Ad giant embraces the tech revolution
The advertising group WPP is fighting back against the threat of artificial intelligence to its industry with a product that will allow brands to create ad campaigns from start to finish using AI.
WPP Open Pro is the first product to be launched under Cindy Rose, the ex-Microsoft executive who was appointed to lead a turnaround in July.
It is an extension of the WPP Open platform, an AI-driven operating system which WPP has been building for the past four years. The platform, built on the large language models created by the likes of Google and Amazon-backed Anthropic as well as its own technology, can spew out all the ingredients needed for a modern ad campaign, including realistic videos, images and audio. WPP is set to invest £300 million in the platform this year.
Advertising houses are grappling with the rise of AI, which threatens to complete some marketing work more quickly and cheaply. “The rapid acceleration of technology is fundamentally reshaping our industry and WPP is embracing the opportunity to lead that change,” Rose said.
“This is about transforming how marketing is delivered, expanding our total addressable market, and giving more brands the tools they need to lead in the AI era.”
It is aimed at smaller and mediumsized businesses that may not have the budget for a large-scale campaign. It is hoped that it will provide another avenue of revenue growth for the FTSE 100 group, “unlocking new markets we haven’t previously serviced”, according to Stephan Pretorius, WPP’s chief technology officer.
Clients will pay a subscription fee to access the platform alongside a one-off sum for work created and downloaded. However, the launch raises the risk that the new offering cannibalises some of the ad group’s revenue generated from its existing clients.
“The only thing worse than the risk of cannibalisation is doing nothing because then you’re certain of irrelevance,” Pretorius said.
WPP, which is due to report thirdquarter results next week, is battling a downturn in its revenue amid a series of high-profile client losses and a macroeconomic slump that has pushed brands to pull back on their spending.
The shares, which have fallen 56 per cent since the start of this year and are close to their lowest level since the 2008 financial crisis, fell 4p, or 1.1 per cent, to end the day at 362¾p.
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