WPP and Adobe Get Closer

WPP has extended its strategic partnership with marketing software giant Adobe, to provide solutions to clients through six specialist WPP agencies called 'the WPP-Adobe Alliance'. Separately, WPP boss Sir Martin Sorrell has spoken about the 'very low standards' of some online audience measures, including Facebook's.

The Alliance makes Adobe's Marketing Cloud features available via more than 1,000 WPP agency experts in over 20 locations, and will make use of proprietary data from its data investment management business. The six launch members are Acceleration, Cognifide, KBM Group, Mirum, VML and Wunderman, all of whom have in-depth experience of implementing the Adobe Marketing Cloud for top clients.

The Marketing Cloud comprises eight tightly integrated solutions giving 'a complete set of marketing technologies that focus on analytics, web and app experience management, testing and targeting, advertising, video, audience management, social engagement and campaign orchestration'.

The Alliance is headed by Vice President of Strategic Partnerships, Kelly Ann Bauer and forms part of WPP's Technology Partnership Program, led by Chief Digital Officer Scott Spirit. CEO Sir Martin Sorrell (pictured) says the joint proposition is 'a very powerful one: Adobe's leading marketing technology solutions alongside WPP's unique ability to leverage the collective capabilities of our agencies, and our proprietary data, for the benefit of our global client base'.

Shantanu Narayen, President and CEO of Adobe, adds: 'Through the WPP-Adobe Alliance, WPP clients can now yield the greatest return from their Adobe Marketing Cloud investments'.


Separately, Sorrell (pictured) has criticised the measurement standards for video viewing on digital platforms such as Facebook, according to a report on www.mumbrella.com.au . Speaking at the Future Forum event in Sydney via video linkup, Sorrell told delegates: 'The viewership on video on Facebook, which is getting a lot of play and is very sexy, it's at the other end of the spectrum to legacy print, the standards that are applied to viewership are very low. About half of all video is watched online without the sound. The scale that is used for viewership is three seconds - that is ludicrous - in relation to the hurdle the TV viewer or viewablity or the standard newspaper readership has to meet'. He continued: 'The hurdle that a Nielsen applies to offline viewership or offline readership is much higher than the standard that online measurement services apply'.

After talking about the need for journalists to 'exhibit their talents across everything' rather than drawing unnecessary distinctions between print and various digital platforms, Sorrell suggested that 'the pendulum has swung too far to some of the online media', but is moving back, in some respects, 'to traditional media and giving them a little boost and a potential improvement'.


Web sites: www.wpp.com and www.adobe.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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