Ad Industry Veteran Executive Chris Actis to Lead True Media Across Four Offices, Build Agency Growth

Effective immediately, industry veteran Chris Actis joins our six-office media firm with responsibilities for all operations across Columbia, MO; St. Louis, MO; Kansas City, MO and Minneapolis, MN. The appointment follows transition planning which has been underway for some time and the amicable resignation of Preston Waller, who has stepped down to pursue other opportunities of both a personal and professional nature.

Actis brings extensive industry, agency, client-side and international management experience to the role, arriving at a time of continued growth for the Columbia-based network of media strategy, digital and programmatic agencies across four U.S. locations (plus two Canadian offices in Calgary and Toronto.) He takes the reigns following revenue growth of 20% from 2020 to 2021 and a 13% increase in personnel following both organic client growth and new business acquisitions.

“Job number one for me at True is to continue building on the incredible momentum and smart growth, we’ve seen year-on-year,” says Chris Actis, president, True Media U.S. “It’s also a tremendously forward-focused time for the agency. We’re evolving our service offerings across every client strategy and service sector, introducing the next evolution of the True brand and are being asked to the table of an increasing number of real, industry-defining brands – and winning. I’m excited to help our teams across all four U.S. offices continue to integrate with our Canadian offices under the leadership of my counterpart Bruce Neve to pull together and reimagine what media agencies can do today.”

Actis brings 20 years of international and U.S. agency leadership experience to his new role. He spent five years in Asia, as president of Mediacom’s China agency as well as president and managing director at Neo, Ogilvy’s performance marketing agency, headquartered in Hong Kong. Beyond management duties, at Mediacom he also oversaw strategic growth, evolution and scaling of FMCG’s media investment in the complex and enormous Chinese digital marketplace. At Neo he led the strategic direction, business operations, product and innovation roadmap, growth strategy and overall media investment for performance marketing clients.

“We’re at a significant juncture in our business growth at True Media,” says Jack Miller, CEO True Independent Holdings (parent company to True Media). “But we’re not interested in growth for its own sake and we hire talent accordingly. Chris is one of those rare industry success stories that truly brings together incredible international and big brand leadership with a deft client service touch and the ultimate, boots on the ground leadership to guide and mentor our teams during exciting times.”

Actis was most recently president at Kruskopf and Co. in Minneapolis and before that Midwest regional president at Initiative, Interpublic’s global media group in Chicago. He got his start in the industry with agencies including JWT and MRM/McCann as well as at Messner where he was part of one of the industry’s first digital departments.

Columbia, Missouri-based digital agency, True Media, one of the fastest growing media agencies in North America has achieved 2022 Premier Partner status in the Google Partners program.

True Media’s team of experts, across six offices, provides comprehensive media strategy, data analysis and all forms of media buying from traditional to programmatic across six offices in Columbia, MO; Kansas City, MO; St. Louis, MO; Minneapolis, MN; Toronto, ON and Calgary, AB. 

“Only a small percentage of digital and media agencies are awarded Premier Partner status,” said Preston Waller, president, True Media. “While we’re, of course, delighted by the honor and recognition from Google, our real reward comes simply from doing high quality, innovative work with our clients day in and day out. That’s what drives our team.”

This month, Google recognized the achievements of top performing digital marketing partners across the globe by awarding Premier Partner status as part of the new Google Partners program, which was not True Media’s first time receiving the designation – marking a years long commitment to maintaining Premier Partner status.

The Google Partners program has undergone significant changes for 2022, including redefining what it means to be a Premier Partner through new, advanced program requirements and offering new Premier Partner benefits to support growth and success with Google Ads.

“Congratulations to our Premier Partners for being among the top 3% of Google Partners in North America. These companies stand out based on their commitment to developing product expertise, building new client relationships, and helping current clients grow. We look forward to supporting them as they help their customers succeed online.” – Davang Shah, Senior Director, Google Ads Marketing.

True Media is part of a select group of Premier Partners in the Google Partners program. This program is designed for advertising agencies and third parties that manage Google Ads accounts on behalf of other brands or businesses. Its mission is to empower companies by providing them with innovative tools, resources, and support to help their clients succeed and grow online.

