Media buying powerhouse GroupM has adopted a new policy that
prevents its clients' ads from appearing on more than 2000 US
websites that are alleged to distribute illegally obtained
content.
The move is designed to actively oppose online piracy and
protect the intellectual property of content companies. The sites
in question often rely solely on advertising for their revenues, so
when a buying group the size of
GroupM removes its indirect support they are sure to suffer.
GroupM represents $73.5 billion of annual buying power and buys an
estimated 32.7 percent of all media space globally, spending an
estimated $6bn on digital media every year.
GroupM is formed of a network of media agencies including
MediaCom, Mindshare and MEC whose job it is to plan and buy media
space for marketing campaigns for clients including Ford, Unilever
and IBM. It also acts on behalf of major content creators such as
Universal Music
and Warner Bros
and Paramount movie studios, who may well have applied pressure on
their agencies to take this stand.
When GroupM now does deals with the online publishers who sell
the advertising space (or the ad networks that aggregate the
inventory of these media owners), they will have to agree to a
contract that prohibits the placement of GroupM clients' ads on
sites that contain any illegally distributed content.
Rob Norman, Global CEO of GroupM Interaction, said: "We're
serious about combating piracy and protecting our clients'
intellectual property as forcefully as we possibly can. This policy
extends to digital media buyers at all GroupM agencies, as well as
other WPP companies like Team Detroit, which manages Ford's media
business."
GroupM consulted with some of its content producing clients to
populate a list of offending sites. Some of the sites affected,
according to the Guardian, include
access-anything.com, albumhunt.com, extratorrent.com,
fileseek.info, free-tv-show.com, gpirate.com, and
kickasstorrents.com.
The list of blacklisted sites will be continually updated, and a
link to the list will be included in all contracts with the sellers
of advertising space.
Norman explains: "Pirate sites are known to 'domain hop,' so we
need to keep on top of the latest list of identified offenders as
best as we possibly can in order to enforce this new policy to its
fullest effect."
Other buying groups and agencies are likely to feel increasing
pressure from their content producing clients to follow suit,
although the cheap prices of the ad placements on the sites in
question and the large audiences they reach will make it difficult
for some agencies to change their minds.