WPP has been very busy. The global media holding company has bought InfoSum, a data collaboration platform.
WPP recently inked a deal with the Universal Music Group and invested in Stability AI. It was also appointed global shopper partner for Heineken.
InfoSum will join GroupM, WPP’s media investment group, to power the creation of a new generation of AI-enhanced marketing solutions for clients, delivered through the industry’s most powerful and secure data infrastructure.
“At WPP, we have been building the technology and data infrastructure that will give our clients a unique competitive advantage in the AI era. Bringing InfoSum into WPP is a major step forward for our data capabilities and the results we can deliver for our clients,” said CEO Mark Read.
“It allows clients to stay in complete control of their first-party data, while also giving them access to vastly greater quantities of high-quality, privacy-compliant data and pioneering technology that is not available anywhere else in the market today.”
Stategic AI step
The acquisition is a major strategic step forward for WPP’s AI-driven data offer, giving WPP and its clients immediate access to the industry’s largest cross-platform source of privacy-safe, actionable data for marketing intelligence, audience targeting, and AI model training.
InfoSum’s extensive global data network represents hundreds of billions of data signals across multiple dimensions of data from media platforms including Channel 4, DIRECTV, ITV, Netflix, News Corp, and Samsung Ads, as well as major retailers around the world and identity and data partners including Experian, TransUnion, Circana, Dynata, and NCSolutions.
WPP clients will be able to generate new marketing intelligence based on their first-party data and the universe of data signals available to them through the InfoSum network, WPP’s data assets, and GroupM’s media intelligence.
Custom AI models
Clients can rapidly build, train, and deploy custom AI models that utilise these diverse datasets, generating insights and audiences instantly, optimising campaigns across the entire marketing ecosystem, and delivering measurable improvements in campaign performance within hours rather than weeks.
“Directly integrating InfoSum’s global data network and technology infrastructure will allow our clients to create even more value from their first-party data and enable us to train client AI models against the most data, from the most places, at unprecedented scale and speed,” said Brian Lesser, CEO of GroupM.
“Our approach recognises the importance of identity data to today’s marketing strategies while allowing us to take advantage of the limitless opportunities for growth we can create by moving beyond them.
As more and more clients leverage our AI-first solutions, every client model, every audience, and every campaign will benefit from network effects that will exponentially increase their intelligence and competitive advantage.”
As part of the acquisition, Lauren Wetzel will remain CEO of InfoSum. Wetzel will take on the additional role as Chief Solutions Officer for GroupM, working cross-functionally to develop data-driven products and solutions for clients of WPP and GroupM.
