In a surprisingly impromptu announcement, Donovan Data Systems' Harvey Kent told attendees at MediaPost's Re:Vision conference that Madison Avenue's back-office giant has been meeting with the Big 3
targeted TV ad network players - Google's TV Ads, Microsoft's Advertising TV Network, and Simulmedia - to figure out how to integrate their buying platforms into Donovan's agency systems. Referring
to the players as, "cool, high value media buys," Kent acknowledged that the integration is a "challenge," but he said Donovan is committed to making it happen, because its agency clients are
utilizing the systems and need a better way of stewarding those buys
"Our hips grew together with our agency clients a long time ago," Kent said, adding, "We've got to figure out how we're
going to steward this stuff in real time."
Kent implied that Donovan has been working on this initiative over the past six months.
It wasn't clear, however, how the other major
back-office agency suppliers - MediaBank and Strata - are doing on this front. Asked by panel moderator and MPG Televisual chief Mitch Oscar if they were in the room, neither of those suppliers
acknowledged being in the room.