By: Alexandra Bruell, Advertising Age
Facebook has inked a nine-figure, two-year deal with Interpublic’s media-buying shop UM.
The shop has committed to doubling its Facebook media buys as part of the deal that also includes access to data, custom research and premium video inventory. Under the terms of the pact, the agency also gets “preferred pricing,” meaning its rates might be better than those offered to other shops but not exclusive, according to someone familiar with Facebook’s agency deals.
The bulk of the dollars will come from client budgets that potentially would have been allocated to TV or online video, said UM head of media David Cohen.
“We’ve been reliant upon linear television for 60 years,” he said. “We now have, over the past couple of years, seen online video start to take nibbles of that, but at scale high-quality video is still at a premium. Facebook video affords us an opportunity to reach that same level of audience, with demographic targeting, as television.”