Optimedia is attempting to forge strategic partnerships with a variety of communications companies unified around a concept the media agency calls the village@optimedia.
The Publicis shop is finalizing agreements with three of six prospective partners, said agency president Steve Soldano. The three on board are Honkworm, a video-content creator; ckDigital, an interactive-strategy consultant; and Integrated Marketing Solutions, which provides effectiveness modeling, helping clients determine the best use of ad dollars.
The object of the village@optimedia, which is the U.S. version of a model created nine months ago in Optimedia’s London office, is to connect clients with individual companies that need the kinds of below-the-line services the top global media networks are rapidly stockpiling. These include event marketing, program development, product placement, interactive consulting, and effectiveness modeling.
The approach is not designed to catapult Optimedia into the top-tier agencies that compete for global advertisers, but to enhance the agency’s appeal to current prospects, said Soldano. He added that not every partner’s services will be offered to every client.
New York Life Insurance, for instance, which spends $30 million on media with Optimedia’s New York office, hopes to avail itself of effectiveness modeling, event marketing and product placement of its office building in movies and television through the village partnerships, said Christopher Sorgie, the company’s director of advertising.
“We use the image of our building in our ads, but we’ve been looking for ways to get that image out in the public domain,” Sorgie said.
“The direction Optimedia is moving in is the right one from our perspective,” said Kelly Reed, Optimedia client British Airways’ director of marketing.
While Soldano noted that Optimedia’s parent, Publicis, has capabilities featured in the village envelope, such as a technology division in San Francisco, he said he’s looking to round out the in-house disciplines with outside ones to better determine the best fit for a client.
“I’m not being pressed to work with our internal partners,” Soldano said. “They are being challenged to be best of breed and I will work with them as best as I can.”
No equity will change hands within the village partnership structure. Optimedia will be paid on a management-fee basis.
Optimedia Seeks Partnerships
