WPP Media launches its ‘Manhattan project’ tech solution into a crowded AI market

Which brings us to WPP Media, and the industry behemoth’s latest attempt to recover its once-leading market position. After last week’s rechristening, the media network (formerly known as GroupM) has launched “Open Intelligence”, an AI identity solution that WPP Media’s execs say can deliver more precise, privacy-conscious targeting for clients.

At its center is a “large marketing model” that, according to Evan Hanlon, CEO of WPP data business Choregraph, provides “an accurate representation of the world that helps us predict consumer behavior.”

In more straightforward terms, it’s an AI model filled with data drawn from consumer panels, retail media networks and CTV providers, rather than the Reddit posts behind large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT.

From that “foundational” system, WPP Media plans to build bespoke AI models tuned to the needs of each client, combining its model with their first-party data. Those models can then be used to aid planning and targeting efforts, enabling targeting that relies on a mix of deterministic and probabilistic signals, and supposedly granting less waste, greater returns on digital marketing investments and faster turnarounds on media decisions. The ambition is to see “every brand having a predictive model built exclusively for them,” said InfoSum boss Lauren Wetzel.

The thing is, WPP Media is far from alone – it’s one of many marketing groups offering AI-enabled, -tinged, -derived or otherwise -powered tools. This week alone:

• Consultancy group EY launched EY Studio+, built on top of the 37 agency businesses it’s bought up over the years to offer (among other things) AI consulting and implementation. 
• Programmatic media company MiQ launched its own AI platform, “Sigma,” which offers media buyers an AI agent for trading.
• Contextual targeting firm Seedtag launched an AI agent based on a proprietary LLM, claiming to use neuroscientific principles for sharper contextual targeting.

And of course, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg unveiled plans to give marketers AI tools to create, plan and execute entire ad campaigns within its platform — an act that’s either indicative of the Facebook founder’s disregard for the ad industry’s expertise, or a grab for their lunch money, depending on who you ask.

That’s not to knock WPP Media’s AI effort. A product of parent company WPP’s ₤300 million ($403 million) annual investment in AI tech, Hanlon said the initiative involved a “Manhattan project” effort from staffers drawn out of AI unit Satalia, recent addition InfoSum, WPP Media and the holding company’s tech partners (which range from CTV firm FreeWheel to TikTok, Meta and Microsoft). Work on the initiative involved InfoSum prior to its acquisition by WPP in April, Wetzel said.

According to Hanlon, five of WPP Media’s clients have been using Open Intelligence on “relatively scaled” campaigns over the last year, as the company has developed prototypes of the tech. Hanlon claimed that Open Intelligence had been used to drive a 60% decrease in cost per acquisition for one “mobility” (industry code for a carmaker) brand; for an unnamed telecoms client, he said it had cut CPA by 15%. Hanlon declined to name the clients or provide financial specifics.

Open Intelligence is an illustration of WPP Media’s new data philosophy – something its execs hope can distinguish it with clients – in action. 

It’s also an asset they hope can guard its market offer, as well as the media strategies of clients, against the changing tides of privacy regulation. Should identifiers for audience segments on CTV and the open web disappear tomorrow, Hanlon said WPP’s tool would still enable clients to segment and target consumer audiences in an effective way.

With Cannes Lions around the corner and no apparent end to CMO enthusiasm for AI solutions in sight, we should expect more companies to lean into the tech. Open Intelligence is just the latest of many holding company “bets”, as Wetzel phrased it, in play for the future of digital marketing.

“We are not going to be the last,” Hanlon said. “But we think that our early decision to take this path, to make these investments, leaves us really well situated right now to set the pace and to maintain a lead moving forward.”