WPP acquires InfoSum to boost AI-powered marketing solutions

WPP announced the acquisition of InfoSum, a data collaboration platform. InfoSum will work with GroupM, WPP’s media investment group, to develop AI-driven marketing solutions using a secure data infrastructure.

WPP’s acquisition of InfoSum provides access to a large cross-platform source of privacy-safe data for marketing intelligence, audience targeting, and AI model training.

InfoSum’s cross-cloud data collaboration technology allows companies to connect data sources without moving or exposing data. Integrating InfoSum with WPP Open enables WPP clients to use customer data securely with AI-driven insights.

Now, 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 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. 

InfoSum’s 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 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 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.” 

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 allows WPP clients to set up secure data environments for federated learning, enabling faster deployment of AI models and data onboarding. Its infrastructure remains compatible with existing platforms to support secure data collaboration.

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.