Data Alliance Expands Reach to Sub-Saharan Africa

WPP's Data Alliance has expanded its reach to Sub-Saharan Africa, with the opening of an office in Cape Town led by former VP of Strategy and Operations Devon Tighe.

Launched in 2010, The Data Alliance comprises experts from the wider WPP network of market researchers and specialists in CRM, media and digital technology, who help the Group's client assess their available data and make the best use of it.

The new operation in South Africa will draw on expertise from the group's global network. Local WPP companies Ogilvy, Smollan, Acceleration, Barrows, Wunderman's Aqua and TMARC have come together as sponsoring members to help bring Data Alliance to the region, and these companies will work on projects to enhance the usage of data across WPP solutions.

Tighe (pictured) heads the new office as Managing Director, after nearly four years with Data Alliance, prior to which she worked for The New York Times as Director, Customer Insight Group, and spent five years at WPP firm Dynamic Logic/Millward Brown. Commenting on the launch, Tighe said: 'We look at Africa as a region in which we can do some very modern and progressive things with data, in particular with mobile data.'

Web site: www.dataalliance.com .