WPP and Google announced a five-year expansion of their partnership, dedicated to advancing cloud and AI technology and cultivating the essential skills to transform marketing as we know it. The collaboration aims to revolutionise how brands approach integrated creative, production, media, experience, and commerce, enabling real-time personalisation for millions of customers simultaneously, and moving beyond traditional efficiency initiatives to unlock growth.
The expanded partnership includes a $400 million spending commitment from WPP for Google technologies, and was cemented in Mountain View during a meeting between WPP CEO Cindy Rose, Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian and members of their respective senior leadership teams. The spend will go towards WPP’s market-leading efforts to infuse AI into its services alongside the company’s increased investment into AI and technology through WPP Open, WPP’s AI platform for marketing.
“I’m incredibly excited about how our new and evolved partnership with Google will redefine what’s possible for our clients,” said Cindy Rose, CEO of WPP. “By delivering bespoke AI solutions and enabling hyper-relevant campaigns with unprecedented scale and speed, we’re accelerating innovation across every facet of marketing to drive unparalleled growth and impact.”
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“Our expanded partnership with WPP is built on a shared vision to harness the power of generative and agentic AI to transform business outcomes,” said Thomas Kurian, CEO, Google Cloud. “By enabling WPP to innovate on our AI-optimised technology stack, we are helping to create the future of marketing technology for brands today.”
“As an important partner to Google Marketing, WPP has been working closely with us on a number of AI tools and innovations built with Gemini – all focused on driving brand love and real business growth through truly helpful experiences that resonate with our billions of users around the world. I’m excited to continue exploring what marketing and storytelling looks like in this new era, together,” said Lorraine Twohill, SVP, Global Marketing, Google.
This partnership will empower WPP clients with groundbreaking AI solutions, transforming how they connect with audiences and achieve business goals. Key initiatives include:
- Transforming WPP clients’ businesses with new, bespoke AI solutions built with Gemini. This collaboration empowers brands to tackle specific challenges with tailored AI, blending Google’s advanced AI with WPP’s creative and innovation expertise. AKQA’s “The Generative Store,” for instance, redefines personalised retail by dynamically adapting product visuals and messaging for each consumer, leveraging Google Cloud’s Vertex AI.
- Rapid, bespoke AI model development. Google Cloud’s AI products, powered by Google DeepMind models, now fuel WPP Media’s AI data solution, Open Intelligence. This enables WPP Media to build and deploy bespoke audience models for clients with unprecedented speed and precision, delivering immediate, measurable impact.
- Secure, privacy-first data collaboration. By using InfoSum’s Bunkers on Google Marketplace, integrated into WPP Open, WPP is able to enforce secure data collaboration without moving data. This unlocks deeper insights for AI marketing whilst protecting privacy.
- Revolutionising video and image production. WPP will receive early access to Google’s latest AI models (including Veo, Imagen, and others), integrated within WPP Open, bringing unprecedented creative agility to clients. With these new models, WPP has been able to create new campaign-ready assets for clients in days, not weeks, achieving up to 70% efficiency gains and a 2.5x acceleration in asset utilisation.
- Preferred access to Google’s cutting-edge AI. Through an expanded research partnership with Google, and access to the latest advanced AI models and data, integrated directly into WPP Open, WPP will be able to develop new audiences and activate highly customised campaigns across all media, inclusive of Google Ad Platforms.
- Cultivating the next generation of AI talent. WPP’s successful Creative Technology Apprenticeship programme is significantly expanding, with Google now joining as the primary curriculum partner. Building on 50+ permanent placements across WPP agencies since 2022, this initiative will train more than 1,000 early-career creative technologists by 2030. Through a world-leading curriculum (covering creative coding, generative AI, robotics) and real-world challenges from clients like L’Oréal and Unilever, WPP will equip participants to serve client needs in the AI era.
- Transforming WPP’s operations with Google AI for enhanced client service. Beyond client-facing solutions, Google AI is also set to transform WPP’s internal operations, leading to significantly enhanced client service. By integrating Google’s advanced AI into WPP’s workflows, tasks like automated data analysis, intelligent resource allocation, and instant access to global insights will drive efficiency and collaboration across WPP’s global workforce. This means faster development of cutting-edge solutions, more agile team responses, and ultimately, superior value and speed to clients worldwide.
WPP and Google’s shared commitment to innovation means that new solutions are collaborated on, used and validated first within Google’s own marketing operations. This real-world application provides invaluable insights, allowing WPP clients to receive effective solutions that accelerate their paths to market-leading results – a unique advantage in the rapidly evolving AI landscape.
SOURCE: PRNewswire