True Media was founded in 2005 with a simple mission: creating strategic, innovative and impactful ways to connect clients with their customers in the evolving media landscape. Starting as one office, True is now a network of six locations across North America, delivering best-in-class media and engagement programs, strategic partnerships and a combination of the power of big agency buying with start-up entrepreneurial flair. Each client program is tailored, custom and designed to immediately ignite business results where they matter most.

Deal Makes 30-Year-Old Media Buying Agency Part of Fastest Growing Independent Media Groups in North America

St. Louis’ longest running media agency will begin an important new era at the end of January. DICOM Marketing Services, the three-decade-old media buying agency has been purchased, it was announced today, for an undisclosed sum by True Independent Holdings, one of the fastest growing media groups in North America. Following the successful closing of the acquisition on January 31, 2022, DICOM will become part of True Media, the flagship media buying and planning agency within the True holdings group.

Effective February 1, 2022, all DICOM management and employees will join True Media and relocate to the agency’s St. Louis office located in the Westport area. The deal requires no layoffs and will bring the total True Media headcount to over 175 media strategists, planners, analysts and buyers across six offices, including Columbia, MO; Kansas City, MO; St. Louis, MO; Minneapolis, MN; Toronto, ON; and Calgary, AB. DICOM co-founders Jim Steward and Dave Travers will join the new, combined True Media leadership team.

“DICOM has been a recognized name and real force in shaping the media strategies and growth for St. Louis-based companies and other businesses across the Midwest for 30 years,” said Jack Miller, chief executive officer, True Independent Holdings. “Jim, Dave and their whole team have built an enviable reputation for long-term client relationships, stellar service and consistent success. Those are values we obviously share at True Media but beyond that this agreement makes total sense as we strengthen our group of media strategy, analytics and digital agencies to provide even greater value and services to our growing client portfolio.”

DICOM becomes the third agency purchased by True Independent Holdings as part of a nationwide strategy to grow an integrated group of specialty agencies able to offer integrated media strategy, programmatic, analytics and buying services to a growing list of industry leading clients in finance, healthcare, tourism, agriculture, retail, and CPG.  In addition to True Media, the holding group also includes the digital programmatic agency Coegi, recently ranked as one of Adweek’s top 75 fastest growing agencies, and data analytics specialty agency RADaR.

The move also follows the appointment in October 2020 of new True Media president Preston Waller. Waller’s first year saw across the board organic client growth and a focus on senior talent development. In late 2021 appointments included Nisha Chandrashekar, who joins True Media as the firm’s first director of performance media – a new role that highlights True’s focus on driving quantifiable success for all clients. At the same time, True added senior leadership team personnel including Brian Kieser as activation strategy director and Mike Oelhafen as associate media director. 

“We share a common vision for excellence with Jack and his whole team at True Media,” said Jim Steward, partner at DICOM. “But more than that, as we transition over the coming weeks and months, each and every one of our, formerly DICOM, clients will enjoy access to an increased bench of industry-leading talent, national and global capabilities and an even greater ability to negotiate and buy the best media solutions to help their businesses at scale. It’s a win win all-around.”

True Media was founded in 2005 and is the flagship media agency in the True Independent Holdings group. DICOM was founded in 1989. For more information visit truemediaservices.com.

About True Media (www.truemediaservices.com)

True Media was founded in 2005 with a simple mission: creating strategic, innovative and impactful ways to connect clients with their customers in the evolving media landscape. Starting as one office, True is now a network of six locations across North America, delivering best-in-class media and engagement programs, strategic partnerships and a combination of the power of big agency buying with start-up entrepreneurial flair. Each client program is tailored, custom and designed to immediately ignite business results where they matter most.

About True Independent Holdings (www.trueholdinggroup.com)

True Independent Holdings is one of the leading, privately-held, fiercely independent marketing companies in North America. We invest in and help develop other entrepreneurial marketing and communication companies with unique go-to-market strategies. Our portfolio of firms includes some of the industry’s top experts who specialize in targeted marketing and media segments. Collectively, our companies provide marketers with the ability to collaborate and access best-in-class services by leveraging technology, data analytics, and a deep understanding of consumer behavior in order to help grow business for clients. Our structure enables the companies in our portfolio to exist independently, yet collaborate when needed in order to meet client needs. This integrated approach ensures our clients receive more holistic and effective solutions in less time, from true experts.

