WPP has jumped even further into bed with Google, following the $400m expansion of its cloud and AI partnership signed in October last year, to become one of the first media and marketing services companies to integrate Google Earth AI models and datasets directly into its agentic marketing platform, WPP Open.
With more than 80% of retail sales happening offline, according to research, the move is designed to bridge the gap between digital behaviour and the physical world, using Earth AI models and datasets.
It is claimed WPP will now be able to give clients the ability to anticipate consumer needs and understand in real-time how the physical environment—factors such as traffic, weather and neighbourhood movement patterns are shaping consumer behaviour and purchasing decisions.
Through this expanded partnership, WPP insists its agencies will be able to predict demand and automate marketing at a hyper-local level based on the pulse of the real world, shifting to proactive, tangible business solutions.
Using WPP’s Open Intelligence* for secure, privacy-first data collaboration, client data remains protected while yielding a deeper, more accurate understanding of consumer needs and behaviours.
WPP chief technology officer Stephan Pretorius said: “Google Earth AI brings together a whole universe of datasets representing the physical world into a single foundation model that for the first time, allows us to make decisions in an entirely new way.
“As an industry, we have had access to enormous amounts of digital data to understand human dynamics, trends and what content people consume. But people don’t just live in the digital world, they live in the physical world. By integrating this foundational physical-world data with our marketing data, we are changing the way the marketing industry thinks about consumer journeys.”
Google Maps Platform and Google Earth vice-president and general manager Yael Maguire added: “Google Earth AI brings together our decades of modelling the world, along with Gemini’s advanced reasoning, to help businesses achieve much deeper insights about the planet. WPP is using Earth AI datasets in novel ways that can transform industries, and we’re proud to help drive impact for their clients.”
Additionally, the integration of specialised data sets, such as Google Maps Platform’s real-time Roads Management Insights, will directly bolster production and solution development such as WPP-owned Satalia’s logistics business, powering advanced last-mile delivery and route optimisation for clients globally.
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