Dentsu Aegis Network launches platform for brands and independent agencies to buy media directly
Dentsu Aegis Network has launched InvestDirect@DAN, a dedicated service to support independent agencies and clients to book media directly with CEO Simon Ryan aiming for it to be a $250m business by the end of next year.
The service has publicly launched after partnering with a number of independent media agencies over the past month and claims $150m in annual billings.
Simon Ryan, Dentsu Aegis Network’s ANZ CEO: “We would see that growing to be $250m in about 12 months”
“If you look at the total advertising market, you’re talking somewhere [around] $14bn. Somewhere between $14bn and $16bn total ad spend in Australia right now,” Ryan told Mumbrella.
“If you look at the agency sector, it’s $8bn or $9bn of that which means there’s a lot of clients out there which needs assistance or help in managing their media and buying needs and help independent agencies get the full benefits of wider groups’ tools, resources, back-end services, thinking and strategy when they need it,” he said.
“We’ve been busy working on it for the last three or four months. We’ve been in contact with a lot of direct advertisers as well as agency groups. Currently it’s been about $150m to $160m of business we’ve been able to attract in the last three or four months.
“We would see that growing to be $250m in about 12 months and then our plan is to grow that out to somewhere between $300m and $400m in 12 to 18 months. It’s a big focus of growth for us.”
DAN’s move comes as a number of brands bring some of their media functions in-house. In May, Carlton and United Breweries launched its own digital agency, Speakeasy Studios.
HCF also brought its digital media in-house last year amid growing transparency issues. The CMO of the brand at the time, Jenny Williams, said brands were doing so to ensure control and transparency, and because they understood their own brands better.
Mumbrella understands one of the groups InvestDirect@DAN has been working with is Swisse Wellness’ in-house agency, Noisy Beast.
The new service provides specialist services for independent agencies to manage in-house media programs giving access to planning tools, training, financial systems and specialist communication capability through the Dentsu Aegis Network.
InvestDirect@DAN currently has around a dozen staff, Ryan told Mumbrella, with the group planning on appointing an executive to head the division in the near future.
Well thats one way to grow your billings and exhaust your staff.
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I think this group should focus on their real issues they have rather than this confusing continual roll out of new entities….one after the other. So basically they have formalised a division to work with pass through agencies who can’t book themselves? This is hardly new, game changing nor financially advantageous.
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12 staff on $150m billings …. who would want to work for or with that ?
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More spin than the ABC…
They lose multiple government accounts and launch an agency specialising in govt ?
Then to offset all the losses and to bolster their RECMA billing’s they create back end deals with independents.
Unless DAN have control of where the media is spent(which they won’t) this means nothing more than a clip of the ticket on the way through. All the holding groups do this and have done for years.
There is nothing new here and certainly no wins !
Laughable ..
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I wish I thought of this back in the 70’s
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this is wonderful. shows what the DAN business is …
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So the independents who have won and retained business by being just that are going to go to their clients and say you’re now part of a network ?
What a load of rubbish. It’s a pass through and DAN will have no influence where the money goes.
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its not often I look at the comments section of Mumbrella and agree with all of them… this time I do. Its beyond a joke!
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what message is this sending to his staff?
We have no plan, lost a truck load of business, you’re all going to have to do more with less so let’s try bull-s our way out of it.
If you treat you people with disdain it will be returned ten fold.
I wonder what the bosses in Japan are thinking watching all this unfold.
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Mr Ryan did this for Mediacom many years ago, albeit on a smaller scale. Fills a billing hole but his real play will be to filter which independents to add to his shopping list.
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Apparently DANs biggest issue right now is fulfilling existing broadcast TV deals to get their 2018 rebates!
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Dear clients, all this means is that if your agency are buying via DAN then you are likely paying 1.5-3% more than you should.
Dear media, it’s now easier for rate-farmers who place a margin on your media (secretly ripping off clients) to buy, which many of the smaller indi agencies do.
Dear DAN, one client going all ‘IKON’ on you will wipe out any profit you had and your insurance premiums will cripple the business from then on.
You’re welcome.
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A desperate move by a desperate business.
As said above – unless DAN control the spend there’s nothing in this.
Assume the multiplle deals/commitments are proving very difficult to hit this year .
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All the comments seem to be focusing on helping to back end independent agencies. It’s true all the big holding groups do this.
What is more interesting is that they are publicly saying that they will help clients to book media themselves. This is newsworthy: Put simply, an agency group who’s proposition has been to book media on behalf of clients is now prepared to disrupt their own business model and help clients to do it themselves.
In a market where more and more clients are looking at taking media in-house, this is a though provoking, and arguably unique proposition.
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@ Pineapple – equipping direct clients with investment access is not new, its done quite commonly. I could name 5 clients off the top of my head who don’t have a strategic planning agency relationship, but do place spend via large groups in order to access rate positions.
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So a client decides to leave their media agency to bring the buying in-house . They then decide to use another agency to do the buying for them ?
Yup, great business model there .
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And of course they are doing this entirly out of the goodness of their heart? Give me a break. They’ll already be a strategy in place to shuffle some of those larger independent billings into their DAN network, with the hopes of returning greater margins, over the long term.
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