[Author’s note: this post was completed 30 minutes before reading Microsoft will be paying $6 billion for aQuantive, as predicted below.]

The consolidation continues. WPP announced yesterday it will buy the digital media company 24/7 Real Media, a ten plus year old collection of digital assets including an ad server, search services (SEM and SEO) and a graphical ad network. Sir Martin Sorrell just upped his search spend with the Frienemy by $200 million…

Smart money would have had Steve Ballmer appending this asset to Microsoft’s MSN adCenter, but it looks like Sir Martin and WPP Digital CEO Mark Read, Group M CEO Irwin Gotlieb and their other execs (Gerard Broussard, Lance Maerov, Rob Norman, Lauren Reiss) stepped up to the plate and took the deep dive on this one.

At first glance, the 24/7 assets seem a whole lot less sexy than the Right Media exchange and DoubleClick’s 290 billion monthly impressions a month (served on behalf of the fat tail) and their soon to come advertising exchange. And they are.

But, provided WPP can get all their operating companies to play ball, they can plus out, pump up, build out, synergize, add some low hanging fruit and optimize the 24/7 goodie bag:

• Ad Server. 24/7’s ad server, OAS, is publisher side only. It’s the second largest publisher side ad server out there with 200 billion impressions per month. Lots of newspaper web sites use OAS. The reco:
  • Build an advertiser side ad server and cancel your agency contracts with DoubleClick, GoogleClick, Google, the Frienemy, etc. for DFA (DART for Advertisers). Save cash, eliminate spying.
  • Also cancel your contracts with Atlas because Atlas is part of aQuantive (Nasdaq: AQNT). Because you bought 24/7 out from under Mircosoft, they are pissed and now will buy aQuantive (ad server, network, agency services business, sound familiar?) [Author’s note: they just did]. They will be Frienemy, Jr. Save cash, eliminate spying.
  • Make the publisher side ad server free. I hope someone told you guys this was happening (OpenAds). Get something for this freebie move like preferential access to inventory from publishers for your clients. Make sure you have rich media products to compete with DART Motif and Atlas Rich Media.
• Search Services.
  • Spend with MSN adCenter. It’s better to support Frienemy Jr. than Frienemy Senior.
  • Spend with the new kids, any new kids. It’s better to support the new kids than Frienemy Senior.
  • Develop a contextual distribution network. Give us a call, we’ll help. There are clients with higher CPAs that cannot get what they want from the supply gated search market. With 95% of time online spent looking at content (vs. 5% search), there is a mother lode of opportunity.
  • Be outspoken about the brand benefits of search. WPP and its agencies such as Grey, JWT, Mindshare, Ogilvy, Mediaedge:cia and Y&R represent the most powerful brands on earth. This will drive more search dollars, contextual dollars and behavioral re-targeting dollars. And happy clients who spend more.
• Ad Network
  • Stop serving so much MySpace inventory. You are helping Murdoch, Newscorp and the growing Fox empire. Put Rupert on the frienemies list. Note to self: hold McCarthy like friendemies hearing.
  • Go contextual. Call us, we’ll help. Better placement control for the advertiser, better overall performance for the advertiser and the ability to pay out to publishers at a higher rate.
• Ad Exchange
  • You did not buy one of these. But, for a whole lot less money, you have added the ingredients to put one together—so, given the license everyone else takes in the marketing and public announcements…. Never mind.
  • Start with the 24/7 inventory, add additional inventory available via OAS / ad serving customers. That is plenty to start the sell side. Now WPP is the buy side, so point some of those client dollars towards an exchange.
  • You’ll also need some other critical elements of an advertising exchange, like pricing control, CTUs (contextual tradable units (more on that in a future post)) and access to the Long Tail. Look here for an ADSDAQ quick start guide, or the entire “exchange in a box” program can be yours for three easy payments of $500 million! Call now, operators are standing by…

Is “frienemy” just a new way to say “coopetition”? Will this wave of consolidation result in the balkanization of the Internet? How does any of this help the Long Tail—I thought that’s where all the customers were headed? What’s left for Microsoft, Time Warner / AOL, Omnicom, Publicis and InterpublicGroup?

Only time will tell. But Sir Martin just put himself in the game. Nice job. Someone Knight that guy…

Keeping Score… $4.5 Billion and counting (wait make that $10.5 billion with Microsoft’s purchase this morning.)…

Tags: 247realmedia, wpp, sorrell, yahoo, google, doubleclick, contextweb, adsdaq

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