Global advertising group WPP is launching a new 200-person consultancy called The Gain Theory aimed at helping its clients use data and technology to deliver more effective ad campaigns.
The new company will be built around hubs in London, New York and Bangalore, serving the US, Asia-Pacific and Europe, the Middle East and Africa regions.
The consultancy is being formed out of existing parts of WPP, with between 85% and 90% of staff drawn from media, data, technology and marketing divisions in other firms within the group.
Though the company will be independent of other parts of the WPP group and will be paid independently on a consultancy basis by clients, European chief executive and chief operating officer Manjiry Tamhane said part of its aim was to help clients work more effectively with other parts of WPP.
“One of [WPP chief executive] Martin Sorrel’s desires is to have horizontality across WPP,” she said.
“So if a client has a specific problem they are trying to solve, we organise ourselves across all the various companies and disciplines back to the client. That’s where Gain Theory fits in. It’s about our connections back into the various organisations to provide that holistic solution.”
WPP clients who are already using the group’s insight services are moving to the new company, including drinks maker Diageo and consumer goods company Unilever.
Tamhane said Gain Theory aims to triple the revenues generated by the parts of WPP it is bringing together in one organisation within three years.
She said that although consumers and regulators were increasingly concerned about the use of data, the new service would be able to provide brands with information in a way that wouldn’t upset people.
“This is quite a big area of concern for consumers, with the likes of Facebook, and the conversations about what it’s possible to do with data,” she said.
“We would never ever do anything that encroached on privacy. We are always very mindful of that as an organisation, but there’s so much high-level insight that can actually drive an organisation forward. It’s often the bigger trends and bigger insights that generate the bigger growth.”
