The world’s largest media investment management group to use Rentrak for media planning and buying in the U.S. The announcement comes on the heels of news that parent WPP would acquire a 16.7% stake in Rentrak by buying $56 million in Rentrak stock and by accepting $98 million worth of Rentrak stock in exchange for the TV measurement unit of Kantar Media. It also follows news last week that another media agency, Zenith Media, would begin using Rentrak ratings
GroupM Adds Rentrak Measurement Services
GroupM, the media investment management division of WPP, today announced that GroupM media agencies in the United States will begin to use Rentrak’s national and local TV measurement services.
GroupM, which manages $105 billion in media billings globally, is the world’s leading media investment management operation, and serves as parent company to Mindshare, MEC, MediaCom and Maxus. This means that all of the largest agency holding companies now have contracts with Rentrak.
“Rentrak is thrilled to work with GroupM and its agencies, and that they will use our services for the benefit of their clients,” said Rentrak’s Vice Chairman-CEO Bill Livek. “This partnership will help our customers achieve maximum profitability.”
“The proliferation of channels has so significantly fragmented audiences that legacy sample methodology simply can’t keep up,” said Irwin Gotlieb, global chairman of GroupM. “Television measurement needs to move toward census-based methodology. Our agencies are doing such refined targeting and segmentation, and that work can only be supported by census data. It is our hope that we can act as catalysts in moving the industry toward greater data reliability and accountability.”
The GroupM announcement comes on the heels of news that parent WPP would acquire a 16.7% stake in Rentrak by buying $56 million in Rentrak stock and by accepting $98 million worth of Rentrak stock in exchange for the TV viewing measurement unit of Kantar Media. That unit was a direct Rentrak competitor.
GroupM and its agencies will have full access to Rentrak’s TV viewing information and will, over time, use the data broadly, the company said. Rentrak’s analytics will be employed for automotive and other categories in national and local markets.
BRAND CONNECTIONS
On-demand and multi-platform data will be used to provide a more complete picture of television viewing patterns. In addition, Rentrak’s data will be used to quantify viewing levels in more than 200 networks that are not currently measured by the legacy sample currency, as well as in local markets.
Last week, another media agency, Zenith Media, said that it would begin using the Rentrak ratings. It is still unclear to what extent it would use Rentrak, however.
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