Thomson Intermedia set to rebrand itself as Ebiquity

Thomson Intermedia, the owner of media auditing company Billetts, is rebranding as Ebiquity as the company looks to integrate the businesses and expand globally.

P12_ebiquityChief operating officer Nick Manning says the rebrand marks an overhaul of the company and its new direction, hailing it as “a radically revised direction”.

He says the name change signifies the business’s repositioning as a full-service media and marketing data analytics business.

It is also launching Ebiquity Newslive next week, an upgraded version of its existing editorial monitoring and evaluation services to include blogs, social networks and online news.

Manning claims it is the most comprehensive service of its type and will give marketers and brand managers “essential” information on buzz and word-of-mouth.

Manning criticises the company for failing to integrate Billetts soon enough, after buying the company in 2005 for £13.1m. The Billetts name will be retained under the Billetts Marketing Investment Management moniker, soft-launched in May in abid to integrate its advertising monitoring and media auditing businesses.

The expanded service has caused consternation with agencies as it bids to evaluate clients’ marketing and media spend from before campaign conception, rather than after execution as is usual.

However, Manning, co-founder of Manning Gottlieb Media and ex-group chief executive of OMD Group, says Billetts is “doing the job that agencies should be doing”. “They are not getting to grips with marketing effectiveness,” he adds.

Globally, Manning admits the group has underperformed and is looking at expanding through building and acquiring agencies as well as through joint ventures.