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- [00:01]
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- [00:46]
Ad Tech God
Welcome to today's episode of the Refresh by Marketexture Media. I'm your host and co founder of Marketexture at Tech God. The Refresh is where we bring you the latest and greatest in advertising news. Please don't forget to follow us on the market on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. Just some architecture media housekeeping items. On April 28, we celebrate with Miami Lights, co hosted by Madtech and Imperium. This takes place at the Soho Beach House, also in Miami. We'll be recording the advertising forums Preach on the beach series, so keep an eye out for the team and please don't forget to say hello. We are confirmed for can. We're bringing you more content, more gatherings and more fun. Stay tuned and we'll continue to announce those events shortly. All right, we have Lauren Wetzel, CEO of Infosum, which is a leading data collaboration platform. Last week, Infosum announced it was being acquired by WPP and is now part of Group M, WPP's media investment group. The release had some strong wording like AI, privacy first, data driven, all very important as part of the continued growth and investment in digital advertising. So I'm looking forward to chatting with Lauren today to explain the reasoning behind the acquisition and really what it means for WPP and their clients. Lauren, thanks for joining me.
- [02:04]
Lauren Wetzel
Oh, thank you, ad tech God. Second time's a charm. Love being here.
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Ad Tech God
You were podcast guest number four, which is crazy because I think I just released 74.
- [02:14]
Lauren Wetzel
Oh my gosh, you're busy.
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Ad Tech God
Yeah, it's wild. I was just planning episode 100 and I'm thinking maybe I'll bring Terry Kawaja back because he was episode one.
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Lauren Wetzel
Yeah, I liked his episode. That was a great episode.
- [02:25]
Ad Tech God
It was good. It was great. It was a fantastic learning experience and he, he's a great person to interview. So first of all, Congrats to you and the team. Congrats on the acquisition. How's the first week been?
- [02:36]
Lauren Wetzel
Oh, it's been incredible. I am actually with a lot of new colleagues as well as a bulk majority of our team that's based in the UK this week. So it has been a hit the ground running and we'll get into this. Cause I know we'll talk about sort of the value and the deal, but it's incredible how fast you can get going when you've already been working together and when you have such a shared vision. So I feel like it's not just fun and celebratory, it's obviously all of those things. I'm incredibly proud of, you know, both sides of the deal for sprinting and getting this done as, as quickly as we did. I'm incredibly proud of the team because it's their hard work that got us to this day. But I'm also just incredibly excited that we can be productive day one and we have been so I've, I've been busy.
- [03:26]
Ad Tech God
You worked and partnered with, with WPP prior to the acquisition. Look, what do you think made the decision for an acquisition to happen rather than continue with the partnership? Does that something to do with WPP's future outlook or their strategy? I'd love to hear a little bit more about that.
- [03:43]
Lauren Wetzel
Yeah. First I'll say, because I know your audience, I'll say what it wasn't, which is it wasn't just because I had a fabulous ramp down campaign. Although that was a nice distraction. That was awesome and I'm so proud of the team and I think it was great and it got such an important message on the value that we provide to market. But it wasn't that and it also wasn't the fact that Brian was the former CEO and was, you know, hoping for a deal. Obviously when you spend four years at a company as Brian did, it's a pretty telltale sign, blood, sweat, tears, as to belief in a platform and belief in the people, which is a huge driver of a decision. But he actually wasn't involved in, in the deal. And so I'll say those two things at the onset and then I'll give a little bit of context. We were raising our Series C, we had investors lined up, multiple investors inclusive of wpp. And we were about to take the investment, close the Series C in about a week's time. And it was incredibly clear to me that we just saw the future the same way that the partnership had started to become so strong and so aligned and so integral into what they're looking to do. And when I think about it, I think what they saw was we defined this category and we were really the only independent clean room that were delivering results regularly. You hear a lot about data collaboration platforms, data clean rooms. We don't always see results and proof points that our brands see every day that they work with us. I think that was incredibly important. More tooling platform technology to deliver results for brands. I would also say that they've just had this front row seat to the possibilities of our technology and it was exciting because I rarely when I'm explaining our technology, what a bunker is, what we're really doing, the full stack, the sort of how it works and being in a room with Mark Reed earlier this year and taking him through our technology, he just instantly got it and he instantly saw that this could be a foundational piece of tech for their AI vision, which we'll talk about. Everyone I've spoke to at Choreographic, them at wbp, their eyes were lighting up as we were talking about what we were already building this year and sort of our vision for the future. And so it's not just about what we could do immediately in today and sort of the work that we're already doing now that we've closed, but it's also about supporting this AI vision that they've had. And so I'm excited about that.
