The Field Kit: Stagwell Calls Freestar a Shorter Supply Path. It Now Owns Both Ends.
Stagwell calls its Freestar acquisition a more streamlined supply path. The company buying your ads now owns the company that sells ads for more than 1,000 publishers, and it has published no firewall, disclosure rule or margin.
Read the full investigation on ADOTAT →Key findings
- Stagwell's Owned Media chief said Freestar will help Stagwell improve its own principal media buying.
- Freestar's technology, inventory and audience data will plug into Stagwell's AI Media Machine, Adweek reported.
- Publicis owns Epsilon, bought Lotame and agreed in May to buy LiveRamp for $2.2 billion.
- Every programmatic buy passes through six seats; one parent in two of them is a conflict to disclose.
- Stagwell and Freestar got ADOTAT's questions before publication and had not answered by Thursday morning.
On the record
“The purpose of an agency is to choose best-in-breed to fit the needs of the brand, and when they own part of the supply chain, self-preference is inevitable.”
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