Learning Care Group hires paid media agency Wpromote

Learning Care Group, the second-largest childcare provider in North America, has named independent marketing agency Wpromote its US media agency of record, following a competitive RFP process. The partnership will span media strategy, paid social, paid search, programmatic, and SEO.

Wpromote will draw from its proven track record of accelerating growth at the local and national level for clients like Equinox and Jiffy Lube to elevate Learning Care Group’s omnichannel media strategy, building a full-funnel media plan across the brand’s more than 1,075 schools and 11 unique brands including Childtime and La Petite Academy. The approach will combine consumer trends, performance data, and first-party audience data to guide the full customer experience, from acquisition through retention, to reach national and hyper-local audiences.

Learning Care Group and Wpromote discovered mutual benefits as they pursued a technology-centric transformation together. The innovation that powers the brand’s education and communication efforts will fuel Wpromote’s brand strategy for the network of community-oriented schools. The agency’s proprietary marketing intelligence platform Polaris will power a diversified media strategy for Learning Care Group that builds stronger connections between families and educators.

“We were drawn to Wpromote’s experience, and more importantly, results, driving growth for multi-brand clients at both a national and hyper-local level,” noted Joanna Cline, CMO of Learning Care Group, “Community is the foundation of our network of schools and their team truly understands the importance of an integrated approach that invites families in at the very beginning of their childcare search and continues to nurture that relationship as their family grows with us.”

“Celebrating family and community is a major part of the Wpromote culture, so having Learning Care Group join our roster of clients was a perfect fit,” Wpromote’s CEO Michael Mothner explained. “In today’s landscape, transparency and authenticity are essential to growth and our team understands how those factors are even more vital when it comes to choosing child care.”

The win of the Learning Care Group AOR comes on the heels of a wave of growth for Wpromote, including the recent hire of seasoned sales executive David Gensler as SVP, head of sales, joining with over 25 years of revenue growth leadership, most recently at marketing enterprise software company Basis Technologies.

Consulting firm Bajkowski + Partners oversaw the agency review and search process.

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data integrity and insights

Global Media Measurement Initiative Launched

Alignment on media measurement, transparency and contract compliance have long been a navigation challenge for global marketers.

What’s considered a ‘best practice’ in media measurement and management varies between regions and can be also be country-specific.

Despite the irregularities identified in the 2016 K2 report, it seems very little has changed – perhaps until now.

A new global initiative was just launched to develop global standards and best practices for media measurement.

According to the Association of Canadian Advertisers‘ press release, “The‘Cross Media Working Group’ as it has been named… aims to find cross-industry consensus on key global principals for measurement, with broadcasters, digital platforms and measurement companies also involved in the initiative.

Members of this alliance, which is being led by the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), is “comprised of global advertisers EA, Mastercard, P&G and Unilever, as well as advertising associations from around the world: the ACA (Canada), the ANA (US), ISBA (UK), OWM (Germany), Union des Marques (France) and the Media Rating Council. Key digital platforms and publishers including Facebook, Google and Twitter are also participating in the initiative, as are leading broadcasters.”

As agency relationship management consultants to global marketers, we are hopeful that the group will achieve alignment on media management best practices quickly.

To read the full details of this global media measurement initiative visit acaweb.ca
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down the drain

U.S. Media Buying Probe May Ensnare Marketers

Ever since former Mediacom CEO, Jon Mandel, publicly alleged four years ago at a forum held by the Association of National Advertisers that media buying agencies were engaged in non-transparent behaviors in order to retain discounts and rebates that belonged to advertisers, investigations into such practices have not receded.

The U.S. Department of Justice investigation, which has been underway for nearly a year, just recently led to the subpoena of records from one major advertiser.

Until now, attention within the industry has focused on behaviors among media buying agencies, real or imagined, but today’s article in AdAge adds a cautionary warning to marketers:  some of you may want to lawyer up.

Why?

If investigators can prove any brand-side marketers approved of, encouraged or willfully ignored misconduct by their media agencies, they could be facing criminal charges. And someone on the agency side may strike a plea deal in exchange for implicating a client.

According to the ANA’s website, the purpose of its recently released whitepaper, Media Buying 2018 – Transparency at a Crossroads , co-developed with legal firm ReedSmith, is to “provide a historical perspective of the transparency issues and to outline the options that advertisers have to cooperate or not cooperate with the FBI.”

If you’re involved with media buying, either client or agency side, you may want to seek advice from your own counsel – both corporate and personal.

Bajkowski + Partners LLC is a leading consultancy providing services to marketing and procurement teams in the areas of agency relationship management, agency search, process audits, contract and SOW development and audits, and other marketing operations related areas. For more information, please visit our website.

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it all adds up

Apparently DOJ Not Finished With U.S. Media Buying Investigation

According to an article published by AdAge on March 25, 2019, the Department of Justice had impaneled a federal grand jury, enabling the U.S. Attorney to issue a subpoena to an unidentified “large marketer” for its media records.

This comes as a surprise given December 2018 reporting by both AdAge and Adweek that the DOJ had cleared five major holding companies.

The FBI’s investigation into U.S. media buying and transparency practices began last April as a result of a 2016 media transparency report, also known as the K2 Intelligence Report, released by the Association of National Advertisers.

The K2 report cited serious problems that went against media buying best practices and agency-client contracts.

This week’s AdAge article cites concerns among ANA member marketers over agency backlash and blacklisting should their participation in the K2 and DOJ investigations become public.

Apparently the DOJ has been working with a non-redacted version of the K2 report which contains the names of more than 40 sources that participated in the ANA-sponsored investigation.

 

Bajkowski + Partners LLC is a leading consultancy providing services to marketing and procurement teams including building in-house media planning and programmatic as well as in-house creative and production operations. For more information, please visit our website.

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