GroupM are “desperate” for Kangaroo

Adam Smith of GroupM gave a few pointers yesterday as to the shape of 2009 at an M&M Briefing at the Century Club, with GroupM “desperate” for Kangaroo to launch.

Speaking at an afternoon briefing entitled ‘Advertising and Recession’, Smith went on to say that his organisation’s buyers would buy Kangaroo “three times over”. Smith attributed the keenness towards Kangaroo as a result of advertisers favouring pre-roll advertising over other forms of online display advertising, despite a cost premium. In addition, Smith felt that the product would be a roaring success due to the fact it will be “easy for advertisers and viewers”.

Other nuggets revealed by Smith included a more pessimistic forecast for online than other industry sources, believing search to only grow by 7% in 2009, with potential decreases for display and classified. This was, according to Smith, a direct result of media buyers having a greater handle on how to buy online most effectively, buying more for less when previous tendencies would be to overbuy and therefore drive unnecessary increases in client spend.

In terms of other media, Smith forecast decreases for all media other than online and cinema. Cinema was felt to be in a relatively strong position due to its ability to add incremental reach for young adults and also the potential to leverage spend with experiential foyer activity driving interactive engagement.

Regional press was felt to be in decline. Smith outlined that only around 300 of 1300 regional titles are of interest to Group M from a display buying perspective, due to the poor advertising environment of many titles.

TV was also looked at in negative terms, however Smith did have a positive word regarding ITV, believing them to be “doing a very good job”, and predicting and potential loss in revenue from CRR being reinvested into their digital offering.

Group M: www.groupm.com