Global best-in-class data and technology with real-time optimization provides deeper, actionable insights 

KANSAS CITY, MO – July 21, 2021 – CrowdPharm, an independent full-service agency with one of healthcare’s largest networks of global talent, announces a strategic partnership with True Media to provide integrated, data-driven media strategy that influences customer behavior. True Media, a subsidiary of True Independent Holdings, is one of the fastest-growing integrated media strategy and communications agencies in North America. 

“Consumers today don’t just expect to receive content seamlessly across all of their preferred media channels—they’re looking for meaning, relevance, and personalization without compromising privacy,” said Preston Waller, President, True Media. “That’s especially true in markets like healthcare and pharma, where consumer experience and the way we market to patients and prospects is changing rapidly.” 

The partnership leverages True Media’s more than 16 years of excellence in data-driven media strategy, audience planning, media activation, and data analytics. The agency analyzes the impact of trends on media and consumer behaviors, in order to best connect brands with the right customers at scale and with accountability. True Media is the only media agency in the Advertising and Marketing Independent Network (AMIN), a global collective of more than 50 entrepreneurial independent agencies across 30 countries. And, as a preferred Google and Facebook partner, True Media is in the top 3% to 5% of global agencies.

“True Media has worked with numerous pharmaceutical and healthcare brands, efficiently breaking down media channels to deliver optimized marketing strategies and highly measurable results,” said Mike Myers, Managing Director and partner, CrowdPharm. “Our clients will benefit from True Media’s proprietary AI platform that tracks both campaign progress and performance efficiency across numerous key performance indicators, including budget and media vehicle, and allows for real-time adjustments.” 

CrowdPharm is built to work both directly with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, and as well as a white label resource for agencies looking to enhance their clients’ brands with fresh global perspectives. The agency’s 3,600+ network members work across 32 time zones to deliver original solutions more efficiently and cost effectively.

About True Media

Founded in 2005, True Media is a media strategy and communications company that specializes in helping corporations determine efficient and effective marketing and advertising plans, including traditional, digital, social and mobile media. With offices in the United States and Canada, True Media develops advertising plans, manages media relationships and conducts media negotiations for some of North America’s most reputable companies. True Media is the flagship media agency within True Independent Holdings one of North America’s leading independent marketing and advertising networks.

About CrowdPharm

CrowdPharm is an independent full-service agency led by industry veterans and fueled by one of healthcare’s largest networks of global talent. This new agency model delivers an abundance of original strategic and creative solutions across time zones and provides a flexible force of talent with experience that spans from startups, orphan products, blockbusters, and primary care. With 3,600+ members across 97 countries, the agency is ready to develop compelling brand communications in healthcare, medical, and pharmaceutical marketing for pharmaceutical and biopharma companies. Visit crowdpharm.com.

Google announced they will be phasing out third-party cookies by 2022, which undeniably seemed like a strange move for Google because they surely wouldn’t want to damage the industry that it dominates and is responsible for the majority of its revenue. Shortly after this announcement, they followed up with their replacement plan, Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC).

What is FloC?

FLoC is a different way of targeting advertisers that is interest-based. Instead of identifying consumers individually, you’re associated with a group of people with shared interests. Google is making this change all in the name of privacy, one of many privacy-based changes that have been made over the last year. With FLoC, an individual’s information is kept private while the browser will look at the history and assign users to specific groups.

WordPress Proposal

WordPress has proposed blocking FLoC on their websites by default. Essentially all website builders have the ability to block this technology with the entry of a few lines of code. The difference is, many people aren’t always aware of these changes when they are happening and simply don’t get around to implementing the code. This would leave the users of their site open to having their data tracked and placed in one of Google’s groups. As of now, this is simply a proposed idea, and WordPress is not expected to be close to a decision.

Why we care?

This would be a huge blow to Google and online advertisers because an estimated 40% of all sites use WordPress. That is a massive share of user behavior that would be lost to advertisers, dramatically impacting the ability to reach potential customers. 

Final Thoughts

The end of third-party cookies is overdue and having a more private internet is definitely important. Google publicly says that FLoC is a step forward in regards to privacy and that may be, but it’s a very small step forward. The biggest issue that comes to mind is the type of cohorts that will be utilized. It’s not difficult to see how this could lead to the exploitation of vulnerable groups of people which is one of the biggest reasons for these changes in the first place. On top of that, if we begin to see other website developers take the same stand as WordPress, advertisers won’t have access to much user data anyways. This comes across as Google pushing back against privacy while saying the opposite. If Google did push forward with FLoC, my belief is that it wouldn’t be long until we see more privacy protection lawsuits and Google is scrambling for a better solution.

