PHD Worldwide, the global media and communications agency has agreed to integrate YouTube data into their global media operating system, Source. YouTube will now become a channel in its own right in PHD’s proprietary planning and buying operation used by all its planners, spanning 81 offices in 66 markets and covering their major clients such as Unilever and GSK.
Talks between PHD and YouTube first began at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in June 2013 and since that time YouTube engineers have successfully integrated the latest YouTube reach data into PHD’s operating system. This is the first time that YouTube data has plugged directly into an agency’s own planning system at scale. PHD planners will now be able to optimise their channel mix using the latest and most accurate YouTube reach data to select how much to invest in YouTube in terms of reaching the maximum number of consumers at the minimal cost.
Julie Jeancolas, Global Agency Business Leader at Google, said:
“With over 1 billion people watching every month, YouTube has become an essential part of the media mix and a key pillar of every media plan alongside TV, press and out of home. Agencies understand this shift and are currently rebuilding their planning systems to adapt to this new world. It is essential for us to put YouTube at the core of our agency partners’ planning tools to drive more accurate planning.”
Malcolm Devoy, International Strategy Director of PHD, said:
“We have so many clients now wanting to consider online video, and in particular YouTube, alongside TV. The question is always on how much to invest. To establish this you need various pieces of data, which Google have now provided. Embedding this directly into our planning system now allows our planners across the world to make accurate decisions on video channel allocation.”
Source is constructed based on cutting edge marketing theory: the latest insights from recent studies into behavioural economics as well as the most commercially applicable insights that have emerged from cognitive neuroscience. Source ensures communication solutions consider Paid, Owned and Earned media and how they work together. The system optimizes the best balance of investment across channels and time period and then predicts the incremental uplift the campaign will have in Owned and Earned media.
Source also provides for a common approach across the network to how the agency drives communications planning and acts as a live-collaboration engine that connects all employees across the network, allowing for the entire PHD network to solve client’s business and communication challenges.
Samer Marzouq
Digital Media Superhero, Online Marketing Pro, Mad-Men Fellow, Tech Junkie, Advertising Whiz, Chief-Blogging-Officer, Bilingual Copywriter, Amateur Photographer
