Virginia Hyland launches new agency Programmatic Media with aim of delivering transparency to clients
Virginia Hyland’s HM Communications Group is diving into the programmatic space with the launch of a new agency Programmatic Media dedicated to the space, with the aim of delivering clients a transparent programmatic offering.
Speaking with Mumbrella, Hyland the founder and principal at both Programmatic Media and sister agency, Hyland Media, said: “I’ve been looking to launch Programmatic Media for the last year, just listening and understanding what’s happening in the market and the frustrations of clients.
“It was very important to launch an independent programmatic media offering in the market that could actually save businesses: saves them money, save them embarrassment so they know exactly what they were achieving in terms of their buying and save them time in terms of getting them the right opportunity.”
Programmatic Media is a separate entity to Hyland’s media agency, Hyland Media, and currently boasts a staff of six, including Hyland.
Stephen Wright with Virginia Hyland. Wright is working with the agency to develop training modules relevant to marketers
The agency is led by Hyland, who is supported by Stephen Wright, director of Calibr8or and former business director – media at TrinityP3, who is working with the agency in a consulting capacity to help navigate conversations with clients and develop additional training modules that are relevant to marketers.
Hyland said there are two parts to the new business – transparently showing clients what they’re achieving, how much it costs them and education.
“The first part is programmatic media communication which is all about transparently showing clients what they can achieve with the budget that they have but also showing them the content that actually works when they’re delivering their creative,” she said.
“This past year has been working with a number of clients to make sure we are delivering the best rates in market and we can say that we do that because we’re showing them exactly what they achieve.
“It was all about delivering the best savings in market and we’re finding our savings range from 15-80% improvements in how they’re currently buying, but also then asking ‘how does your creative messaging impact what you’re saying programmatically?’
“It’s joining those two parts of the puzzle together for clients, and saying ‘here’s how the media can perform better and here’s the creative that’s working best for you’.”
Wright added: “We will give you complete visibility of what we pay and what you are charged so you understand exactly how much we are making. We are going to have to be profitable – we’re not setting up a charity, but we will be profitable in a transparent way, we will be profitable in a way that’s not at the expense of the client and their business.”
On how the education part of the business will work, Hyland said it is about helping CMOs and brand managers understand the many layers of programmatic media.
“(The agency) will help clients understand what they should be looking at, how much of the budgets should be dedicated to programmatic buying as opposed to traditional buying, and helping them understand the landscape and the technology opportunities that exist,” Hyland said.
The agency currently has eight clients – two of them not existing Hyland Media clients.
Queensland Theatre Company is one of Programmatic Media’s clients
“We’ve picked up Museum of Contemporary Art and Queensland Theatre Company, we’re doing all of their programmatic for them,” Hyland said.
On how Programmatic Media differentiates itself in the market, Wright said it is the agency’s transparency.
“It’s a key point of difference because the whole issue of transparency hasn’t been resolved and the programmatic area is front and centre in those transparency arguments because it is where the murkiness lies.”
“It’s those three – transparency, the fact we’re independent so we’re always hungry to do the best and we don’t survive unless we deliver to clients, and integrity, that we do have integrity in how we work with clients – and it’s always been my belief that I only exist because clients believe what we do for them.”
Miranda Ward worked for Mumbrella from 2013 to 2017, eventually becoming deputy editor. Miranda joined Mumbrella in September 2013 from Sky News.
Linkedin
topics
HM Communications Group
Hyland Media
Programmatic
Programmatic Media
Stephen Wright
Virginia Hyland
The problem with this business, and all ‘programmatic’ businesses is that you are treating it as an isolated digital channel.
Broken record here, it’s not a line item but a discipline.
Eventually all media agencies will/should be trading with programmatic intelligence and discipline across all formats. Digital for the most part can be executed like this (pending publisher push back).
A step backwards in Ricky bobby’s opinion.
User ID not verified.
Great observation Ricky bobby and something that we could have made clearer. Programmatic Media won’t just operate in the digital space, it will operate across any medium where Programmatic selling exists.
We are setting ourselves up as specialist in the discipline of Programmatic not just digital.
2017 will bring opportunities in other media.
We will be analysing all these opportunities as they come on line and providing advice to Advertisers on how they can be used to best effect.
User ID not verified.
Great work but a bit of creativity in the agency name wouldn’t have hurt…
User ID not verified.
Fair comment ‘Just imagine’.
We played around with many names but the generic name and website was available….so unimaginative as it might be, that’s the route we chose.
Helps reinforce the specialist nature and single-minded focus of our business.
User ID not verified.