Local TV broadcasters and buyers are finally moving to an impression-based vs. ratings-based currency in order to place Local TV on a playing field comparable to other video and digital channels. Viewing audiences have actually always been measured on impressions, and this evolution does not represent a fundamental change. What is changing is the transaction currency for those impressions — now transacted on a cost-per-thousand (CPM) rather than a cost-per-point (CPP) used when the impressions were converted to rating points. The pace of this evolution was accelerated to accommodate Nielsen’s upcoming integration of broadband-only (BBO) homes into its local samples and universes – originally slated to become the standard for most local markets on April 1st, but recently delayed by Nielsen to October 2021.

While rating points typically rounded Local TV viewing audiences to the nearest tenth of a percentage point, leaving some viewers on the sidelines, and were held to Nielsen’s minimum reporting standards,  impressions account for all viewers and allow for more precise reporting of Local TV audience delivery and performance as well as post-buy evaluation. 

In the past, ratings could easily be converted to impressions, but the nature of rounding and reporting minimums often under-represented the total number of impressions, and the recent addition of Nielsen’s BBO homes is affecting the local market universes. Early estimates indicate that the shift from ratings to impressions and the addition of BBO homes adds anywhere from 5%-20% of viewers depending on the daypart. Interestingly, while local market universes will increase, ratings will likely see an overall decline because of proportionately less Local TV viewing in BBO homes.

The shift to impressions not only enables sellers and buyers to count all viewers on screens, it helps to simplify cross-platform comparisons and include Local TV in those solutions. Using impressions as the currency for Local TV, buyers and brands can now plan holistically across platforms and screens.

Moving to impressions will also help buyers to consider automated TV platforms and processes common in digital platforms, and further efforts to use audience data across platforms. 

This change doesn’t reflect a change in the way viewers are watching Local TV. Instead, it reflects the desire for sellers, brands and agencies like True Media to transact in a currency more similar to the majority of other channels, as well as positioning Local TV as an integral part of the evolving video landscape.

Apple has announced upcoming data-permission changes with iOS 14 that will impact how advertisers, publishers and app developers can target and track users on Facebook and other platforms. Businesses that advertise mobile apps, as well as those that optimize, target, and report on web conversion events will be affected.

Until now, advertisers could use a device ID number called the IDFA (Identifier for Advertisers) to better target ads and estimate how effective they were. In iOS 14, each app that wants to use these identifiers will prompt users to opt-in to tracking when the app is first launched. Users can choose “Allow Tracking” or “Ask App Not to Track.” If users want to provide more data for advertisers to serve them more relevant ads, they will need to explicitly opt-in (rather than currently being able to opt-out) in order to provide permissions to track them or access their device’s advertising identifier. This prompt will appear when using all iOS apps, including apps within the Facebook family and apps that monetize with the Facebook Audience Network.

Data permissions that will require user approval include:

• Displaying targeted advertisements in apps based on data collected from apps and websites owned by other companies
• Sharing device location data or email lists
• Sharing a list of emails advertising IDs or other IDs with a third-party ad network that uses that information to retarget
• Placing a third-party SDK in apps that combines user data from one app with data from another app to target or measure advertising

As users opt-out of tracking on iOS 14 devices, advertisers will see a decrease in the number of conversions attributed to their paid advertising campaigns and iOS 14 limitations may cause some ads to be paused or stop delivering to certain devices. 

In its long history of conflict with Apple’s stance on data and privacy, Facebook has responded by testing a new feature that shows users its own prompt before Apple’s pop-up appears. In this test, Facebook’s prompt will explain to users why it wants to track activity and ask users to opt-in, hoping to convince users to allow ongoing tracking to provide a more relevant advertising experience. 

At this point, it is difficult to anticipate the full impact of this permission change, but we are working with our social partners to ensure that other tracking mechanisms are in place. Making sure pixels, SDKs and web domains are updated and verified is important for future conversions. We will continue to work with each client and determine best actions to ensure the best targeting and tracking tactics for each unique measurement strategy.