he simply can’t afford it, when/ if he can again he will be back more ferociously than ever.

Brand loyalty, during such extreme times as these, will suffer when a brand is not seen to understand said times, or the struggles consumers face going through it. Consumers want to see that the brands they love are in the fight with them. Shake Shack returning a $10MM back to the federal government was the ultimate “we are in this together” moment and will only increase their base.

The most prevalent example of ‘getting it wrong’ right now, appears when you look at personal or celebrity brands. Every day, there is a headline describing how some celebrity faced backlash, after talking of the struggle to self-isolate in their 12,000 sqft Hollywood home, with pool and basketball court, (check out the Buzzfeed link below). People are loyal to brands they aspire to, resonate with or feel understand them, and right now, understanding has to be wrapped in empathy, comradery, sacrifice & love. Product & lifestyle brands could learn a lot from the mistakes of our previously adored, and ever-growing celebrity community.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/dumbest-things-celebrities-have-said-or-done-about-the

During times of extended uncertainty, consumers often revert back to heritage brands, those they trust and those they know have been up against adversity in the past. Brands that can pivot on the fly due to their potential infrastructure, will earn respect that will develop to loyalty, at least short-term.  P&G using its factories to produce masks and hand sanitizer, while Ford and GE Healthcare teamed up to produce respirators and ventilators to help COVID-19 patients and frontline staff. These community effects on a global scale only continue to weave their narrative for times like these. 

Weisler: Do you see a shift in amount of consumer spending?

Cooper: Right now, there is both reduction and shift, and really driven by the lack of an alternative, over a subliminal change is behavior. People are spending more on Amazon, as they are stuck at home. More on groceries as they can’t eat out. Netflix subs are through the roof as cinema’s, gyms, restaurants and a myriad of other entertainments are closed. On the flip, people are spending less on commuting, coffee & dry cleaning, things that were deemed essential mere weeks ago, though these will return, as and when life returns to some kind of normality, but, to what level? Again, people are nervous for the immediate and long-term future of themselves and the economy, so inevitably, we are all more frugal.

Weisler: Do you see a long-term trend in consumer behavior? and if so what?

Cooper: The truth is, only time will tell. Through all great crisis, the human race has proved to be both incredibly enduring and forgetful, both important survival traits, so we don’t live in eternal fear. China has been ‘re-open’ for several weeks, but only now have people felt comfortable heading to a bar after work as a group, so it’s a slow recovery process psychologically, having spent months being told we should be terrified by every news outlet. I suspect that going forward, every family will have a box of surgical masks and a pack of 80 toilet rolls in the cupboard, the hoard mentality, even at a subtle level, will likely stay with us. It may take a long time for planes to be full (though the cruise ships are selling out for 2021, we love a deal more than we hate a pandemic). 

The consumer normal, will be driven by the economic and commercial normal, and that is anyone’s gamble. Will large corporations still rent 25 floors of premium real estate in Manhattan, having survived this time with it sitting empty? If 75% of the workforce are working from home 3 days a week, who will fill the lunchtime restaurants and sandwich shops? What of the cleaners, security guards & catering companies that service office space that may be sitting empty, as well as the transport industry, public and private, that furry us all around? There is a very real risk, that corporate America will take this opportunity, to save going forward, not re-employ or reinvest, but look to improve margin and boost share price first, ‘the trickle down economics’ that so many are a fan of, only works, if indeed it does at all, with a trickle.

This article first appeared in www.Mediapost.com