In a quest to innovate and apply leaner methods to age old practices, agencies are increasingly acting like media and technology companies.
In one such move, Publicis Groupe—agency parent to DigitasLBi, MRY, Razorfish and VivaKi—is joining the NYC Media Lab as a corporate member. Other partners include AT&T, ESPN, HBO, Hearst, NBCUniversal, News Corp., Time Warner Cable and Verizon.
The Lab connects companies seeking to advance new media technologies with university labs, programs and talent in New York. It was launched in 2010 by the New York City Economic Development Corp., New York University and Columbia University.
According to Adweek, all Publicis Groupe agencies have the chance to participate in the Lab’s media research initiatives, covering areas like design, data science and engineering.
This development will likely benefit clients in the end, but in the near term it may help high quality talent choose between offers from an Omnicom- or WPP-owned shop, and a similar offer from a Publicis-owned shop.
