REG - WPP PLC - WPP Acquires InfoSum

WPPAnnouncement

03/04/2025 14:45

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RNS Number : 5829D  WPP PLC  03 April 2025

 

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  3 April 2025

 

WPP Acquires InfoSum in Major Investment in its AI-Driven Data Offer

 

·   Acquisition marks major strategic step forward for WPP's AI-driven data
offer, transforming the breadth and scale of data intelligence for WPP clients
and leapfrogging traditional identity-based solutions

 

·    Allows WPP's clients to maximize the value of their first-party data
with privacy-enhancing connections to data providers and media partners,
powering campaigns across the entire marketing ecosystem

 

·    Embeds an AI-enabled, safe and secure infrastructure within WPP Open
for data-driven marketing and AI model training for WPP and its clients

 

WPP today announced the acquisition of InfoSum, the world's leading data
collaboration platform. 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.

 

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 patented cross-cloud data collaboration technology radically
transforms the way companies generate audience intelligence by making it
possible to connect data sources across the marketing ecosystem without moving
or exposing data. By integrating InfoSum's capabilities with WPP Open - WPP's
intelligent marketing operating system - WPP clients can safely unlock the
full potential of their customer data, enriched through advanced AI.

 

Now, using federated learning techniques, 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. Clients can rapidly build, train, and deploy
custom AI models that utilize these diverse datasets, generating insights and
audiences instantly, optimizing campaigns across the entire marketing
ecosystem, and delivering measurable improvements in campaign performance
within hours rather than weeks.

 

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.

 

The acquisition accelerates WPP's creation of 'Intelligence Beyond Identity'
for clients, enabling marketers to use 100% of their business intelligence and
leapfrog traditional identity-based solutions that depend on decades-old,
deteriorating databases weakened by cookie deprecation, platform
fragmentation, and splintering audience match rates.

 

Mark Read, CEO of WPP, said: "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. 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."

 

Brian Lesser, CEO of GroupM, commented: "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. Our approach recognizes 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."

 

Lauren Wetzel, CEO of InfoSum, added: "InfoSum's mission has always been to
reimagine how data powers marketing in a secure, privacy-first, and, most
importantly, impactful way for advertisers and consumers. WPP and GroupM are
the perfect partners to help us accelerate our impact on a truly global scale.
We couldn't be more excited to join forces with the team at GroupM as privacy
and security become non-negotiables, and AI allows us to redefine what's
possible for advertisers and our network of media and data partners."

 

InfoSum's technology enables WPP clients to swiftly deploy secure data
environments optimized for federated learning, allowing marketers to rapidly
scale their custom AI models and onboard their data faster and more easily
than ever before. InfoSum's infrastructure will remain interoperable with
existing platforms and partners to ensure current and future customers can
continue driving growth through secure data collaboration. Companies
interested in becoming a partner, can learn more at
https://www.infosum.com/company/our-partners
(https://www.infosum.com/company/our-partners) .

 

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.

 

ENDS

 

Further information

WPP Communications

press@wpp.com (mailto:press@wpp.com)

 

About WPP

WPP is the creative transformation company. We use the power of creativity to
build better futures for our people, planet, clients and communities. For more
information, visit wpp.com (https://www.wpp.com/) .

 

 

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