IPG: Last News

EJ Panaligan editor Literary manager Jerry Kalajian, a partner at Intellectual Property Group, died of cancer on Sept. 9 at Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego, Calif. He was 68. Intellectual Property Group confirmed Kalajian’s death. Throughout his career, Kalajian served as an agent, manager and producer, forming tight bonds with literary agencies across the globe. His career was defined by a love and passion for authors and their books, championing their literary voices whenever he could. He represented numerous prestigious book adaptations for film and television, including “Life of Pi,” “The Book Thief” and “Big Little Lies.” He also represented a long list of producers, directors, literary talents and screenwriters during his tenure.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor One of the advertising industry’s top forecasters has tempered its expectations for ad spending in the U.S., citing a foggy economic outlook and a downturn in consumer confidence. Magna, a media-research unit that is part of the IPG Mediabrands division of the ad-holding giant Interpublic Group, has called for U.S. ad sales to reach $397 billion this year, an increase of 4.3% from 2024 when factoring in cyclical events such as last year’s election season.

Jamie Lang In an era where streaming platforms dictate audience habits and algorithms drive content discovery, film festivals have had to redefine their purpose. No one understands this better than José Luis Rebordinos, director of the San Sebastián International Film Festival since 2011.

William Earl Variety will host the inaugural Content Meets Commerce Summit, presented by Kinesso, in New York on Oct. 7.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Starting next year, major marketers such as Geico or General Mills could find themselves running commercials alongside popular Amazon programs like “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” or “Jack Ryan” that were previously untouched by advertising.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Seven of the biggest media-buying agencies on Madison Avenue and Roku have joined a media-industry effort that aims to count TV audiences in new ways. Dentsu, WPP’s GroupM, Horizon Media, Interpublic Group’s IPG Mediabrands, Omnicom Group’s Omnicom Media Group, Publicis Media and RPA have all lent counsel to the U.S. Joint Industry Committee, a consortium formed in January led by Fox, NBCUniversal, Paramount, TelevisaUnivision, and Warner Bros. Discovery and their Open AP joint venture that hopes to vet and certify a dizzying array of audience-measurement technologies that have come to market in recent months.  Along with Roku, Hallmark Media and the industry group Video Advertising Bureau, the companies have issued a new set of minimum requirements for acceptance of several new measurement technologies that TV networks would like to implement more quickly.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorLeBron James has a new teammate.The basketball legend’s SpringHill Company is launching a joint venture with U.S. advertising giant Interpublic Group that aims to pair Interpublic’s clients with a range of creators aligned with SpringHill, whose productions include films such as “Hustle” for Netflix; “The Wall” for NBC and “These Hands,” a project made with Procter & Gamble.“We are really good at finding and developing diverse talent, and with that, create amazing opportunities for brands to create authentic stories,” says Devin Johnson, president of SpringHill, in n interview.