--Agreement Will See Publicis Using the Admira Platform of Microsoft-Subsidiary, Navic
Microsoft and advertising/communications giant, Publicis Groupe, last week announced a broad agreement to cooperate closely on three advertising-related "core objectives" that they say have been "enabled by the emergence of the digital media world." The "core objectives" center on content, performance and audience respectively. According to the companies, their collaboration on content will see them focusing on "the creation, production and distribution of programming, across the wide array of capabilities, tools and services on the digital palette"; their collaboration on performance will see them focusing on "technologies, methods and innovation focused on the delivery of better performance, including search, ad serving and the portfolio of performance technologies and services"; and their collaboration on audience will see them focusing on "the definition, delivery and measurement of specific audiences based on a set of defined criteria."
The companies' content collaboration calls for Microsoft to work with Publicis-owned studio, PBJS, and Publicis' VivaKi Nerve Center to support a PBJS-developed "content studio" which the companies say will "help enable large-scale global programming opportunities." Publicis Groupe clients will have first access to the programs delivered by the new studio, the companies say.
The companies' performance collaboration, meanwhile, will, among other things, see Microsoft making an "ongoing...commitment" to The Pool, a VivaKi research initiative that tests new broadband video ad formats and new digital ad models. The Pool's first "lane" (as it calls its initiatives) focused on online video and is currently in tests, the companies say. Its second "lane" will focus on short-form video content; and future "lanes" will focus on mobile, advanced television and social marketing respectively.
The companies' audience collaboration will see them creating a customized VivaKi ad exchange for TV advertising, that will be powered by the Admira technology of Microsoft-subsidiary, interactive TV and advanced advertising technology provider, Navic (note: Microsoft also recently announced a deal with NBC Universal that will see the latter using the Admira television media marketplace to plan and sell national and local broadcast and cable advertising inventory--see the article posted on itvt.com, June 18th). According to the companies, this will enable more "audience-specific" television buying by VivaKi. Microsoft bills Admira as aggregating anonymous audience-intelligence data that "may be more challenging to find using traditional sources of viewership measurement" and as combining it with additional audience characteristics currently not available on existing TV advertising platforms. The company claims that the platform can continuously optimize ad placements in response to near real-time viewing trends, and report the actual audiences that are delivered, thus helping agencies and advertisers measure the success of their campaigns. According to Microsoft and Publicis, the latter's Starcom MediaVest, Zenith Optimedia and Digitas subsidiaries will be among the first agency networks to use Admira to help clients plan and buy media when Admira goes live in the fourth quarter. "This agreement reflects our commitment to partner with the world's largest agencies to drive new ideas and innovations that address the complex marketing needs and challenges facing advertisers today," Darren Huston, corporate VP of Microsoft's Consumer & Online group, said in a prepared statement. "It illustrates our belief that partnerships that bring creativity and technology together can be a powerful combination for brand marketers looking to grow their share." (Note: as [itvt] was going to press Sunday night, the Financial Times published a report that Microsoft is set to sell Razorfish, a digital agency that it acquired as part of its purchase of aQuantive in 2007; Publicis is a possible buyer, the newspaper said.)
