MASS Exchange announced today that it has signed IPG Mediabrands, the media investment arm of Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG), as its first strategic media agency partner. IPG Mediabrands is providing strategic guidance and advisory services through the IPG Media Lab based in its global headquarters in New York City.

MASS Exchange is the first and only advertising futures exchange offering media buyers and sellers true price discovery, two-sided market-based pricing, execution and settlement in a single, scalable, global platform for all addressable advertising.

MASS Exchange is currently in discussions with prospective syndicate partners to jointly develop and support an entirely new market for programmatic media futures representing more than $230 billion in annual transactions globally. The exchange recently announced that it had signed a multi-year strategic alliance with Facilitate Digital Holdings Limited to design, build and operate a user interface to the exchange.

“IPG Mediabrands is a natural partner for MASS Exchange, given the innovative moves the firm is making to restructure the relationship of its global and specialty agencies to their clients around shared business outcomes,” said Todd Broms, chairman and chief executive officer of MASS Exchange.

MASS Exchange provides buyers and sellers the ability to evaluate and agree to separate pricing of the display space and the audience attributes. The patented innovation is considered far superior to the one-sided, second-price auctions dominant among today’s ad exchanges and sell-side platforms, in which the auction process on perishable inventory tends to disproportionately push pricing downwards.

Quentin George, chief innovation officer, IPG Mediabrands, said:

“IPG Mediabrands is pleased to support MASS Exchange’s efforts to bring a true exchange to the global media markets.”

Norm Page, a senior advisor to MASS Exchange and chief executive officer at Same Page Capital, a business and innovation accelerator, forged the alliance between MASS Exchange and IPG Mediabrands.

About MASS Exchange (www.MASSexchange.com)

MASS Exchange, a unit of Managed Audience Share Solutions LLC, was formed in 2010 to apply technology models used in the global financial markets to the more than $230 billion global addressable advertising markets. The company recently launched the world’s first programmatic media futures exchange designed to support multiple addressable advertising markets.

MASS Exchange’s technology is backed by a deep portfolio of issued and pending US and international patents. The patents provide for the operation of transparent, fair and efficient electronic advertising markets – and the trading processes required to create standardized advertising instruments. The exchange offers superior audience segment pricing – while providing optional anonymity to ensure that buyers’ and sellers’ advertising strategies are not exposed to the broader markets.