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WPP’s GroupM launches new media unit Modi – but is it new or the same old (new) ‘Math Men’ stuff?

WPP’s GroupM media business, which is making a fairly good stab at taking over the media world, has announced another new venture: this one’s called Modi Media and purports to encompass the following groovy new media things you need to know about.

DIGITAL CONTENT DISTRIBUTION: Focused on the promotion of sale or rental of digitally distributed films across cable and satellite platforms and through connected devices (iTunes, Xbox, Amazon, Vudu).

ADDRESSABLE TV: Addressable television is the ability to send a TV commercial to a specific household based on a brand’s actual target profile. Targeting criteria can include income, advanced demography, and purchase behavior, among others. Ads are served only to the homes that fit the specified target criteria. The current reach potential of addressable TV is 40 million TV homes across the US, and is expected to grow significantly.

HYPER-LOCAL TV: Hyper-local television is the ability to insert a TV commercial directly to a specific zone or zip code based on geographic skews, sales data, trading radius etc. This helps focus clients’ TV advertising in highly concentrated local neighborhoods without having to buy an entire market, thereby reducing waste.

INTERACTIVE TV (iTV): iTV enables advertisers to engage consumers more deeply with interactive content and promotions, using TV commercials as a “jumping off point.” Solutions include dedicated advertiser channels, commercial overlays for lead generation, smart TV applications and e-commerce. Modi will provide advertisers with strategic planning, buying, production, and data analysis across platforms including cable, satellite, telco and gaming services.

We thought various bits of GroupM did this already – but apparently not.

0_0_445_http---offlinehbpl.hbpl.co.uk-news-OWM-8551EDEC-9684-CBF7-59925BADC7F33F29GroupM North America CEO Kelly Clark says: “We are preparing for a world of media consumption and advertising message delivery that is radically different from what we see today. Data and technology are driving enormous change in the structure and the economics of the television business, and it’s critical that we are ready to help clients navigate the new landscape. Modi Media will develop powerful advanced TV solutions for advertisers.”

Chief investment officer Rino Scanzoni (the C-suite’s getting a bit crowded in adland these days) says that Modi’s services will be available to clients of all GroupM agencies, which include Maxus, MEC, MediaCom and Mindshare. The new unit will offer its services to other WPP agencies and directly to clients who may not work with a GroupM media agency.

Ahah, there we have it…maybe. Modi is another way of luring those clients mad enough to be with someone else (Omnicom/Publicis or Aegis presumably) into the fold. and it’s probably no coincidence that this has been launched in the week of the massive Consumer Electronics Show.

Makes you feel a bit sorry for clients actually. How on earth do they make sense of all this media stuff?

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