Omnicom, Twitter combine ad platforms

Omnicom Media Group, the media services division of global advertising, marketing and corporate communications company Omnicom Group Inc and micro-blogging site Twitter Inc on Tuesday signed a two-year deal that will integrate Omnicom's automated ad buying unit Accuen with Twitter's mobile ad exchange MoPub, in a deal worth $230 million over the next two years.

Under the deal, Omnicom will get a ''first look'' at new ad units and opportunities that are being developed by Twitter, which in turn will be able to lock in ad rates and inventory access for Omnicom agencies.

The deal is expected to drive better pricing and targeting, said Jonathan Schaaf, president of US Digital Investment for Omnicom Media Group.

"Twitter's been a major advertising partner for our clients in the past... wanted to form a closer business relationship with Twitter that extends beyond just media buying."

Twitter acquired MoPub for $350 million in September.

''This is the first holding company agreement we've done on the mobile ad exchange side,'' Twitter's president of global revenue, Adam Bain said, adding, ''It's great for us because we'll now have high-quality advertisers coming through the exchange.''

Twitter had arrived at similar partnerships with other holding companies, including its recent deal with Starcom MediaVest Group, over the past two years.

However, under these deals ads purchased programmatically from Twitter used to be shown on third party websites in the MoPub network.

Twitter now plans to let marketers buy ads on its own website and the deal with Omnicom could be the first to do so.

Twitter continues to make deals different from the previous ones, depending on what the agency, as it experiments with new business ideas.

The Omnicom deal focuses on the technology aspect of how ads will be delivered.