- [06:12]
Ad Tech God
So to touch up on that. So number one is thanks for clarifying the first two points. I saw a couple posts, got a couple DMs. I don't post anything unless it's factual, unless it's verified. So thank you for bringing that up. I think it's important for people to hear that there's value in the obviously there was a involvement in the past, but that this was really decided upon the value of the company and what it brings to wpp.
- [06:34]
Lauren Wetzel
Exactly.
- [06:35]
Ad Tech God
Number two is you touched upon the AI point is that the intelligence beyond identity kind of catchphrase that you guys used is that the WPP open product.
- [06:45]
Lauren Wetzel
So intelligence beyond identity. Let me double click into that because you're going to hear a lot more, especially in a few weeks time about the full taxonomy and sort of what is being delivered to in terms of products to the clients. But this notion of intelligence beyond identity, frankly, since becoming CEO of Group M, Brian's talked a lot about this need to go from ID to AI. Essentially that's moving beyond simply focused on identity based approaches to marketing. And this is all about leveraging capabilities for the potential of AI models. And this is an important shift to make because of the limitations, frankly of ID based targeting today. And so you can start with billions of records, but once you factor in walled gardens, once you factor in cookie deprecation, decaying data, multiple channels, you see that brands are often left with match rates that limit them to a small fraction of their total audience. But that gets unlocked with AI. And you see now that there's this ability to combine, yes, of course, signals, so trillions of signals from across multiple dimensions of data to generate these audience. And it's just much more because it's business intelligence, it's campaign intelligence, it's supply chain data, it's retail streaming, it's web engagement signals. And when you actually train those AI models against that diverse array of data, you're now finding these different dimensions where you can predict and build audiences that actually represent 100% of the relevant market and frankly, those audiences that are more likely to convert. When we talk about this goal of creating intelligence beyond identity, we're talking about the work that we're doing to help clients move beyond identity, take advantage of these limitless potentials for growth of AI based solutions. And don't get me wrong, because we're partnered with a lot of great identity vendors and identity is critical and it's important to ensuring clients have access to identity in the future and today. And it's important for those marketing strategies. But I think the point is it's just not the only thing. It's really about those unique data sets that have never been analyzed for insights before. It's about the use of AI to build on top of that foundation and to run that analysis. And I'm excited. It's a fresh strategy. It's offering clients something that's unique. It's upholding the standards and principles regarding clients maintaining control of their data and consumers having that end to end privacy protection. And all of these are the reasons that we got excited about what they were building and how we can effectively turbocharge that.
- [09:16]
Ad Tech God
I mean, you're now plugged in. Well, WPP is now plugged in to really a massive network of data. Right. So I thought, I read Samsung, Netflix, Experian, TransUnion and more. How can these brands, how can these clients feel comfortable with that level of scale without losing, you know, privacy and control? That I know is really important.
- [09:36]
Lauren Wetzel
Yeah. So that control, that end to end protection is what we do for every single one of our clients. So whether that's one of WPP's brand clients, whether that's A partner, say, you know, a great partner like Experian, who I think was referenced in the release, whether that's a media entity like a Samsung, each of those entities when they're doing a collaboration always are in the driver's seat and they maintain control. And when it relates to who has access to the data, it's not just an, you know, an open. Everyone gets access to everything. Day one, it's always still going to be permissions based and so you always need to ensure that permissions are in place. Those kind of two components. One, the privacy enhancing technology that we built in our stack that allows each of our data owners to maintain that control. But obviously the platform which allows for the ease of use, the low code, no code, the how to get started really quickly, how to discover any of the partners who want to be discoverable and then the really easy set it and forget it or go back and adjust it permissions, which I think are just more robust and deeper and more granular than sort of any other platform that I've seen in market. The fact that it was built for marketers and it's the idea that you can really quickly get going is sort of one important factor. I think the other thing is most of our partners, they want to find those brands like they want to contribute to the party, they want to be a part of that collaboration. And again that's why it's important to not just think of like, oh, I have a semblance of an audience and I'm a brand and I've been collecting data and this is all that I have. You know, there's always been this notion that you must be data rich in order to work with infosum or to take value from a data clean room. And that's just not the case. We've seen companies with no data be able to combine data sets in a really unique way and then be able to build lookalike modeling off of that and have proxy audiences and then obviously be able to drive results across activation and measurement of those campaigns. And so I think it's a couple of those factors in there and I'm really excited frankly for us to have a little bit of a coming out party in the next couple of weeks as to to what this means for brand clients.
