Ad giant IPG’s data arm Kinesso has gone through an executive exodus, and the unit faces an uncertain future

• Ad giant IPG is shaking up its data and tech arm Kinesso, and many of the unit’s top execs have left.
• Some staffers have been moved into Mediabrands, IPG’s media-buying agencies.
• The move comes as IPG looks to cut costs from specialty services like data, a source said.

Several top executives at ad agency holding group Interpublic Group’s data and technology arm Kinesso have left, and now the unit faces an uncertain future, Insider has learned.

IPG launched Kinesso in 2019 as a big bet on pitching marketers additional services that go beyond making and buying ads. Kinesso was a combination of two IPG companies: Acxiom — the data firm IPG acquired for $2.3 billion in 2018 — and Matterkind, which uses first-party data like email addresses or TV set-top box data to target ads.

The top Kinesso executives who have left IPG in recent months include Global CEO Arun Kumar, Chief Operating Officer Ian Johnson, Chief Product Officer Kimber Robbins, and Matterkind US CEO Nancy Hall, according to their LinkedIn profiles. Hall was appointed CEO of WPP-owned media agency Mindshare in May.

Other Kinesso staffers have been moved into Mediabrands, the arm that houses IPG’s media-buying agencies including Reprise, UM, and Initiative, said a source with direct knowledge. The Kinesso teams that provided addressable and search advertising services are part of a new internal group called “media excellence,” that same source said.

Acxiom will remain a standalone unit that will provide data products and services to all of IPG’s agencies, the source added. 

“We recently made changes to accelerate our business transformation agenda in our high-performing media ecosystem,” an IPG spokesperson said in a statement “As part of this work, we have simplified our structure and are doubling down on our future facing priorities. We are confident that these changes will advance our clients’ business needs.”

The source said they think IPG is making the changes because it needs to cut costs and improve margins. IPG saw a 2.3% year-over-year revenue dip in its first quarter, partly from tech clients reining in ad spend. CEO Philippe Krakowsky said during the earnings call that specialized digital services are dragging down IPG’s finances, compared to more general services. Specialized services are usually provided by data-focused agencies, while general services are handled by agencies that buy digital and traditional ad formats.

“As we have previously noted, our digital specialist agencies are in the process of transforming their business models, and their performance weighed significantly on the overall segment growth at approximately the same level as in Q4,” Krakowsky said during that call. IPG’s second-quarter earnings are due to be posted on Friday.

“They’ve kneecapped all the specialists and they’ve kept the generalists,” the source said.

Agency holding groups have long used their expertise in data and technology to differentiate themselves from competitors and pitch new innovations to advertisers. IPG faces tough competition from other ad giants who had also beefed up on data and tech services for advertisers to prepare for the death of third-party cookies and privacy regulation. Publicis acquired data firm Epsilon for $4.4 billion in 2019 and Dentsu bought Merkle in 2016 for more than $1 billion.