By Michael Bürgi • December 9, 2024 •
Ivy Liu
This article is part of a series covering our Programmatic Marketing Summit. More from the series →
Fresh off an onstage appearance at last week’s Digiday Programmatic Marketing Summit in Nashville, Mary Ann Pruitt, CEO and founder of independent media agency Mosaic Media expounded on what she sees as the growing strength of independents against their bigger and better-armed holding company competitors.
One singular reason she believes this shift is happening is due to the “great equalizer” in programmatic marketplaces, which to her have empowered independents to compete with holding companies on a level they never have before. It’s more than just programmatic access — it’s the broader tech abilities that are accessible to all agencies, holdco or otherwise that’s helped the fighting power for any that invest in those tools. It’s also the flexibility that independents can bring to clients, while holdco agencies are often locked into whatever their parent company has invested in.
Anchorage, Alaska-based Mosaic counts Subway restaurants, Krispy Kreme and Konica Minolta among its clients, and often collaborates with creative and other agencies that are looking for media-side expertise and tools. “This isn’t white glove — it’s totally transparent to the client, and they really appreciate that,” said Pruitt, who started the agency in 2011 and also has a Lakeland, Fla., office.
Transparency is, to her, yet another growing reason independents are increasing the number of times they’re being asked to pitch against holdco agencies — and winning more often too.
The following interview has been edited for space and clarity.
How often do you come up against holding company agencies in pitches now? And has that increased more recently?
It’s more often than before, for sure. You’re getting a lot more holdcos at a different level, but I also think you’re getting a lot more independents invited to bigger tables than they have been in the past. It’s happening across the board. As to why, the agility side for the independents is there, and clients are starting to see that. They they want more options to be able to work with. They don’t necessarily care if everything’s all under one umbrella either anymore. They’re okay to divvy things out by specialties.
What are the kind of things that they’re looking for that is no longer the exclusive terrain of holdcos?
The agility and the customization. The technologies that we have to kind of adapt to. But also the lack of red tape is attractive to them. Here’s the thing: we’re big enough where we’re going to be competitive for you, but we’re small enough that you mean a lot to us. We’re going to make sure that we have a more senior team and have more dedication.
The other thing that I think they’re liking are specializations and niches that independents have a little bit more flexibility to go into. They like that we’re open for conversations, and we’re not stuck in a box of a certain way of operating.
Having just come out of the Programmatic Marketing Summit, is programmatic the great equalizer, or does scale and heft give the holdcos advantage and you a disadvantage?
It is the great equalizer. Programmatic absolutely opened it up for everybody. The thing is, not all agencies have invested in bringing programmatic along — working directly with DSPs and things like that. Independents like us do, and we invested in that and really focus on that. That’s actually where we’re seeing a lot more collaboration with other independents coming together too. Independents working together is a trend that I see happening more.
Transparency for the client is very important. The way we operate is, hey, this is what it is. We’re having those conversations out front of clients — they really are more and more okay with this. It’s an evolution that we’re heading into.
When you beat a holdco agency in a new business pitch, what is the reason the client gives you?
A client will say: the reason why you won this is because we believe there’s gonna be a more hands-on touch to our account. We see more specialization and focus. We know that we’re going to be a big deal to you, but we also know that you’re going to be able to handle it.
There’s a lot of ambiguity and mystery specifically around media — and there’s confusion. Clients get so overwhelmed by that. At the end of the day, they just want to do what’s best for the brand and the goals that they have for the brand. And they feel overwhelmed with the decisions. So we can come in and be that relationship for them, and be that sounding board where you can have a face to face conversation. And they can text me at any point and say, ‘Hey, can we get on a call in five minutes?’ Yes, absolutely, we can.
So are you beating holdco agencies more than in the past?
It’s not just winning more pitches. It’s that independents are being asked to be in pitches. I think we’re at a tipping point right now. Specifically in the media space, the ANA’s report of wasted ad dollars really fired up brands. Principal marketing has really fired up brands. They don’t like when all this creates more mystery for them. That’s when they start looking for the solution to calm their fears.
Our consumer — clients — are going to be demanding certain things, and frankly, we need to perceive where that’s coming from and act before it starts happening. We’ve got to get ahead of certain things. And that’s where independents’ strength comes in. We have that flexibility to move really quickly and to be agile to what our clients need and to what clients are asking for.
Color by numbers
Women’s sports has enjoyed quite the year. According to a report issued by Horizon Sports & Entertainment last week, viewership to women’s sports has surged by 80 percent in the past three years, led by NCAA women’s basketball (145%), the WNBA (76%), soccer (99%), and volleyball (126%). Meanwhile, since betting is so huge across all sports, it’s no exception in women’s sports where it’s increased 40 percent. And yet, it represents less than 5 percent of the $500 billion global sports market, despite considerably lower entry costs to sponsorship.
Some salient stats from the report:
- Women’s sports audiences are 55% male and 45% female; 53% Gen Z/millennials; 38% multi-cultural; 27% percent Black; and 15% Hispanic;
- Despite a lower number of sponsors relative to men’s sports, women’s sports reach 172 million “engaged sports fans.”
- 78% of Gen Z consume short form video content; for example, the WNBA counts more than 10.5 million social posts;
- More than 70% believe companies should invest more in women’s sports, and 67% actively support sponsors of their favorite teams and leagues.
Takeoff & landing
- In a sign of where the industry is headed in general, IPG sold its former digital darling agency Huge to private equity firm AEA investors, which is merging it with Hero Digital. At the same time, IPG is also acquiring e-commerce intelligence platform Node to boost its abilities in that growing space. IPG declined to name sale or purchase prices.
- Separately, IPG, Omnicom and WPP all reportedly took minority stakes in ad-tech software firm Mediaocean through what’s being called a Certified Service Partner program that gives them access to its ad verification, creative optimization and ad-serving tools.
- Brandtech Group’s Jellyfish launched what it’s calling Share-of-Model Platform, which tracks how large language models like ChatGPT, Gemini and Llama perceive brands, products and services. The aim is to help brands expand keyword strategies and optimize website content for AI models.
- Worldwide Partners added eight new agencies to its membership, including Mediassociates, retail specialist Blue Chip, experiential shop VMG and female-led influencer agency Sway Group.
- B2B marketing firm Salient MG entered into a strategic alliance with U.K.-based B2B firm Bluestripe Group, to expand their global reach and services.
- Personnel moves: Mediasense named Jamie Posnanski to be its global CEO as founder Graham Brown moves to executive chairman … Publicis Media Malaysia named Kristine Ong its new CEO, who moves from Mindshare where she was chief client officer … Stagwell moved finance executive Keisha Brescia to be Assembly’s first global chief transformation officer.
Direct quote
“People don’t like being tracked. I mean, that’s weird when you think about it.”
—Matt Navitsky, svp, performance intelligence, Edelman DXI, at Digiday’s Programmatic Marketing Summit in Nashville last week.
Speed reading
- Antoinette Siu wrote about the possible global implications on influencers, creators and platforms of Australia’s move to ban social media for teens.
- With curation being the hottest buzzword in programmatic marketing, Seb Joseph and Ronan Shields teamed up to explain why Experian’s acquisition of Audigent only builds the hype around the practice.
- I wrote about the cinema ad world’s latest efforts to get considered more in programmatic with the formation of a Cinema Programmatic Alliance, which was missing one major player.
https://digiday.com/?p=562564
