Mumbai : WPP has created a marketing analytics company called Gain Theory to help brands manage the overwhelming amount of data available to them.
WPP is merging two of its existing companies to float this new global analytics company with three key hubs in New York, London and Bengaluru in India. It will soon expand to Latin America and China.
The new agency, named Gain Theory, is being billed as a ‘marketing foresight consultancy’ that offers analysis of a brand’s marketing efforts while using advanced analytics to help them to decide how to handle future ad campaigns.
It will help brands come up with a strategy to access and analyze data.
While, Globally, Gain Theory is led by Jason Harrison as the Chief Executive Officer, Sunder Muthuraman will be the India lead and the CEO of APAC. The global operations will also include Manjiry Tamhane as the chief operating Officer and CEO, EMEA.
Jason Harrison, Gain Theory’s worldwide CEO, told the WSJ: “There’s so much more information available about business performance, consumers, what’s happening with marketing campaigns. The expectation is that [marketers] would be able to digest all that and be able to know what to do next and do that very quickly. That is incredibly complicated.”
The new agency will be a part of WPP’s GroupM but will be independent of its media-buying operation and is starting with 200 employees along with 46 clients, according to the Journal.
In India, Hindustan Unilever is by far the biggest client of Gain Theory. “We believe that when it comes to innovation in analytics and analytical technology, India, particularly Bangalore, will lead the way. Meritus — one of the founding members of Gain Theory — is headquartered in Bangalore and has a rich heritage in innovation, which is a strength that will be leveraged under Gain Theory,” said Muthuraman.
Gain Theory will work with both existing and non-WPP clients. It will also draw expertise from other WPP companies like GroupM, KBM and Kantar.
