Carat's Digital Exchange Severs Ties With Parent; New Agency Home Being Sought
This story was written by David Kaplan.
The Carat Digital Exchange, a unit within Aegis' media agency Carat Americas devoted to promoting an interactive TV ad marketplace, is being removed from its current auspices and looking for a new agency to operate under, Mediapost reports. It's not clear whether the decision to sever the Digital Exchange from Carat came from the agency, its parent company Aegis or from Mitch Oscar, the project's founder and organizer. Oscar told Mediapost that he is trying to interest other agencies in hosting the exchange, which basically held meetings with marketers and media buyers throughout the industry to develop insights related to bringing ad targeting to TV.
The change in the Digital Exchange's status comes nearly a month after David Verklin announced he would leave his post as CEO of Aegis Media Americas at the end of this year. It has been widely rumored that Verklin would become the CEO of Project Canoe, the joint initiative started by Comcast involving five of the other major cable operators to sell customized, targeted ads across the major cable operators' networksthe same goal the Digital Exchange was trying to reach at Carat. Speaking at last week's NCTA conference, Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA) COO Steve Burke said that the name of the individual hired for that role would be revealed June 1st, this Sunday.
By David Kaplan