• by David Kaplan , November 1, 2004

Following its decision to award its advertising to WPP Group's Ogilvy & Mather, Time Warner Cable (TWC) has rebranded its ad sales units across the country as Time Warner Cable Media Sales.

Formerly, TWC's ad sales outlets went by various identities such as Time Warner CityCable, Time Warner Cable AdCast, and Time Warner Cable Ad Sales. Aside from just the nomenclature part of the rebranding effort, the idea is to streamline operations on a national level, a TWC spokeswoman said.

The Media Sales unit has now set up regional offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, and New York. The unit's new name also reflects the inclusion of advanced advertising technologies into their traditional mix of advertising opportunities.

"By leveraging the company's technology leadership and our new regionalized structure we are well positioned to deliver our clients an exceptional return on their ad dollars even in this changing television landscape," said Larry Fischer, president Time Warner Cable Media Sales

Time Warner Cable Media Sales has taken a "hub-city" approach to its national sales efforts in order to build on and expand relationships with its major market clients. The newly regionalized national sales group begins operations November 1.

In addition to the six markets where its regional offices are located, the group will also focus on serving clients in Boston, Cleveland, Denver, Kansas City, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington D.C. The interconnection arm of Time Warner Cable Media Sales now manages advertising sales interconnects with other cable companies in Charlotte, N.C. Cleveland, Columbus, Ohio Dayton, Ohio, El Paso, Texas, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Raleigh/Durham, N.C., Rochester, N.Y., and Syracuse N.Y. Additionally, Time Warner Cable Media Sales is working on interconnection agreements in many more of the country's top 50 DMA's. As part of the rebranding, TWC's in-house media buying service, Time Warner Cable Direct, will become Time Warner Cable Media Direct. Media Direct will focus on expanding its expertise in planning and buying advertising for various Time Warner companies and cable network clients.