WPP buys another digital data giant

WPP, one of the front runners in the race to buy Tesco’s DunnHumby division, is not counting its chickens just yet after acquiring yet another company specialising in big data and programmatic media buying.
The marketing services group’s Kantar Media division has splashed the cash on US digital media and planning services provider BIScience, although exactly how much is being kept under wraps.
The acquisition of BiScience – cross-channel media intelligence tool AdClarity, which that lets advertisers plan and optimise their media plans – will give WPP clients insights on competitors in the programmatic ad industry.
Its insight includes share of voice (advertiser, publisher, campaign, creative, and mediator); impressions and ad spend; unique publisher audience and traffic data; aggregated RTB rates; plus ad platform use.
BIScience records the daily monitoring and tracking of over 500,000 unique publishers and mobile apps across 22 million publisher pages worldwide, and claims it can track and monitor over 14.5 million campaigns, on over 35,000 ad platforms.
Kantar Media chief executive Andy Brown said: “Digital and programmatic are increasing in importance, and adding BIScience’s capabilities to our existing portfolio represents an exciting development for our clients, the marketplace, and the businesses we operate.”
The deal follows WPP’s aggressive big data strategy which has seen GroupM link up with social analytics firm Networked Insights, to allow staff to plan and optimise campaigns based on what audiences are talking about on social netowrks.
Meanwhile, WPP has also launched marketing and analytics company Gain Theory, and ad tech hub Xaxis has bought ActionX to bolster its mobile offering. And, then there was the $25m deal to buy a stake in ad tech firm AppNexus.
All of which may raise the question; does it really need DunnHumby?