- WPP on April 3 acquired data collaboration platform InfoSum, enhancing the network’s AI-powered data intelligence and consumer identity capabilities, the corporate said in a news release. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
- InfoSum will turn into a component of GroupM, the holding company’s media investment group, and will probably be integrated into its proprietary WPP Open platform. Lauren Wetzel will remain CEO of InfoSum and may also tackle the extra role of chief solutions officer inside GroupM.
- The deal reunites GroupM CEO Brian Lesser, who joined GroupM as global CEO last 12 months, with an organization he once led. Lesser was CEO of InfoSum from 2020 to 2024.
WPP is touting its latest acquisition as a way for clients to maneuver away from identity-based solutions “that depend upon decades-old, deteriorating databases weakened by cookie deprecation, platform fragmentation and splintering audience match rates,” per the press release.
With InfoSum’s clean-room technology in-house inside WPP, clients will find a way to mix their first-party data with data signals from billions of touchpoints to generate recent marketing intelligence that may construct, train and deploy custom AI models for quickly generating insights and optimizing campaigns. InfoSum’s network includes access to media channels similar to Channel 4, DirecTV, Netflix and Samsung Ads, in addition to global retail networks and data partners including TransUnion, Experian and Dynata.
“Directly integrating InfoSum’s global data network and technology infrastructure will allow our clients to create much more value from their first-party data and enable us to coach client AI models against essentially the most data, from essentially the most places, at unprecedented scale and speed,” Lesser said in the discharge. “Our approach recognizes the importance of identity data to today’s marketing strategies while allowing us to reap the benefits of the limitless opportunities for growth we are able to create by moving beyond them.”
WPP’s deal comes on the heels of Publicis’ recent acquisition of identity solutions firm Lotame. Lotame will probably be combined with Publicis’ existing data-driven marketing unit Epsilon, leading the holding company to achieve nearly 4 billion unique profiles globally, or about 91% of internet-connected consumers, based on the corporate.
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