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Accenture boldly moves into programmatic ad buying

Accenture boldly moves into programmatic ad buying

Accenture, the consultancy that had already moved its tanks on to the lawn of the advertising holding companies, has now announced it wants more of their business by boosting its programmatic ad buying capabilities.

Claiming it is responding to “significant” client demand, Accenture Interactive – which was already helping clients take programmatic capabilities in-house – is now helping to do the same for media planning and buying with a new ‘Programmatic Services’ unit.

“Our clients have been asking us to help them drive greater efficiencies with their programmatic media spend, specifically digital media,” said Brian Whipple, global CEO of Accenture Interactive.

“Consistent with our mission to create, build and run the best customer experiences on the planet, we are enhancing Accenture Interactive Programmatic Services to complement our full suite of experience services.

“We are already focused on all the pieces that are related to media placement so it was a natural extension for us to help our clients deliver more hyper-relevant customer experiences through digital media.”

Whipple added that the enhanced capability is designed to help marketers achieve greater business outcomes, enable cost transparency, regain control and ownership of their data, and design audience-driven campaigns.

Last year Accenture made more than $6.5bn in revenues, making it a bigger payer than Havas, although some way off the likes of WPP, Publicis and Omnicom.

The move into online media-buying will add further pressure on traditional adland businesses – ad-buying is hugely profitable. However, it is often described as a “murky” or “swamp-like” world, leading many clients to question its transparency and efficiency.

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