• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, August 18, 2009

In a bid to accelerate the role technology is playing in reshaping the modern media services agency, Interpublic's Mediabrands unit has named Scott Beltran executive vice president and chief information officer. Beltran, who will work as part of a tech-focused team with Mediabrands Chief Digital Officer Quentin George and Chief Technology Catalyst Greg Smith, had been chief information/innovation officer at sister Interpublic unit Lowe Worldwide, and is a long-time technology and management expert.

The move signals Mediabrands' insatiable thrust into technology innovation, or what the tech team like to refer to as "technology enablement," and comes on the heels of other recent technology plays, including the launch of electronic "audience buying" system Cadreon, its just-launched "hyper local" media services unit Geomentum, and its recent collaboration with Microsoft to create a state-of-the-art "media operations management system."

Those moves, Interpublic executives tell MDN, are just the beginning of a deeper dive into technologies that will likely reshape every facet of the way Interpublic's media organization operates, and the way it approaches the media marketplace, and how it services its clients. Among the dramatic overhauls being considered, is a restructuring of Interpublic's massive, personnel intensive spot TV and radio buying groups. While that plan has not been finally decided upon, the Interpublic executives confirmed they are looking at how technology can be used to replace much of the labor-intensive workflow associated with buying spot broadcast media, and that the remnants of that group - once Madison Avenue's largest - could ultimately be folded into Interpublic's barter media division, Orion Trading.

Such moves are part of an inevitable progression, according the Interpublic team, as modern media services organizations seek to improve their operating efficiencies, and refocus their resources away from labor-intensive paper shuffling and utilize technology to enable their workforce to focus on media insights and innovation that lead to better results for Interpublic clients' brands in the media marketplace.

The new team, comprised of Beltran, Smith, George, and other key technology focused players such as Bant Breen, and Emerging Media Lab President John Ross, are eyeballing ever aspect of Interpublic's media organization to see where technology can be used to enable and transform the way they do business.

"The inefficiency that we have in this industry is appalling," Interpublic's Smith acknowledged in an interview with MDN, adding that technology has gradually been reshaping Madison Avenue media buying, but that the process is beginning to accelerate.

The overall effort, the Interpublic executives said, began nearly two years ago with a high-level, soul-searching meeting in which the team sought to zero-based every component of the media organization to determine where and when technology could enable better processes. The project was originally code-named Moses, but ultimately grew into individual business concepts such as Cadreon, Geomentum and Microsoft's M.O.M.S initiative.

The next phases, Smith revealed, might also include a much more comprehensive "campaign management system" capable of stewarding the entire campaign process seamlessly and automatically, including creative assets, and consumer profile data, as well as media buying specifications.

"We're in a different space. And things are changing so quickly," he said, adding, "We believe that all media will be measured. And we will have some kind of return path with that media. And what we are looking toward is a complete campaign management system."

Smith, and the other Interpublic executives, acknowledge that some of these changes have been initiated from the outside, and that agencies have no choice but to adapt and adopt them, lest they face disintermediation. Cadreon is a good case in point. The rapid expansion of online advertising networks facilitated by third-party aggregators and exchanges threatened to displace Madison Avenue's role. Other big agency holding companies - notably Havas, MDC, and Publicis - have already announced their own automated advertising network plays. What differentiates Cadreon, the Interpublic team said, is its vision: Not only is it focused on online media, but it also is intended to become an electronic trading system for buying "audiences - not media - across all media that become addressable and capable of targeting consumers individually. That, they said, will eventually mean most media.

Interpublic executives acknowledge these shifts will ultimately change the role agencies play in planning, buying and managing media, and that much more of that process will become automated and less manpower intensive. But they way that will be a good thing for Madison Avenue, not a bad thing, because it will enable media services organizations to focus on creative ideas and negotiations that build premium opportunities for their clients brands.

"We will become a smaller place, more connected place," Interpublic's Beltran predicted, adding that "areas of our business that were highly manual" will increasingly become automated.