GroupM Partners With TripleLift On 'Underrepresented Voices' Initiative

GroupM and ad-tech firm TripleLift and are teaming on a trading platform developed by the latter to help ad buyers direct more media spending to minority-owned publishers. 

The initiative developed late last year is called the “Underrepresented Voices Exchange Traded Deal” a collection of ad impressions that run solely on some 6,100 websites owned by Black, Latinx, AAPI, and LGBTQ+ media company operators. 

GroupM is the first holding company to formally support the effort. TripleLift said it is waiving its fees for the trades executed via the Underrepresented Voices platform so that more dollars go directly to the publishers. 

The effort comes amid a greater effort by marketers and agencies to spend more of their media budgets with minority publishers. 

GroupM, for example, recently announced their Responsible Investment Framework that invites clients to invest 2% or more of their total media spend with Black-owned media companies. 

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The Underrepresented Voices program is the first ad-tech partnership GroupM has entered into to further that pledge.  GroupM said it will make Underrepresented Voices available to all of its agency brands and clients. 

“As a black woman business owner, I have first-hand experience as to why initiatives such as this one are so important,” stated Mediavine publisher Tanya Harris, owner of My Forking Life, a food blog with quick recipes for busy people. “I started my blog five years ago and I noticed a lack of diversity in the blogging industry. That’s starting to change, but much more could be done to level the playing field. Underrepresented Voices is a huge step in the right direction and I’m thankful that TripleLift and GroupM started this initiative.” 

“A key part of our mission is to be supportive of our publisher partners -- when they thrive, we thrive along with them,” added Jordan Bitterman, CMO of TripleLift. “Just as critical, this commitment is in support of our own DE&I company initiatives, often sparked by our passionate employee resource groups. So, this is a great way to support the ambitions of our publishers, our employees and GroupM, all at once.” 

“For advertising to work better for people, we have to give our clients supplier diversity options to invest media dollars that in turn improve the ecosystem and drive positive cultural influence,” said Susan Schiekofer, GroupM’s U.S. Chief Digital Investment Officer. “The TripleLift initiative helps us reach this goal.” 

TripleLift utilizes computer vision and machine learning to optimize digital creative and media buys. It was acquired earlier this by Vista Equity Partners.

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