One customer in the same category is a winner, two customers in the same category is a conflict, and three or more becomes a specialist. That’s how it seems to be going with an independent agency becoming a flagship store for its media clients in novel and disruptive ways.
He beat out a handful of company agencies including Dentsu for global media AOR duties for AMC Networks, the programming mini-conglomerate that operates the flagship AMC along with BBC Networks, IFC, WE, the Sundance Channel and several streaming services. The win boosts AMC Networks to a top-five ranking among popular customers.
Duties include full-blown planning and acquisitions across all media, focusing on the programmer’s latest high-profile content, including series adaptations (and, AMC hopes, a new franchise) of Anne Rice’s “Interview with the Vampire” followed by Rice’s “The Witches of Mayfair.”
Notable Chairman and CEO Kerr Shearson acknowledged the number of media and entertainment clients (including work for Hulu, Netflix, NBC Universal, Warner Media and Discovery Networks) but said the real relationship between clients has more to do with the disruptive elements in their industry. , whether it’s plant-based proteins or a financial startup.
“We’ll pull you where you are. [clients] Asking broader questions like, ‘Our business is changing, there’s got to be a better way to do it,'” Shireson said. “There’s got to be a more scientific and data-driven way – for marketers to navigate what’s becoming an increasingly complex ecosystem, especially a new business model. There is something to look at.
In essence, AMC is helping the networks move from direct-to-consumer customers as the programmer expands into more streaming options on its linear footing. As Schireson explained, the programmer is expanding from a two revenue stream model (ad sales and affiliate revenue) to three streams: ad sales, affiliate revenue and subscription revenue. And this requires a new approach to marketing, he said.
“Strengthening media planning and buying with Popular will enhance our ability to grow our business and engage fans with content they love, however they want to watch,” AMC Networks president of marketing Len Foge said in a statement to reporters. . AMC is consolidating all of its media efforts under one roof, as Dentsu used to handle linear TV ad spending, while Allied Global Media handled more social and performance media operations.
Shearson added that the “great math and science problem” he’s solving, known to be two months into his tenure with Foge, is finding the right balance of using AMC Nets’ channels to market, while investing elsewhere in new programming to find the right audience, as well as past ones like The Walking Dead, Breaking Bad and Mad Men.
“There’s this really exciting opportunity to go into pretty much unlimited optimization on all these properties and ask the big questions, what is the best of their inventory in the marketplace to meet their marketing goals?” he said. “Very few, very few people actually ask.
The two-year-old agency combines creative with media, data science and strategy, and was founded by Shereson, who worked together at Viacom, and its legendary president, Ross Martin.
