BuzzFeed has done their first major agency coup by striking up a deal with WPP’s global media buying arm, GroupM, which is worth millions of dollars.
In an announcement made on Thursday by Buzzfeed, the benefits of this deal will give both WPP and GroupM agencies an “unprecedented access to BuzzFeed’s creative and data assets.”
As part of the deal, “preferential” media pricing and becoming the first beta test partner with Pound (which is the tech that BuzzFeed introduced at NewFronts this year). There will be a dedicated team at BuzzFeed Motion Pictures that will be there to create branded videos for WPP clients.
Rob Norman, Chief Digital Officer of GroupM said this:
“The future of advertising lies at the intersection of creativity, data, media and technology; that’s where BuzzFeed has built its business and proved its value to brands. This is a terrific opportunity for our clients to move swiftly and succeed in the fastest growing media platforms. We have appointed partnership leaders from each GroupM agency, and other WPP agencies will do the same.”
With this deal with BuzzFeed in place, creative team from WPP agencies can tap into the company’s social content production experience through a creative residency.
BuzzFeed president, Greg Coleman said, “we’re excited to take our unique approach and voice in branded content, data and iterative learning in a big way with GroupM and their clients.”