• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, May 12, 2009

Publicis' Starcom MediaVest Group has once again reorganized its media services practice, and added yet another brand identity, and is claiming it has a new, first-mover approach to the next generation of planning and buying media. The new entity, dubbed the SMG Exchange (SMGX), will consolidate the marketplace intelligence; new, state-of-the-art digital media analytics; and some new, as-yet-undisclosed approaches to buying media, that its top managers' claim will revolutionize the marketplace. SMGX also is closely aligned to Publicis' VivaKi infrastructure, making it a little unclear where SMGX begins and some of VivaKi's systems and marketplace approaches leave off.

"It's not as black and white as you may think," explains John Muszynski, who is stepping down as CEO of Starcom USA to become chief investment officer of SMGX, which will consolidate the market intelligence and buying strategy for SMG's Starcom, MediaVest and Spark divisions.

Lisa Donohue, president of MediaVest's Truth & Design Planning Practice, will succeed Muszynski as CEO of Starcom.

If SMGX sounds a little like the centralized, corporate-level buying and negotiating units created by rival agency holding companies in the last, such as the previous incarnation of Interpublic's Magna unit, Muszynski says that is only partly true. He says the big difference between them and SMGX is the superior, proprietary knowledge SMG has gleaned into the world of analyzing digital data, which puts it years ahead of the rest of the industry, and will give it some new-to-market approaches that will become evident over the next few months.

That insight has been culled from a series of investments SMG has made in early stage commercialized digital data streams including Google TV Ads, TNS, TiVo and TRA, as well as close working relationships with the major cable and satellite TV operators and Microsoft's Navic division to gain access to their proprietary data. As a result, Tracey Scheppach, senior vice president-video innovation director at Starcom, says SMG is ready to exploit the data as part of its media planning and buying systems, where other agencies, and industry alliances are still trying to figure out its utility.

Scheppach, who also plays a key role in VivaKi's Never Center as its expert on advanced TV, will be a key player in the execution of the new SMGX unit, which will also have a leadership team comprised of the heads of the rest of SMG's operating units, as well as their chief investment officers.

Muszynski says it's too early to discuss how the digital data intelligence will manifest in new approaches to buying media, but he implied that the term exchange was a key component of the new set-up, though he wouldn't go so far as to acknowledge that it will be aggregating advertising networks the way Havas, MDC and Interpublic are.

He did say the mission of SMGX is to leverage digital data and buying strategies for all the major electronic media platforms, including online, TV, and even out-of-home.

"We are trying basically to redefine scale and leverage in this marketplace," he explains. "And a big part of what we're trying to do in terms of redefining that, is moving beyond the aggregation of dollars, and really locking in on some of the opportunities that the marketplace has or will have - most notably when we talk about addressability and measurement."

One thing the SMGX team would not say, is whether the concept ultimately would eventually be expanded to incorporate other Publicis media operations, including ZenithOptimedia Group. In markets outside the U.S., it is common for Publicis to operate "pooled" buying operations for both SMG and Zenith Optimedia, but Publicis has resisted that in the U.S. market where client conflict sensitivities appear to be more acute.

In fact, Publicis already has been doing much of that in the U.S. already via VivaKi, which is more of an "industry-facing" organization, with the individual media services units working directly with their respective clients on specific strategies and executions.

Muszynksi says the goal of SMGX is the same: To leverage corporate-level intelligence and marketplace relationships, but to enable the individual operating units of Starcom, MediaVest and Spark to activate them in ways that specifically benefit their clients.

Muszynksi said the approach would be rolled out in phases. The first will begin with digital out-of-home media, local TV, sports and children's television. The second would focus on online and national TV.

The efforts of SMGX would also be supported by Publici's new "Pool" approach to digital marketplace innovation. The first Pool project, an ambitious R&D effort to develop a better standard online video advertising unit to pre-roll, has already identified the alternative format, which will be tested this summer, and which Publicis will begin buying for its clients on a commercial basis soon, Sheppach said. The Pool, which includes big media companies such as Microsoft and Yahoo, will release its findings publicly in February 2010.

Sheppach said the Pool already has identified its second initiative: A similar research and development effort to benchmark the most effective short-form online video formats.