Ad agency conglomerate Interpublic Group is hoping to make interactive TV
more palatable for media buyers, advertisers and consumers through a new
agreement with post-production outfit Liberty Livewire.
The alliance, which New York-based IPG calls “Covered Bridges,” will
bring the companies together to create joint research, help shape the
direction of the iTV industry with “vision-building” efforts and hopefully
develop more practical applications.
IPG said the effort is intended to make it easier for marketers, media
companies and consumers to move from traditional mass media to emerging
media — hence the name of the project, which is meant to evoke the idea of
safe passage.
Spokespeople from IPG and Liberty Livewire aren’t also sidestepping the
fact that the two companies want to be known as leaders in the industry.
“Convergent TV and computer applications will inevitably emerge as one of
the major available media choices in the near future,” said Ira Carlin, who
is chairman and worldwide chief executive of Universal McCann, an IPG-owned
media buying agency that will be working on the project. “Both research and
actual usage data are telling us this loud and clear.”
“However, because this is still an evolving practice, we want to become
very active now in ensuring that our clients will be among the early leaders
in applying these convergent technology opportunities effectively to advance
their business goals,” he added.
So far, insiders concede that the alliance is little more than talk. But
if it has teeth — as both IPG and Liberty executives promise — then the
industry as a whole could see real benefits, since both partners bring
considerable industry clout to the table.
Santa Monica, Calif.-based Liberty, which handles programming
distribution as well as post-production, brings relationships with
producers, broadcast and cable networks to the alliance.
Meanwhile, IPG is committing its largest agency group, McCann-Erickson
WorldGroup, to handle the effort from its end. Kathleen Mulhern, from
McCann’s WorldGroup Ventures unit, will head the alliance as managing
director.
Like Liberty, which is dabbling in iTV programming on its own and in
other joint ventures, McCann already has a significant amount at stake in
the fledgling industry. UM Futures and UM Interactive, units of McCann’s
media buying agency Universal McCann, each have worked out iTV buys, and
several McCann clients, too, have experimented with iTV — including
Coca-Cola, Gillette and General Motors. With prodding by the agency,
they’re likely to be receptive to new initiatives in the future, said
sources at IPG.
Carlin said IPG had elected to work with Liberty Livewire because it’s
often in post-production where “decisions are made about adding value to the
actual delivery of programming and advertising.”
Liberty Livewire’s Bill Airy said that it’s likely that the partners’
work will include production in the HyperTV format — a content distribution
platform the firm is creating with Alley-based iTV player ACTV.
But in the meantime, Airy said the company’s explicit aim “is to develop
commercially viable convergence opportunities for Interpublic, its agencies,
and their clients.”
“We believe our new alliance is a concrete and significant step in this
industry because it combines two leaders in their respective fields who are
coming together to create opportunities that are sustainable and that add
real value to marketing efforts,” said Airy, who is vice president for
interactive services at the firm.
“Interpublic [offers] a wealth of expertise in understanding marketing
client strategic needs, in developing TV programming, in using media for
audience targeting, and in analyzing interactivity as a consumer benefit,”
he added.
