WPP has struck a deal with Facebook that will, it claims, allow clients to ‘activate’ WPP’s proprietary data products within Facebook, as opposed to using Facebook’s off-the-shelf categories of users.
Kantar CEO Eric Salama (Kantar is WPP’s data division) says: “We gather insights on millions of consumers each year on what people buy and why, including product assortment, retail strategy, brand health, copy testing, campaign effectiveness, media measurement, earned media monitoring and purchase data. Now we can leverage those learnings for our clients and make them actionable on Facebook.”
The long-term deal means that WPP companies will also work with Facebook to develop techniques that “better measure effectiveness with online and offline sales impact in multiple countries, enhance mix modeling and deepen Facebook insights.”
WPP is the world’s biggest media buyer so it’s not surprising that Facebook is giving it a leg up. Although it would be surprising if this means other big marcoms groups get second best. That would hardly be in Facebook’s interest.
