Omnicom has signed a two-year deal with Twitter worth $230 million, the Wall Street Journal is reporting.
The deal entails first-look access to new mobile ad units and fixed rates on inventory sold via Twitter’s mobile network.
As part of the agreement, Omnicom’s programmatic trading desk, Accuen, will integrate directly with Twitter’s MoPub marketplace for off-site mobile inventory (inventory from partner publishers that are a part of Twitter’s network). Unlike a $100 million deal between Omnicom and Instagram announced in March, the Twitter agreement focuses on programmatic media, and is not limited to specific brand clients — all Omnicom agency clients will have access.
“MoPub brings scale, and they bring the ability to leverage targeting based on demographics,” OMG president of U.S. digital investments Jonathan Schaaf told Advertising Age. “It allows us to extend our marketing messages to consumers who have shown interest in the past, deeper than just the Twitter feed.”
Although Facebook has many more users and much more inventory available than Twitter, the Omnicom-Twitter deal is focused on off-site inventory, since Twitter’s own inventory is not yet available for programmatic buying through MoPub. Twitter purchased and began integrating MoPub’s off-site mobile exchange technology last September; Facebook only recently launched its competing Audience Network platform for off-site mobile inventory.
(So far, the Audience Network doesn’t permit the same direct programmatic integrations that MoPub does, but sells bulk impressions through Facebook’s audience-buying interface.)
The deal follows another major holding company commitment to mobile between Publicis and Facebook, announced last week. Ad Age reports the much more extensive Publicis-Facebook deal to be worth $500 million.
