• OMD's Spotify Hackathon
    Every digital media platform worthy of the name unleashes the creativity of its audience by opening up the platform to app developers, encouraging them to come up with new apps that make the platform more accessible, more convenient, or simply more fun. It's a win-win for both sides, as the platform taps the insight and enthusiasm of users to improve its service, and the users get to customize their favorite media.
  • All Together Now
    A sandwich can be a powerful lure to those in the ad business. When the sandwich comes with fresh research and new insight - even better. That's what more than 300 executives in the agency, marketing, TV, research and technology business get four times a year from the Collaborative Alliance, a think tank founded by MPG executive Mitch Oscar. The Collaborative Alliance lives under the auspices of MPG's innovation umbrella and has had one of its most productive years.
  • Stirring It Up
    If a good friend or respected colleague were to ask me to recommend a good place for their son or daughter to start a career in the advertising business, I would probably recommend any of the organizations being recognized in this issue. But if one of my own children were to ask me, I would tell them to try and get a job at The Media Kitchen. The reason is that it has one of the best cultures for understanding the future of advertising and media, and is organized in as likely a way as I can imagine to achieve …
  • MediaOcean Makes a Splash
    Billing, trafficking and processing ad orders are the plumbing of the ad business.They rarely get anyone excited and you assume they will work fine, but, boy, if they don't flow properly, life isn't good. That's why the deal that formed MediaOcean in 2012 - when Donovan Data Systems and MediaBank merged - is one of the most significant landmarks in the ad business in 2012. The two competitive suppliers of media-buying processing systems became one in March 2012, and in the months that followed, the new company started rolling out its integrated platform to marketers. MediaOcean is nearly ubiquitous at …
  • Ford Goes Further: Client of the Year - Ford
    How reengineered marketing — including location-based ads, mobile and smarter social — are bringing this battered brand back from the brink. If Americans have always loved an underdog, then Ford has been on top for decades.Even before its current renaissance, or the automotive near-apocalypse that sparked it back in 2008, the brand was an epic loser, often referred to as Fix Or Repair Daily. “We’d been going out of business for 10 years before I got here in 2007,” Jim …
  • Full Service, Full Throttle: Full Service Agency of the Year - Hill Holliday
    Some 200 miles north of Madison Avenue, full-service agency Hill Holliday sticks out as a Brahmin among other prominent agencies in the land of bean and cod. Founded in Boston in 1968, the Interpublic Group company now has offices in all the major U.S. advertising hubs - New York, Miami, San Francisco - and even one in Greenville, S.C.
  • A Big Gun for Smaller Brands: Independent Media Services of the Year - TargetCast
    New York-based TargetCast is MEDIA Magazine's somewhat ironic selection for 2012 Independent Media Agency of the Year. While no longer technically independent, the agency has remained so in spirit and direction. Over the past year it continued to foster industry influencing innovations including building new go-to-market tools and platforms and creating a brand-extending subsidiary that broadened the shop's reach.
  • The Ultimate Ad Organizer: Media Supplier of the Year - Ad-ID
    To understand why the world needs Ad-ID, consider the legend of Donut_15. (All names are withheld to protect the embarrassed.) In 2010, a major broadcast network received an e-mail from a media agency containing a commercial labeled Donut_15 that was supposed to run on the network's digital platforms. It was a new version of an ad that had already run on the TV network itself. Unfortunately, the digital version was no good, so the network went in search of a better copy. But they couldn't find any Donut_15 in their library, and the digital agency connected to the account had …
  • Change Agent: Media Agency Holding Company of the Year - WPP
    In recent years, these awards have recognized a shift that has been taking place in the way innovation occurs inside Madison Avenue's major media organizations, moving from decentralized media services operating units, to their bigger, more centralized and better resourced holding companies. The logic seems to be that holding companies are in a better position to leverage both internal budgets, and the relationships with outside suppliers and other industry stakeholders to develop tools, resources, business models and practices that would benefit their operating units and the clients they service.
  • The Power of Partnerships: Executive of the Year - Miles Nadal
    Miles Nadal built MDC into $3 billion holding company by acquiring one partnership after another. In 2012, he tipped the scale, making him MEDIA’s 2012 executive of the year.    Miles Nadal isn’t exactly Madison Avenue’s ultimate outsider, but he’s close. The Toronto-born financier grew up in a two-bedroom apartment, didn’t finish college, and financed his first business with a $500 advance on a Visa card. That was 1980. Today, MDC Partners is the eighth largest …
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