| | Media Buyer & Planner Today | | | | | | | | | #1 Uber Sues Agency for Click Fraud | | The ride-hailing company is taking the Dentsu digital agency Fetch Media to court alleging click fraud for improperly billing for fake online ads and taking credit for app downloads it had nothing to do with, according to Bloomberg, which first reported the story. Uber is seeking $40 million in damages. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, says Uber discovered something was amiss when it canceled a campaign on conservative website Breitbart, where Fetch had been placing Uber ads. Even after the campaign was cancelled, Uber continued to be billed at the same level for alleged downloads. In one instance, the number of weekly clicks Fetch reported on one site was nearly equal to that site's total monthly active users, the complaint says. "With Fetch we learned the age-old lesson 'buyer beware' the hard way," Uber said in a statement. "Fetch was running a wild west of online advertising fraud." From 2015 to early 2017, Uber paid more than $82.5 million for ads overseen by Fetch, the court complaint says. Parent holding company Dentsu is not named in the lawsuit. | | WHY THIS MATTERS: With agency transparency for the past year being a major issue and bone of contention by agency clients in general, this situation is another disaster for the agency community. Fetch did not immediately comment in any of the initial media coverage of the Uber lawsuit, but the agency, which was founded in 2009, seems to have a lot of explaining to do. | Three Takes: Bloomberg | WSJ | Business Insider
| | | | #2 Unilever Increases Use of Consultancies | | The packaged goods giant is talking to and working with consultancy startup companies about doing tasks previously handled by agencies that it has cut out or cutback on in recent months, Digiday reports. Unilever has cut back its agency spending by 17% in the first half of 2017. At the same time it has launched co-working spaces in Singapore and Ireland where its marketers can sit beside up to 50 startups, with plans to erect more throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia. In those hubs, both Unilever's marketers and startups work on live briefs. Unilever is giving startups like user-generated content platform Vidsy and influencer marketing tech unit Mavrck more of its marketing budget. Startups are taking on more tasks like customer research, content production and social listening. | | WHY THIS MATTERS: This new Unilever strategy is leaving some of the company's traditional agencies in a precarious position. For the agencies that Unilever continues to work with, it has shortened payment times and introduced new procurement processes. And the startups it is working with are producing results at lesser costs than if Unilever used agencies. Aline Santos, executive VP of global marketing for Unilever, says, "My question to the traditional agencies is, 'what are you doing about it?'" | | A Take: Digiday | | | | #3 MediaCom Wins MetLife Account | | The insurance and financial company has selected WPP GroupM agency MediaCom to handle its U.S. media planning and buying, MediaPost reports. MediaCom sibling agency MEC, which is in the process of merging with another WPP and GroupM agency Maxus to become Wavemaker, was the incumbent but did not defend. MediaCom beat out Omnicom's Hearts&Sciences and Dentus's Merkle in the pitch. | | WHY THIS MATTERS: MetLife is a relatively high profile ad spender, expected to spend in the area of $75 million on advertising this year. For MediaCom it is another piece of new business added to its total. Last week agency tracker COMvergence reported that the agency was top-ranked in net new business during the first half of this year. | | A Take: MediaPost | |
| | |
| | 61 | | Percentage of North America advertising and marketing executives who are either generally aware or who have an understanding of the potential applications of artificial intelligence, according to a survey by GumGum. However, only 3% consider themselves experts in the area. | – Reported by eMarketer
| |
| | | |
| | 'Dancing' Opener Down, But ABC Wins the Night | by Michael Malone
ABC took top ratings honors Monday, riding the premiere of Dancing With the Stars to a 1.4 rating in viewers 18-49, and a 5 share. NBC was a close second at 1.3/5. Dancing With the Stars posted a 1.7, down considerably from last year's 2.6 season premiere. To Tell the Truth grew 29% to 0.9. On NBC, the American Ninja Warrior finale fell 6% to a 1.5 and Midnight, Texas leaped 14% to 0.8. CBS did a 0.7/3. It had repeated comedies before a Scorpion rerun. Telemundo rated a 0.7/2, with El Señor de los Cielos at a potent 0.9. Fox was at 0.6/2. So You Think You Can Dance took up all of Fox's prime and was flat with last week. Univision scored a 0.5/2. The CW did a 0.3/1. It ran repeats of Supergirl and Whose Line Is It Anyway?. | |
| | | |
| • JOHN OSBORN was named CEO at OMD U.S., succeeding MONICA KARO who was appointed chief client officer at OMD Worldwide. FLORIAN ADAMSKI was named global CEO of OMD, succeeding Mainardo de Nardis, who was elevated to the newly created position of vice chairman of Omnicom Media Group, of which OMD is a part. Osborn was most recently CEO of BBDO New York. He had spent more than 20 years at BBDO. KIRSTEN FLANIK was promoted to succeed Osborn as CEO at BBDO New York. She was previously president and will also retain that title.
• SHREYA MUKHERJEE was appointed senior VP, group planning director at Deutsch New York. She was most recently senior VP, strategy director at Publicis New York, but prior to that was VP and planning director at Deutsch.
• TOBY BYRNE was named president of digital ad tech company Zefr. Byrne spent nearly 21 years at Fox, first being named president of ad sales at Fox Broadcasting in 2010, and then as president of sales for Fox Networks Group in 2014, where he oversaw ad sales for Fox's broadcast, cable and digital platforms before departing a year ago. • ALAN DOYLE will be managing director of the first North America office of SET Live, a unit of WPP design and strategy agency SET, which will assist clients with sponsorship activations and live shows. The office in New York will also include technical director GEORGE JOHNSON and global executive director GUY TREMLETT. According to a MediaPost report, WPP is planning a second SET Live office in Portland for later this year. | |
| | | |
| News Technology Summit
September 26-27, 2017 | Atlanta Airport Marriott, GA
Learn More
Streaming Technology Leadership Summit
October 16-17, 2017 | The Stewart Hotel, NYC
Learn More
NYC Television Week
October 16-19, 2017 | NYC
Learn More
B&C Hall Of Fame
October 16 | Grand Hyatt Hotel, NYC
Learn More
VR 2020 Summit
October 17 | The Stewart Hotel, NYC
Learn More
Advanced Advertising
October 18 | Sheraton Times Square, NYC
Learn More
NextTV Summit New York City
October 18 | Sheraton Times Square, NYC
Learn More
Hispanic Television Summit
October 19 | Sheraton Times Square, NYC
Learn More
TV Data Summit
October 19 | Sheraton Times Square, NYC
Learn More
| | more events » | |
| | | | |
