Pugilist Michael Donovan has survived his public fall out with Publicis’ Starcom Mediavest to sign up MPG, RJ Palmer and Rubin Postaer Associates to new “long-term contracts for its ad-buying processing system.” Donovan Data Systems, Mike’s firm, is still waiting to see if he lands the $20 billion in ad buys that come from Interpublic. They’re up against their nemesis Mediabank. The decision is expected any day now and it could change the landscape of media buying.
If you recall, Mediabank stole Publicis Starcom out from Michael Donovan’s feet. He basically had a monopoly on handling the transactions involved in media buying for the big conglomerates.
Greg Koerner, Chief Sales Officer for MediaBank, has made it clear that the shop is after Donovan’s business. In a Mediapost article, he said:
“We found a few monolithic and archaic software platforms that nearly the entire media planning and buying industry used. We saw progress in the business of media buying crippled by these legacy platforms.
The CEO of MediaBank, Brad Keywell, has also had his share of press lines attacking the “legacy” systems. Oh Mr. D, these kids aren’t messing around. They want your business and they’re willing to play the tech card, the PR card and all the rest of the deck to get it.