WPP Media Launches AI Identity Solution

WPP Media's AI Solution: Open Intelligence

Generative AI applications have become a key battleground for marketing services companies. WPP Media has launched “Open Intelligence”, an AI identity solution that execs say can deliver more precise, privacy-conscious targeting for clients.

The Technology Behind It

At its center is a “large marketing model” that provides “an accurate representation of the world that helps us predict consumer behavior,” according to Evan Hanlon, CEO of WPP data business Choregraph. 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. InfoSum boss Lauren Wetzel said the ambition is to see “every brand having a predictive model built exclusively for them.”

Competitive Landscape

WPP Media is one of many marketing groups offering AI-powered tools. Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg unveiled plans to give marketers AI tools to create, plan and execute entire ad campaigns within its platform.

WPP's Investment

WPP Media’s AI effort is 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.

Early Results

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” brand and had cut CPA by 15% for an unnamed telecoms client. Hanlon declined to name the clients or provide financial specifics.

Looking Ahead

Open Intelligence is an illustration of WPP Media’s new data philosophy and an asset they hope can guard its market offer, as well as the media strategies of clients, against the changing tides of privacy regulation. Hanlon said WPP’s tool would still enable clients to segment and target consumer audiences effectively should identifiers for audience segments on CTV and the open web disappear. “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.”