- [11:55]
Ad Tech God
When you talk about the brands accessing this data safely, securely utilization of AI, I know that as an overall goal measurement is important, ROI is important, targeting is important. How does this differ than what I guess WPP was doing prior? Or is this just a much closer integration with Infosum. And does this mean just more access, more data and better decisioning in a privacy safe way?
- [12:25]
Lauren Wetzel
Yeah, it allows them to be able to enable this for their clients. Obviously, as a, as a client of Infosum's technology, they were able to utilize our technology for planning, utilize our technology for activation, for measurement for all of those campaigns, frankly, test and learn across data sets before you sign up for a 12 month license for a data set that may not be valuable to you or your client. They were utilizing us for a range of different use cases, both for the build of their own capabilities as well as directly for clients. What this is really going to be able to do is effectively in combination with the AI models that they've built. Like AI is only as good as the data that you have access to and the data that you have access to is only going to be possible if you are protecting that data. And so it's the privacy principles that we built within our tech stack that was incredibly appealing. It's ownership of this technology so that they can continue to build unique products. And it's absolutely what you said, which, it's the network, it's the fact that this has been proven, it's the fact that we have a handful of clients, frankly who have only exclusively utilized our technology and therefore they've been able to scale it. So I have clients who have been clients of mine for five plus years. And so again, it's another one of like, I feel like I'm myth busting on the podcast, but there's this notion of oh well, data, clean rooms, they haven't really had scale because no one's really using them or they're one off. Like I think that's a very small minded and probably region specific point of view where in many of our largest markets it's just an always on activity. And I think it's, it's, it's an interesting contrast if you think about it, to a lot of the other, you know, holding companies that are out there who have focused really on exclusively signals and exclusively, you know, data sets that are, you know, grounded in ID and identity based systems where you're still asking your clients to send you their data and so you're handing over control. So that's a critical difference back to the end to end privacy protection. And the second thing is what I said around identity and intelligence and what we really need to deliver for our clients is intelligence. Identity is a core component of it. It's only one component. It's that kind of perfect cocktail of that control that connectivity, that collaboration, the ability for this to be done really quickly for your clients who don't have a huge data science team. And then the unique combinations that these AI models are going to be able to enable to power new use cases.
- [15:08]
Ad Tech God
How far is the, I guess the product roadmap or timeline to get this totally rolled out or is this, you know, additive to what exists today?
- [15:17]
Lauren Wetzel
Yeah. So we, what are you guys looking.
- [15:19]
Ad Tech God
At for integration timelines?
- [15:20]
Lauren Wetzel
Yeah, great question. Incredible that we've already been working together. Incredible also that Brian, I believe it was CES early this year, started to, across the client base, talk about this vision and frankly, just bring the clients along because everyone talks about AI and everyone talks about we're going to be the best at AI. This is what we're going to do. They have been building this for quite some time as a part of, as you mentioned, WPP Open. And that's, that's also not exclusively. WPP obviously has Group M for media, but they also have Creative and they have a handful of other agencies. And, and it's, it's fascinating. There is a piece actually this weekend, a profile on Mark Reed and they were talking about how he loves to demo this technology. So that's real, that's available to the clients. They love talking about, they love showcasing. Is that combination I was just describing that's starting to unlock some of the use cases because of not only the technology that we've already built, but some things that we've already been, that's been on our roadmap for a while. And so for us, that's even for our clients very soon, new flavors of measurement, new capabilities to make things easier. So AI for question to query. So how do you interrogate the data and be able to execute a measurement use case really easily? And again, picturing that marketer audience, not a data scientist, to accomplish that. And that's kind of some of the tenets of what we've been building. It's been how to make things as easy as possible, how to make it as easy as possible for any data set to be ready to collaborate. I talked about that at the Ramp down campaign, this notion of ramp down the time, because we have historically for our clients, given them back time on average, you said it's 156 days, seven times faster than other platforms. That speed is what will enable all of WPP's partners and then our existing client base to be a part of this network to start collaborating, to then take advantage of those AI models. And so yes, you will hear More but, but just want to make clear a lot of these pieces have been one built to taking advantage of what already exists with our technology. And so I look at this more of like a packaging of these great things together with clients who are raising their hand to test and learn and sort of be the first to market with this.
