For Nick Pahade, president of Denuo, Publicis Groupe’s newly formed futures practice, a recent tour of and meeting at @radical.media was noteworthy in that it underscored how production houses can meaningfully expand their base beyond traditional commercialmaking into varied new media.
“They’re involved in a great many things that encompass and then extend well beyond commercials,” says Pahade of @radical. “We’re looking to explore possibilities with companies like that as well as smaller outfits.”
Acknowledging that many spot production houses are grappling with how to best diversify into new areas, Pahade relates, “There’s a plethora of opportunity [for production companies]. It’s not rocket science. But you have to be willing to embrace it…Early adapters may find you cannot monetize your efforts immediately. But the landscape is changing so continually that you have to get into the [new media] marketplace now to attain success down the road.
Pahade’s advice to production houses is to keep it simple. “Technology tends to complicate things,” he observes. “But the essence of new media is quite simple. Consider the evolution that eventually led to blogs, for example. Day one we have two people sitting around a coffee table and expressing opinions. That grows to Thanksgiving dinner where there are 20 to 30 people around the table. Then there’s a speaking engagement with hundreds in the audience. With the advent of personal Web sites, today Aunt Sally knows enough about Microsoft that she can suddenly reach a much larger audience. However, it all comes back to the simple essence of having something relevant to communicate–having an idea and executing it. We’re bringing idea generation to life but on different new platforms.”
Denuo is the Latin word for “fresh” or “anew.” Publicis is starting anew with this new digital media futures unit. Publicis’ agencies, holdings and clients can tap into Denuo for expertise across myriad platforms and communications disciplines, including wireless, video on demand, advanced TV, gaming and word of mouth generated by blogs and otherwise. Denuo will also work outside the Publicis family, serving as a strategic consultant to marketers looking to capitalize on emerging technologies. The new shop is also looking to invest in and form partnerships with new media ventures and start-ups.
At the helm of Denuo, with offices in New York and Chicago, is Rishad Tobaccowala, chief innovation officer of Publicis Groupe Media (PGM). He reports to PGM chairman Jack Klues. Formed in 2004, PGM is a management board that oversees two major media networks: Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) and Zenith Optimedia, which together allocate more than $40 billion in global media spending.
Brought in by Tobaccowala and Klues to serve as Denuo’s president was Pahade who formerly served as president of WPP’s Beyond Interactive and as managing director of Media:com digital. At Beyond, which he exited in December, Pahade helped create global digital marketing solutions for such clients as Reebok, Cendant, Nokia, GlaxoSmithKline, Masterfoods and Western Union.
“The creation of Denuo is a very important strategic decision for our Groupe,” states Maurice Levy, chairman/CEO of Publicis Groupe. “We are of course already very present in the digital and interactive universe and have continuously pushed the envelope with various important marketing innovations. With Denuo, we aim to place the entire Groupe at the very cutting edge of innovation–for the benefit of our clients, by helping get the most for their brands in this new world; and for the benefit of our Groupe, in identifying investment opportunities at a very early stage.”
Among those joining Denuo are Tim Harris and PJ MacGregor, founding members of the Groupe’s online and video game unit SMG Play; Tom Tercek, founder of SMG Access; Courtney Jane Acuff, founder of Digits wireless; and Dan Buczaczer, founder of word-of-mouth shop Reverb. Furthermore Tim Hanlon, who launched TV 2.0 at media firm Starcom as well as the ventures practice at PGM, is a key partner who has been seeking out collaboration and affiliations with emerging companies and venture capital firms for the past several months. Last year he was named to the advisory board of Bright Cove, an open Internet TV service, with which Denuo is venturing. Similarly Denuo is working with startup Shadow TV, a streaming video service that provides all-digital access to live and archived television content via the Web.
Klues relates that Denuo represents the sort of shop that “has been incubating for some time inside the media companies, primarily because so much of the change impacting the marketing environment has been media driven. It makes perfect sense now to expand this unique and powerful capability and move it into the center so that all Publicis Groupe clients can have access to Denuo’s thinking and vision.”
First and foremost, Pahade sees Denuo as a haven for “idea generators…We don’t compete with a Starcom–we’re not in the execution business. We’re a plug-and-play resource for marketers and for the Publicis family.
On the latter score, Pahade said some Publicis shops might require more strategic counsel than others. They can access Denuo for whatever they need–a little help or more significant contributions.
Tobaccowala observes that there is “huge market demand for expertise that can serve clients as sensors, editors and collaborators, and who can work in a plug-and-play world.” He believes his shop’s “world class digital talent” coupled with support from Publicis Groupe positions Denuo “to be single-mindedly focused on getting to the future first.”
Indeed Tobaccowala is a futurist. Prior to his current roles, he was the founder/president of SMG Next, billed as being the first and arguably most comprehensive futures practice in the media biz. The development of SMG Next spawned the launch of several successful practices, including the aforementioned SMG Play, which leverages videogames as a marketing platform; the earlier alluded to Reverb and Digits (a mobile marketing firm).
Tobaccowala is also credited with developing SMG Search, which specializes in leveraging search applications in new ways for leading companies, including General Motors.
Denuo is looking to leverage its relationships and expertise across the board–spanning such areas as creative, distribution, technical innovation, etc.–in order to marry media, marketing and technology. A prime focus for Denuo, notes Pahade, is to create and stimulate ideas and to help prepare clients for the activation phase of their marketing plans.
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More