The recently announced partnership between Toronto-based video trading platform TubeMogul and IPG Mediabrands to expand their programmatic video focus into the U.K. and Asia-Pacific region points to continuing worldwide growth in video, automation and real-time bidding.
The non-exclusive deal will see IPG Mediabrands bring RTB for video in-house. According to Grant le Riche, managing director of TubeMogul in Canada, automation will allow them to provide tools to agencies in order to plan campaigns more efficiently, streamline workflow between agencies – and get better performance through GRPs online, a space that le Riche says is taking off.
“This is a really big step forward in the industry, specifically in Canada,” he said. “It’s showing that agencies are starting to take technology in-house to become a lot more competitive.”
IPG Mediabrands, the holding company that owns agencies such as Universal McCann and Initiative as well as the trade desk Cadreon, is looking to automate 50% of its roughly $36 billion global ad spend by 2016.
“This is a commitment both to each other as well as to moving the technology forward on behalf of our clients,” said Anthony Ziehmke, managing director of Cadreon Canada. “Video is an important space for us right now. In 2014 it’ll be even more important.”
The deal is a step beyond the ad-hoc relationship TubeMogul has had with IPG Mediabrands for over a year in the U.S., Canada and Australia. The first beta partner to test out Google’s biddable video inventory, TubeMogul gives media buy access to 50,000 sites across major supply-side platforms, such as YouTube, Brightroll, Facebook Social Video and Liverail. They power Cadreon as well as many other agencies’ trade desks. Now, brands that aren’t working through Cadreon can get access to the same tools through IPG.
“This is the first time an agency’s taking control and saying, we don’t want to rely on our trade desk,” said le Riche.
Having the technology in-house will help agencies beyond just acquiring media, says le Riche. They’ll be able to use it for online brand research to give them a more holistic view of campaigns and to build verified audience with tools such as Neilsen OCR and first-party client data.
