Time Warner recently moved Warner Bros.’ more than $250 million digital media account from an Omnicom-media-buying agency to Merkle, which was viewed as a bid to sync up ad efforts across its
disparate brands, according to a report in the
Wall Street Journal. Warner Bros. has tapped Merkle, which specializes in customer relationship marketing, to help it manage tons of
customer data and to implement digital ad efforts, "such as search advertising and digital ad buying and analytics," the paper reported. "A CRM shop is an unlikely place to park a digital media-buying
account the size of Warner Bros., one of the biggest Hollywood film and TV studios. But the move is in line with marketers’ growing desire to link up data from various online efforts, like
e-commerce, video streaming and ad buying to better target individuals. Typically, those efforts have been separate," the report notes. In addition, for Time Warner, the move "was part of a
larger effort to make better use of data across its brands, which also include CNN-parent Turner and HBO. For example, if Warner Bros. is launching a film with a popular actor, the company might want
to target the film’s fans when promoting an HBO show that features that same actor," the
Journal reported.
Read the whole story at The Wall Street Journal »