Rapt and Publicis Groupe Media Collaborate on New Analytics Service for Digital Media
Publicis Groupe Media (PGM) and Rapt Inc. today announced their close collaboration in Rapt’s newest initiative, Rapt Information Services. Rapt Information Services is a suite of analytic tools and data products that provide visibility into supply, demand, and value dynamics for the digital media industry. This draws upon Rapt’s unparalleled domain expertise and close collaboration among a set of market participants, PGM and Digitas chief among them, to create greater transparency and liquidity for buyers and sellers of media.
This program extends Rapt’s technology and services footprint by delivering an analytics suite that drives market understanding of the ever-changing digital media landscape. PGM, through its collaboration with Rapt, extends its position as a digital media leader, contributing key insights and aggregate views into their $1.5 billion cross-internet media buying activity. Stated Jack Klues, chairman of Publicis Groupe Media, “Digital ad purchasing is still too opaque and inefficient. We are partnering with Rapt because we share their belief that clearer baselines, metrics, and indices will only expand the total market. We are delighted to help shape this initiative and lay the cornerstone of the program’s data foundation.”
Rapt Information Services will provide the digital media industry with aerial visibility of historic and forecast revenue, supply, and value across content categories, industry segments, and product types. The program will give media sellers market baselines against which to measure the value of their ad inventory and a set of leading indicators of market demand to guide product and pricing strategy. For example, a publisher will be able use Rapt Information Services to analyze historic and expected demand for video advertising and proactively align their pricing and inventory strategies to better serve the market.
Further, buyers of media will gain real-world metrics across the digital advertising spectrum to drive more informed purchase decisions and media planning strategies. For example, in negotiating prices on behalf of a pharmaceutical company for placements on a premium online health site, a media planner can use Rapt Information Services to better understand the external market value for relevant inventories and content types.
Finally, media analysts and industry-watchers will benefit from an unprecedented level of visibility, leveraging Rapt’s proprietary forecasts and media performance indices to better understand economic forces at play in the market. For example, many analysts today rely solely on data regarding overall traffic or audience reach in explaining and anticipating market performance. Rapt Information Services will complement existing traffic-centric data sources with a dollars-and-cents, yield-oriented view of the actual advertising inventory being bought and sold.
Tom Chavez, founder, president, and chief executive officer of Rapt explained the company’s motives in taking on such an aggressive initiative. “At its core, Rapt Information Services serves a role for media similar to that of Bloomberg for the financial services industry, providing a vital mechanism that enables buyers and sellers to respond to an increasingly data-driven basis of competition in digital media. We believe our approach, honed after years of deep analytic experience in this space, reduces market friction and delivers badly needed transparency, but in a manner that preserves and protects the proprietary insight and competitive edge that buyers and sellers accumulate in the course of their existing market activities.”
Rapt Information Services will protect all client-specific data while delivering significant value to multiple players in the media market. Sellers will minimize the hidden costs of failing to anticipate market needs. Buyers will benefit from the necessary market context to ensure they are making the most of advertising dollars. And for all, Rapt Information Services will deliver insight that is relevant, timely, and accessible, ensuring all can effectively anticipate and respond to near-constant market change. According to William S. Morrison, Managing Director at Think Equity Partners, “The Rapt team, along with partners such as PGM, fills a critical void and contributes greatly to the digital media industry’s collective intelligence.”
About Publicis Groupe Media
Publicis Groupe Media is comprised of the media operations of Publicis Groupe, the world’s fourth largest communications group. In addition, it is ranked as the world’s second largest media counsel and buying group, and is a global leader in digital and healthcare communications. With activities spanning 104 countries on five continents, the Groupe employs approximately 44,000 professionals. The Groupe offers local and international clients a complete range of communication services, through three autonomous global advertising networks, Leo Burnett, Publicis, Saatchi & Saatchi and two multi-hub networks, Fallon and 49%-owned Bartle Bogle Hegarty; to media consultancy and buying, through two worldwide networks, Starcom MediaVest Group and ZenithOptimedia; interactive and digital marketing led by Digitas; Specialized Agencies and Marketing Services offering healthcare communications, corporate and financial communications, sustainability communications, shopper marketing, public relations, CRM and direct marketing, event and sports marketing, and multicultural communications. Web Site: http://www.publicisgroupe.com
About Rapt Inc.
Rapt Inc. is the industry standard in advertising yield management solutions. Rapt helps advertising supported businesses realize full value from their media assets through an unrivaled combination of technology, services, and market insight. Rapt’s technology enables media companies to better price, predict, and provision advertising assets; Rapt’s services help drive best-practice yield strategy and operations; and Rapt’s information and data offerings deliver unique insight into supply, demand, and value dynamics across the digital media industry. Rapt’s client base includes CNET Networks, Dow Jones & Company, Expedia, Fox Interactive Media, Microsoft, MTV Networks, NBC Universal, The New York Times Company, Reuters, USA TODAY, Yahoo!, and others. More about Rapt can be found at http://www.rapt.com.