The Alliance of Media Independents (AMI) has partnered with audience data platform Evorra, giving its 40-plus member agencies access to enterprise-grade audience capabilities that have traditionally been reserved for the major holding groups.
The partnership, announced last week, creates an exclusive virtual space for AMI members, allowing agencies to build privacy-safe, addressable audiences without the need for complex technical integrations or significant IT investment.
Unlike many providers in the market, Evorra does not own any of its own data. Instead, it acts as an orchestration layer, bringing together data from multiple trusted providers while giving agencies visibility into how audiences are built. Martin Woolley, the AMI chair, said the partnership would be a ‘game changer’ for member agencies.
Speaking to MediaCat, Tom Wigley, AMI’s chair of digital, data and adtech and chief digital officer at VCCP Media, said the initiative was designed to simplify what has become an increasingly fragmented area for independent agencies.
‘The data landscape, particularly for independent agencies, is incredibly fragmented and complicated,’ he said. ‘We wanted to completely change that dynamic and make it easy for them to access enterprise-grade data capabilities.’
‘It’s about bringing different data partners together while still having the flexibility, simplicity and transparency that makes those capabilities easy for independent agencies and mid-size advertisers to tap into.’
Rather than simply negotiating another supplier agreement, Wigley explained that AMI wanted member agencies to play an active role in shaping the partnership. ‘We wanted all of the agencies involved to have a strong voice when it came to whoever that data partner was,’ he says. ‘It’s not just a transactional relationship. We wanted the opportunity to really build a proposition and do something really smart and exciting together.’
The partnership is aimed squarely at the needs of challenger and mid-market brands, which often require sophisticated audience targeting but lack the resources to overhaul their marketing infrastructure. ‘Mid-market brands have specific requirements when it comes to the audiences they’re trying to target,’ Wigley said. ‘An advertiser like that doesn’t have millions of pounds to spend rewriting their entire tech stack or huge IT teams or data compliance teams to go wholesale on something really fundamental like that.’
Transparency was also a major consideration during the selection process, particularly at a time when advertisers are increasingly scrutinising the provenance of audience data.
‘One of the things we really liked about Evorra was the fact that they don’t own their own data,’ says Wigley. ‘They give complete visibility into how they’re bringing different data sets together, the sources of that data and the taxonomies they use. That transparency was a real positive for the agencies involved.’
The rollout will take place in phases, beginning with a cohort of agencies that have expressed the strongest interest in adopting addressable audience capabilities. The first group includes The Specialist Works, VCCP Media, Mostly Media, MI Media, AMS Media Group and The Grove Media. Wigley said the phased approach is intended to ensure agencies receive hands-on support while bringing clients on the journey.
The announcement comes a year and a half after AMI was established to represent the UK’s growing community of independent media agencies. Wigley says interest in the alliance has continued to build over the past 12 months, with agencies increasingly recognising the value of collaborating on industry challenges.
‘The momentum that’s built up over the last 12 months has been amazing,’ he says. ‘More and more agencies are getting involved, and there’s real value in having conversations with partners collectively rather than individually.’
For AMI, the Evorra partnership represents another step in strengthening the capabilities available to independent agencies as they compete with larger network groups. ‘It’s a really important partnership,’ says Wigley. ‘It’s something a lot of agencies within AMI have expressed an interest in, and it can provide value from the strategic level right down through to activation.’