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MEDIA's Agency of the Year 2010: Hyper-Local: Geomentum
by Joe Mandese

Thinking global, but acting hyper-local

At a time when most of Madison Avenue seems focused on a distant, almost astronomical view of the media universe, Interpublic's Geomentum unit has flipped the marketing telescope 180-degrees, turning it, in effect, into an electron microscope. Hold on to that metaphor for a moment, if you will, because it will help explain why MEDIA has named Geomentum one of its agencies of the year for 2010. If the past century of marketing science has been the advertising industry's equivalent of astrophysics (you know, "think global"), then Geomentum is all about quantum mechanics ("act local"). Actually, it's about hyper local – bringing marketing analytics, media planning, strategy, execution and results down to the most micro level of all: proximity. And for marketers who depend on driving consumers to places, especially retailers, which may be the most important perspective of all.

The irony is that it has been hiring rocket scientists to do that. Well, at least one ex-NASA scientist has been among the Ph.D.s hired by Geomentum to develop analytic tools and modeling systems capable of understanding and predicting how the confluence of location and media influence consumer behavior.

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