- [17:44]
Ad Tech God
What does this mean for you? What does it mean for you? What's it mean for your team? They now have payroll come in from WPP instead of Infosum. What are the plans there and how's the team feeling overall? And how are you feeling overall?
- [17:57]
Lauren Wetzel
Well, we are a mission and what I call kind of like purpose led organization. Obviously when you make decisions that sometimes are more challenging in market because they're not shortcuts and they're not cheats and you know, sometimes it can be frustrating when you're building with these principles in mind, you know, not just for your platform, but also in sort of who you work with and how you work. And so the fact that we get to carry on the mission is everything to me, is everything to my investors who have been, you know, a part of this since day one and who are thrilled with this outcome and obviously for these employees and frankly for our clients. And so that's the lens I always looked at and I probably even have said this on maybe your podcast before, like the lens you look at for any transaction or the decision, you know, do I want to just raise the capital and be independent or is this an opportunity where I can turbocharge this for the industry and I think we can make this piece of data collaboration that has needed to be re architected for quite some time. We can power that much, much faster with WPP scale, with WPP's influence. For me personally, I'm a problem solver and so for me it is a new opportunity, it is the next challenge. It is exciting for me. I am so excited about what has already been on our roadmap, which is really focused a lot on interoperability building into every cloud. As you can imagine, WPP has some great connections across every cloud environment. And when you're a scale up, you have to make prioritization decisions. And so that's a really good tangible example of the value we'll bring to our clients, which is I would love to be in every single environment tomorrow. But as independent info some I just have to make choices. I have to go where the bulk majority of my clients are in terms of the warehouses we integrate into, the clouds we integrate into. And so the ability for us to move incredibly fast and have the resources and capital to get that done very quickly is important because, again, our mission has been keep control of your data, but it's also your data doesn't move. And so we bring our technology to where your data is and to what environment it's in. And that's what allows for that very fast, rapid onboarding. And so we're going to be able to, you know, really scale that incredibly fast. And I think it's the art of the possible right back to sort of problem solving. I think we have just seen how people want to take advantage of new technology, oftentimes just replacing what came before it. So the same use cases, the same flavor of measurement, but it just operates a little differently or it's maybe a little bit more privacy first. And. And there's a different way of doing it. But I think when you're talking about data sets that can be collaborated, that have never been brought to the party, and identifying how that impacts the build of an audience and identifying how that impacts predictive consumer behavior, you know, that's exciting in the realm of advertising. That's exciting in the realm of, frankly, client service and customer service. And so I think that there's a lot that marketers who will take advantage of this will be able to take back into their broad organization thanks to these capabilities. And so I'm. I'm just ready to get to work.
- [21:17]
Ad Tech God
Yeah. You know, you. You have a lot of energy. Laurent, you were saying that you're. You're tired. You've traveled all over the world over the last few weeks. I do not sense it one bit. Just so you know, that makes me feel. I'm really happy for you.
- [21:29]
Lauren Wetzel
That makes me feel better.
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Ad Tech God
Yeah, I'm happy.
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Lauren Wetzel
You try negotiating a deal when you're in New Zealand across a variety of time zones. It's a trip, I tell you.
- [21:37]
Ad Tech God
I'm happy for you, Lauren. I'm happy for the team. I'm happy for WPP. I'm sure your clients will be happy, and WPP's clients are happy. So I definitely wish you guys the best of luck, and thank you again for being here today with me.
- [21:47]
Lauren Wetzel
Yeah. Watch the space. Thanks so much for having me. We're so excited.
- [21:51]
Ad Tech God
Thank you.