The Alliance of Media Independents (AMI) has entered into a partnership with data platform Evorra that will give its 41 member agencies access to audience capabilities previously available only to holding groups.
Evorra is a first-party audience activation, insights and data monetisation platform. Owning no data of its own, it serves as an independent data layer that connects agencies to vetted sources of addressable audience information.
Through the partnership, AMI members will have on-demand capability to execute privacy-conscious audience targeting without additional IT overhead.
The deal has been spearheaded by Tom Wigley, AMI’s chair of digital, data and adtech and VCCP Media’s director of digital.
“This is exactly what the future of addressable media is about: being transparent, agile, privacy-safe and highly effective,” he commented.
“For the first time, mid-market brands can have complete confidence in what constitutes their audiences, with total transparency over where the data is coming from.
“The strength of this solution is its flexibility; it can be used precisely when it is right and genuinely adds value. Clients get premium targeting exactly as required, without their entire adtech stack needing to be completely rewritten.”
As part of Wigley’s due diligence, Evorra was one of several audience platforms beta-tested by several AMI member agencies. All indicated they enjoyed its capabilities.
The rollout of the partnership will be phased in cohorts, the first of which includes The Specialist Works, VCCP Media, Mostly Media, MI Media, AMS Media Group and The Grove Media.
As part of the partnership, Evorra is committing “meaningful time and resources” to help agencies educate clients on how to build easy-to-sign-off test campaigns and support onboarding of bespoke data partners.
Martin Woolley, chair of the AMI and executive chair of What’s Possible Group, told The Media Leader the effort was a “game-changer” for independent agencies, one which could “leapfrog us ahead” of network agency brands. This is because, he acknowledged, indie agencies’ main shortcoming compared to large networks has historically been their relative lack of scaled access to addressable audience data.
He further described Evorra’s partnership as a “concentrated form of everything we stand for compared to networks”, noting that other data platforms, such as LiveRamp, have been swallowed up by individual holding groups.
Evorra founder Aaron Ritoper said he was “proud to partner with AMI”, describing that indie agencies are valued by brands for their nimbleness, transparency, and desire to “put client performance first”.
He continued: “The agencies we work with have recognised that an efficient media buy starts with a data infrastructure layer they control, sitting across media channels to orchestrate the best result for every advertiser.”
