• by May 12, 2004

SQAD ASSEMBLES AN INTRIGUING NETCOSTS' SQUAD - We've known for some time that the new NetCosts database developed by advertising cost researcher SQAD had the promise of altering the advertising business - well, at least the network TV marketplace - as we know it, but the SQAD squad has assembled an intriguing team to unveil the new service. In addition to SQAD chief Neil Klar and NetCosts developer Larry Fried, speakers participating in the May 26 announcement will include Lou Schultz, former CEO of Initiative Media; Leslie Wood, the grand dam of everything from reach and frequency to marketing mix modeling to fusion; George Ivie, the executive director of the Media Rating Council; and Allan Linderman, president of The Linderman Media Group and de facto professor of media planning for the Association of National Advertisers.

NetCosts, for those of you who haven't been reading MediaDailyNews, is a new empirical TV costs database that's being pulled right out of the same financial management systems used by advertisers and agencies to process their buys. In other words, it's "real" data, not some concocted, or inflated estimates of market costs. The data will be virtually real-time, enabling marketers and agencies to make adjustments in mid-stream, during scatter negotiations, and create upfront plans based on actual history, not guess work.

The database has both network sales chiefs and some of the biggest agency media buying chiefs more than a little bit anxious, but clients and smaller agencies love it, because it will finally equalize - make that neutralize - TV marketplace price and sales revenue intelligence.

What the Riff's dying to know is what applications Wood has developed for the system, how MRC accreditation might figure into the process, and what a national marketer confidant like Allan Linderman's roles will be.

GOING PUBLIC? OR, JUST GOING FOR PUBLIC RELATIONS? - We admit it. Mark DiMassimo got the Riff when he sent a press release announcing that his shop had acquired "Omnicom, WPP, Grey, Publicis and IPG." And we were intrigued enough to read on only to learn that the boutique hadn't actually acquired any of the big agency holding companies, but had purchased shares of stock in them - "at least one share of stock in each." At that point, we felt a bit like the waiter in the Ameritrade commercials who overhears a restaurant patron mention that she bought company EMI and proceeds to break into an impromptu audition for the entertainment industry magnate, not knowing that she owned only a miniscule share of it.

While we're not prepared to break into song and dance over DiMassimo's release, we think it was a pretty cost effective PR stunt. Assuming he purchased only one share from each of the holding companies - Grey, Havas, Interpublic, MDC Partners, Omnicom, Publicis and WPP Group - DiMassimo shelled out on $927.25, plus broker's fees. And as DiMassimo points out, the investments aren't solely a PR play, but now give him the right to attend shareholder meetings to publicly voice his concerns over the "impact consolidation" is having on the ad business.

"Holding companies hold back both clients and their member agencies," he says. "They can't own us, but we have the freedom to own a piece of them. Expect us to be vocal, critical and active shareholders. Expect us to talk about how the 30-second commercial deflates client brands and saps client communications ROI, while it pumps up holding company stocks." Sounds to us like DiMassimo has been talking to the folks at Procter & Gamble. Who knows? Maybe he owns shares of them to.