• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, June 20, 2014

UM, the IPG Mediabrands agency, and AOL Platforms are jointly developing a real-time marketing platform they hope will be campaign-ready sometime in the third quarter, with UM clients getting a limited period of exclusive access.

The platform -- which will serve messages in reaction to national and regional events, such as weather conditions, turns in the stock market, sports scores and other social and cultural “moments” -- will be driven by a UM programmatic infrastructure utilizing AOL technology.

A recent study conducted by IPG Mediabrands and AOL found that ad effectiveness increased 20% with the inclusion of real-time elements. In response, this new planning and buying process will allow clients to buy into cultural and real-time triggers through an automated system, which will function as a real-time interface across all media. 

UM and AOL co-developed the concept, strategy and the idea for the platform, based on UM’s proprietary approach to planning, per the companies. When the platform, called “Moments Marketing,” is implemented, UM will oversee planning and AOL will build the technology, dashboard and data sources to identify the triggers that launch messaging campaigns for brand marketers.

"What is of greatest value to our clients and to our media technology partners is communication delivered and consumed at the place and time for which it was intended,” said Matt Seiler, global CEO, IPG Mediabrands. “At IPG Mediabrands, the 'here' and 'now' has been the focus of most of our initiatives for some time.”  

Other agencies have their own versions of real-time marketing platforms. WPP’s Mindshare, for example, launched a proprietary real-time marketing process called “The Loop” earlier this year. It has signed deals with a number of third party vendors such as The Weather Co., BuzzFeed and Twitter to collect and analyze data to help clients formulate real-time marketing campaigns.