.jpg){kind=logo}
Mumbrella: IPG Mediabrands returns to Standard Media Index in Australia
IPG Mediabrands has returned to the Standard Media Index in Australia after pulling out of the key industry metric in 2016.
Australia and New Zealand managing director, Jane Ractliffe, said the move would strengthen the SMI’s market coverage and underpin confidence in the industry as all media stakeholders will now have access to virtually all national marketing spend.
“We are thrilled to have Mediabrands data in the Australian database and this news will be welcomed across the industry as advertisers, media companies and the finance market seek the most reliable data possible to track the market’s return to growth post COVID,” she said.
“Advertisers will be able to allocate their media investment with even more confidence as they have clear benchmarks for tracking their share of voice within their product category across all major media – including all digital media.”
IPG Mediabrands withdrew its data, including its historical figures, from the SMI after commercial negotiations between the group and SMI fell apart. As a result, Mediabrands and its clients lost visibility of the index, and in turn the SMI was unable to claim it had a full view over the paid media market.
At the time Ractliffe said she was “disappointed we couldn’t come to new terms, globally”, however “SMI provides the only information on advertising demand across the media and all media sector categories each month. That won’t change.”
The SMI has been working with Mediabrands for several months to integrate its bookings into the system. Throughout the process only different proportions of client spend across various categories had been added to guarantee only a part of each client’s bookings entered the pool at any time.
IPG Mediabrands chief executive officer, Mark Coad, said: “As a leading Australian media agency we are always keen to ensure our clients have access to the best advertising insights possible, and the data provided by SMI through its exclusive partnerships with our industry delivers information on many aspects of the media market not available elsewhere.
“At all times the most important issue for Mediabrands has been to ensure the ongoing privacy of all our client data and this has been achieved by slowly adding more and more data with every SMI data release.”
Ractliffe added: “We have been progressively adding current and historic Mediabrands data into the AU database in our fortnightly data releases for many months, with the historic data ensuring all analysis remained like-for-like and the only change being the growth in the amount of ad spend captured.”
Mediabrands’ return in Australia will see general manager of investment at Magna Global join the SMI Advisory Board. The group joined the SMI’s Canadian database last year, and recently announced it will soon be joining the SMI database in the US as well.