WPP Accelerates AI Adoption with $400 Million Google Partnership

WPP boosts AI marketing with $400mn Google deal

WPP and Google have struck a five-year deal to embed AI tools such as Gemini and video generator Veo into the UK advertising group's offer to clients. Google's AI will be used to create advertising campaigns rapidly and more effectively by WPP's agencies, including real-time personalised marketing for millions of customers. The partnership includes a $400mn spending commitment from WPP for Google technologies to bring AI across its services. The deal is the first to be struck by new chief executive Cindy Rose, the former Microsoft UK boss who took over from Mark Read last month, and reflects the rapid adoption of AI tools in an industry increasingly dominated by tech-led marketing. WPP is in an arms race with rivals such as Publicis and Havas over adopting AI tools that clients are increasingly demanding to carry out their marketing, with agencies spending hundreds of millions of dollars a year on the technology. On Tuesday, Publicis chief executive Arthur Sadoun told the FT that its strong performance was down to client demand for AI-led marketing. Rose said that "by delivering bespoke AI solutions and enabling hyper-relevant campaigns with unprecedented scale and speed, we're accelerating innovation across every facet of marketing". WPP is already investing heavily in AI technology, including through a prior relationship with Google. Those close to the company say Rose wants it to move faster and is developing a new strategy likely to be unveiled later this year. WPP has suffered a difficult period with client losses leading to a succession of profit warnings, with shares down almost 60 per cent this year. The Google partnership will give WPP clients access to Google's AI alongside work done by WPP's creative teams and offer personalised retail marketing that adapts visuals and messaging for each consumer, for example. Google Cloud's AI products, which use DeepMind models, can quickly build bespoke audience models for clients. WPP said that it would receive early access to Google's latest video and image creation AI models including Veo and Imagen to devise campaigns in days instead of weeks.

WPP continues AI overhaul with $400-million Google partnership | Advertising | Campaign India

WPP's deal with Google ramps up its AI capabilities as new CEO Cindy Rose moves to catch competitors and speed campaign production. A $400 million investment with Google has sent another signal about WPP's commitment to quickly embed AI more deeply across the holding company as part of Cindy Rose's plan to make up ground lost to its competitors in recent years. In a Tuesday morning announcement, WPP described the deal as an "expanded partnership," with the spending going toward infusing AI into its services to "create hyper-relevant campaigns in days, not months." The collaboration will touch everything from integrated creative, production, media, experience and commerce, it said in the announcement, "moving beyond traditional efficiency initiatives to unlock growth." The investment is part of WPP's previous stated commitment to up its AI spending to £300 per year from £250 million per year at the start of 2024 to build out WPP Open, the company's technology and data platform. Launched in 2020, it has been more explicitly about AI in recent years as every leading player in advertising joined the AI arms race. But since taking over in early September, Rose said she would not "sugar-coat" the fact that WPP had a lot of work to do to catch up to its competitors, that it needed to lead all client conversations about its investments in AI, and calling on all WPP employees to become "AI superusers and embrace these tools to power our daily work." While WPP had already been working with Google and investing heavily in AI under Rose's predecessor Mark Read, the FT reported sources "close to the company say Rose wants it to move faster and is developing a new strategy likely to be unveiled later this year." Some of the specific use cases in the announcement included: