WPP Raises Data Analytics Stake For Kantar, MIG

  • by May 17, 2011

Bassel-Ojjeh

WPP's market research group Kantar and its digital marketing technology unit Media Innovation Group are immediate beneficiaries of new data analytics capabilities resulting from WPP Digital's $5 million minority investment in Palo Alto, Calif.-based nPario, announced Tuesday.

While it was not revealed what percentage of the year-old, private company WPP Digital had secured, Online Media Daily learned that the company will now hold two of four seats on nPario's board of directors: David Spitz, executive vice president of strategy and corporate development for WPP Digital, and Nick Nyhan, chief digital officer of Kantar Group and founder of WPP's Dynamic Logic, join nPario founders and former Yahoo execs Bassel Ojjeh and Krishna Uppala.

WPP and nPario also announced a strategic partnership that will integrate online and offline data from Kantar and MIG into nPario's platform. That platform, also being used by nPario client Electronic Arts, is designed to analyze and optimize large volumes of data for marketers.

Beyond Kantar and MIG, the investment "gives us accelerated access to the clients and agencies of the world's largest marketing services group," CEO Ojjeh told Online Media Daily, referring to WPP. The deal "will allow us to reduce our time to market of new products."

WPP stated that the venture will help the marketers and publishers it serves "gain faster access to audience insights."

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