Real Media Names M&C Saatchi as AOR

Ad sales and marketing company Real Media Inc. selected M&C Saatchi as its first national agency of record.

M&C Saatchi said it will be assigned to develop an advertising campaign to promote Real Media’s network of more than 500 locally branded media Web sites. The annualized budget for the campaign is in the low seven figures, the company said.

Sites in the network can be aggregated on a regional, national or international level, Real Media said. Recent advertisers include GTE Wireless and TravelWeb.

“We strongly believe that online users will increasingly use their locally branded news Web sites for entry onto the Internet,” said Dave Morgan, president of Real Media. “Local news sites offer links or content from major national news providers plus local coverage and listings not found on sites developed from a distance. For advertisers, local is the future.”

This is the first Internet media account for M&C Saatchi, New York. Founded in 1995, the firm is privately owned by 10 founding partners, five in New York, five in London including Maurice and Charles Saatchi. Perhaps best known for its work for British Airways, the agency’s annual billings were $110 million last year.

The creative efforts of the agency, due about Oct. 1, will focus on communicating to media buyers the benefits of advertising through Real Media network. A fourth quarter media campaign will consist of print, outdoor (bus shelters, telephone kiosks, trucks, trade shows) and online, targeting agencies and clients primarily in New York and San Francisco.

“Traditional advertising is too focused on reaching the masses, the short term, not the long term, with efficiency not effectiveness,” says Don Morrison, M&C Saatchi’s chief operating officer “At M&C Saatchi our focus is to generate a relationship between the brand and the consumer by building a consumer community around a brand where it will grow and achieve a presence well beyond the advertising.”