As of Jan. 3, there’s a new digital media player in town touting a strong measurement and optimization bent.

Media Contacts, which is the global interactive realm of the Media Planning Group (MPG) within Havas, focuses on media planning and marketing solutions within the digital/direct response/data base analytics area, and utilizes Artemis, a proprietary tech platform wired to yield very granular results.

Yann Le Roux, EVP/MD of Media Contacts’ new Canadian office, says the agency tends to go beyond GRPs. From digital to call centre data, Media Contacts uses its number-crunching system to pinpoint results on a day-by-day basis, allowing on-the-fly adjustments to campaigns – be they creative tweaks or frequency – to maximize ROI by finding the optimal acquisition route and cost.

‘It goes beyond just buying low GRPs,’ says Le Roux. ‘It’s buying the right ones – then optimizing on a weekly basis. Based on history, we can double the results by optimizing. Making the right choices at the beginning may be less important than optimizing.’

Le Roux, who relocated to Toronto from managing the Paris office, of which he was also a founder, says: ‘Our data-centric tool is pretty advanced.’ The software analysis tool protects privacy by tracking via anonymous cookie crunching using servers based in Madrid. Each office does its own analysis, and can do data mergers to generate any reports desired.

To describe the system’s capabilities, Le Roux cites work done for Expedia out of the U.K. office, in which Media Contacts provided average revenue per booking. The Artemis system enabled the shop to track profit using cookie-based behavioural tracking, right down to per-pound ROI.

Le Roux says another example of the system’s usefulness was in evaluating the relative worth of new accounts for ING in the U.S., in order to pinpoint which acquisition efforts yielded the most lucrative customers. Analyzing which media partner brought in the high-value customers was achieved by establishing the average number of accounts tied to acquisition source via inputting and merging aggregate account and specific campaign data.

The new specialized Canadian account management unit will be working out of the Arnold, MPG/Maxxmedia building, and pitching for new clients in addition to handling work for Audi. Le Roux reports to David Chung here, and to Boston-based Don Epperson, CEO Media Contacts Worldwide. Chris Williams, who was with Arnold Brand Response, is the new Media Contacts account manager.

Another strength Le Roux brings to the market is experience with mobile campaigns, an area where North America has lagged but is now beginning to catch up with Europe. Le Roux says it is a very expensive medium for acquisition efforts, as it is rarely cost effective if you need to rent lists ‘and the volume is not there either,’ but finds it to be a good relationship marketing tool.

Havas has three media planning brands, MPG (MPG/MaxxMedia here) which handles traditional media, Arena Media Communications (Spain, Portugal, France, Chile, Argentina) which launched in March 2000 and takes a business communications strategy approach to media, and Media Contacts, which began as a digital media agency and has evolved to be a broader data-driven agency in many markets it operates in.

Media Contacts has offices in 20 cities across 17 countries in Europe and the Americas, and has over 400 clients on its rosters. Le Roux says a 3D approach is developing in key Media Contacts countries – Digital, Direct, Data – since MPG Direct merged into Media Contacts. ‘It started last summer and is being implemented very fast,’ but in Canada, the concentration is on digital for the launch. In the U.S. Media Contacts has gone from nowhere to the top 10 in terms of media agency billings over the last four years.