News

WPP Division Stakes Claim to Data From Its Online Ads

Group M 'Scares' Media Owners by Stopping the Sharing of Web-Ad Results

By Michael Learmonth, Reporter, Ad Age

http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=134414

NEW YORK (AdAge.com)—When it comes to data ownership, the web is still in the Wild West phase, but WPP Group’s media-buying arm, Group M, laid down the law recently by changing the terms of its online-ad deals to the following: “All data generated or collected by the Media Company in performing under this Agreement shall be deemed ‘Confidential Information’ of Agency/Advertiser.”

With that phrase, Group M is making it very clear where it stands on a debate that’s been around since the dawn of internet advertising in the mid-’90s: Who owns the data and under what terms?  Group M Interaction CEO John Montgomery casts the move, first reported by MediaPost, as standardizing the way business is increasingly being done at the world’s largest media-buying firm. “It’s to ensure that data is confidential and cannot be accessed by our competitors,” Mr. Montgomery said. “It’s a loophole we wanted to close.”

To read the article in full, including quotes by Mike Leo, Operative CEO and President, please click on the link.