Acxiom also had trouble explaining the value of its solutions, one of those people said. For instance, at one point, only one client used its rTAG product, which was designed to help clients build identity graphs.
“I was trying to understand when they were trying to pitch rTAG to clients, and even I couldn’t get a straight answer to why this would be valuable,” this person said. “No one could tell the story, because there was no story.”
The IPG spokesperson said that now, most of the large enterprise clients (those who purchase multiple services and products) that have Acxiom manage their first-party data use its ID tools, “including Real ID, and rTag.”
Executives would also sometimes cover for Acxiom’s incomplete data sets, two people said.
“I’m not proud of it, but there were a lot of moments in pitches where things we pitched as being Acxiom data were actually just other data sets we were licensing and making up it was a result of Acxiom,” one of those people said.
IPG said its InfoBase product is the largest “ethically sourced” global database, and that it discloses to clients that it works with multiple data partners.
By 2021, IPG directed its agencies to send more money through Acxiom. And selling Acxiom’s third-party audiences and its other products became part of quarterly targets for those agencies, two sources said. An IPG spokesperson declined to comment on quarterly targets.
Many sources noted that efforts to build an integrated data platform seemed to stall in 2023. IPG saw that year a wave of layoffs and some key account losses.
“After a few years, they just said enough, we can’t figure it out,” said another source familiar with the matter.
The holdco combined data and tech agency Kinesso, digital agency Reprise, and media buying agency Matterkind in Sept. 2023. In June this year, IPG unified Acxiom under Kinesso’s leadership.
Two sources suggested the attempts would have cost tens of millions of dollars.
The IPG spokesperson pointed to the recently-released Interact platform, saying: “We have a roadmap for future modules within Interact and are investing tens of millions of dollars in it as we build out new capability sets.”
“This is a perfect waste of time for them.”
To be successful, Omnicom and IPG need to figure out which data asset will be its centerpiece going forward, according to a source.
“They’ve got a decision that they have to make on what’s going to be their platform of record,” this person said.
Then, Omnicom and IPG have another tough job ripping and replacing data, the source added: “And that is not easy … you have to build entirely new audiences.”
That sort of integration work won’t be done in two or three years, this person said: “That’s not going to happen,” adding that they do not expect Omnicom or IPG clients to have the patience for this.
“This is a perfect waste of time for them,” the source said. “They don’t have time or they won’t do this just because Omnicom wants them to.”