Aegis Media has announced that it has signed a three-year sponsorship agreement with MIT Media Lab, which is a research organisation that examines the impact of emerging technologies on everyday life. Through the collaboration, Aegis Media will work to develop an interaction model that leverages the strength of both organizations and will further Aegis Media’s innovative work with its clients across the global network, reinventing the way that brands are built in a world of media convergence.
The sponsorship will be particularly pertinent in the Middle East & North Africa, since Isobar, the global digital agency that is part of the Aegis Media portfolio, launched its regional operations at the beginning of the year. Together with the continual expansion of Aegis Media MENA, the partnership with MIT Media Lab ensures that new technologies and communication channels between brands and consumers are brought to life in the Middle East.
“Media convergence is transforming the way that consumers connect to the world around them, and also evolving the way that our clients’ brands are built,” said Nigel Morris, CEO of Aegis Media North America. “As a result it is essential that we continually pioneer innovative new ways of connecting people, in particular bringing commerce and content ever closer together, and seeing everything we do through a lens that is totally mobile and social. In this mission we have found the perfect collaborator in the MIT Media Lab, which has a compelling vision of the emerging media world and a passionate commitment to creating the interaction of the future. We are thrilled to be working collaboratively with Media Lab researchers over the coming months and years to create innovation that impacts our business and that of our clients.”
Innovation champions from within the Aegis Media Network, that includes members of the Middle East operation, will collaborate with researchers in the MIT Media Lab’s Digital Life consortium to develop insights about the emerging media future, and to create and scale new innovations. Aegis Media will benefit from the MIT Media Lab’s unorthodox research approach for envisioning the impact of emerging technologies on everyday life. Aegis Media will also have the right to license technologies they have gained from the collaboration.
“We at the Media Lab are enthusiastic about working with Aegis Media, a company with the foresight to stay ahead of the curve,” says Andrew Lippman, associate director of the Media Lab and head of the Lab’s Digital Life Consortium. “Together we will navigate the twists and turns of the constantly changing world of social communications.”
The MIT Media Lab, described as a place where the future “is lived, not imagined,” was founded to focus on the study, invention, and creative use of digital technologies to enhance the way people think, express, and communicate ideas, and to explore new scientific frontiers.
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About Aegis Media
Aegis Media, part of the Aegis Group plc, has unified some of the world’s leading marketing and media services brands to help create measurable competitive advantage for clients in the converging media and communications world. Globally, our group is built around five network brands including Carat and Vizeum (both delivering full service Communications Planning and Media Buying), Isobar (Creative and Communications), iProspect (Performance and Search Marketing) and Posterscope (Out-of-home Planning and Buying).
In North America the group is enhanced by regional best-in-class specialists including Team Epic (Sports Lifestyle and Experiential Marketing), Copernicus (Marketing Consulting), and Clownfish (Sustainability Consulting).
