GroupM Partners With Index Exchange As Hold Cos Lean Into SSPs

Summary: WPP’s GroupM, the largest media buying group of agencies in the world, will route most of its programmatic spend through the supply side platform Index Exchange, per a non-exclusive agreement that the parties expect to sign soon. Recently, the practice of supply path optimization (SPO) has become popular, in which buyers look to optimize programmatic paths to inventory by suppressing duplicative suppliers that aren’t efficient. The below visual lays this concept out well:

source: SmartyAds

GroupM is hoping it can add value here by consolidating spend with Index and getting lower rates in return, savings that can then be passed on to its customers. Classic agency playbook being applied to the latest programmatic inefficiency.

Terms of the pending agreement are not clear at this time.

Source: AdExchanger

Can Quibi Live Up To Its $1.75 Billion Valuation?

Summary: Quibi, the soon-to-be-launched, short-form mobile video, ad-supported, subscription app, has raised another $750M in funding, bringing it’s total investment to $1.75B. The names of the investors and the valuation of the company has not been disclosed. Quibi was founded by former DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg and former HP CEO Meg Whitman. Quibi will launch in early April, and will offer two subscription tiers: $4.99/month for ad-supported and $7.99/month for ad-free. The service gives users ‘quick bite’ (hence the name “Qui-bi”), episodic, video content. Shows fall into one of three categories: ‘Movies in Chapters’, ‘Unscripted’, and ‘Docs’, and all episodes are no longer than 10 minutes each. Stars like Liam Hemsworth, Reese Witherspoon, and Chrissy Teigen will have original shows on Quibi.

In order to get traction, Quibi is spending a lot of money on paid advertising. They ran a 30 second spot during the Superbowl this year. On the flip side, they already have ad spend commitments from major brands like Pepsi and Walmart.

Quibi is entering an extremely competitive streaming video market, against free services like YouTube and IGTV and paid services like Hulu, Disney+, Netflix, and more. They have their work cut out for them.

Exclusive: CEO of AT&T ad unit Xandr resigns

Summary: Brian Lesser, CEO of AT&T’s advertising unit, Xandr, is reportedly resigning. It’s unclear when he will officially move out of the role, and who will be taking over for him. Lesser reportedly interviewed to be CEO of AT&T’s media business, WarnerMedia, but was told he would likely not get the job. Lesser previously served as CEO of GroupM North America. He founded Xandr, which is built around AT&T’s legacy advertising business, AT&T’s acquisition of ad tech company AppNexus, and Xandr’s recent acquisition of linear TV supply side platform, Clypd.