Media Buying Briefing: Engine’s global CEO explains how downsizing led to newfound growth

By Michael Bürgi

Kasha Cacy knew a lot about holding companies and consultancies when she left her position as CEO of UM to join Engine Worldwide in 2018. After all, she had held senior positions at McCann and Ogilvy, and cut her media teeth at Wunderman and Accenture. But all that experience taught her that when holding companies or consultancies become too big and unwieldy, they lose the ability to be nimble and responsive.

This is why Cacy has revamped Engine Worldwide, selling off a film trailer firm and is in the process of sell various agency assets in the U.K. The ultimate goal: land midsize clients who can benefit from speed and agility. Cacy explained her strategy and goals in this Q&A, which has been edited for space and clarity.

Give a little history of what attracted you to Engine, and what you’ve done to change it?

Engine was a lot of things when I joined, frankly. The first thing I did was say which of these things belong together and which don’t. [Film trailer firm] Trailer Park we’ve divested of, and it’s public knowledge that we’re in the process of divesting our London [agency assets]. The most interesting assets and the ones that over time we could really evolve and innovate with were the core assets based in the U.S., which primarily consists of a global programmatic exchange, an insights capability, and a small, integrated media/creative/social media agency.

I loved the promise of programmatic. I loved the fact that it is data driven, it’s targeted, it’s measurable. It’s all the things that are great. The way we built it, though, quite frankly, filtered in a lot of different pieces, and the execution often didn’t live up to the promise.

Are you talking about how Engine built programmatic or how the industry developed?

I’m talking about the industry. If you look at programmatic, there was and still is a transparency issue. Nobody can really see what’s happening across the programmatic supply chain. There’s a data issue where, because you have a DSP, and a DMP, and an SSP and an exchange, the data doesn’t actually connect across anything — especially when you’re using cookies. Most of the infrastructure in the industry was built 10-plus years ago, not thinking CTV was coming down the line, not thinking 5G was coming down the line. Prior to me coming in, Engine had basically rebuilt their programmatic exchange with an eye towards that future. I thought if we could combine this technology with some other innovations, we could really start to fix some of the things that I had seen in the industry and offer better solutions, which I think we have done.

How do you avoid the trouble agencies ran into years ago with their clients when their exchanges were engaging in un-transparent practices such as media kickbacks?

For us, a client could be a brand, or a DSP, or an agency holding company desk. We have two innovations. The first is that we …read more

Source:: Digiday