WPP Partners With Web-Analytics Firm Omniture

WPP has forged a strategic alliance with web-analytics firm Omniture and made a $25 million investment in the company.

The deal furthers London-based WPP's plan to focus on research going forward, rather than traditional advertising, as a way to differentiate itself from rival holding companies such as U.S.-based Omnicom Group and French conglomerate Publicis Groupe.

"From WPP's perspective, analytics, measurement, optimization are increasingly important to our clients," said Mark Read, WPP's director of strategy and CEO, WPP Digital, speaking to Ad Age from Davos, Switzerland. He said more than one-fifth, or about $4 billion, of WPP's $15 billion in worldwide revenue now is derived from consumer insight.

Under the terms of the agreement, WPP and Omniture will integrate marketing technologies and information products in the next 12 to 18 months and begin jointly working on new solutions to offer clients.

http://adage.com/agencynews/article?article_id=134200
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123320346909427903.html