In the spirit of innovation and creativity, WPP, the world’s largest communications services group, and Tencent, a leading provider of Internet value added services in China, have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) and entered into a strategic alliance to create a social innovation and ideation lab.
The “China Social Marketing Lab” will leverage Tencent’s strengths in the local online space and WPP’s global marketing expertise. The lab will develop enhanced solutions that cater to clients and their target audiences. Through knowledge sharing, the collaboration will harness technology, analytics and creative input to build social ideas and campaigns for Tencent’s QQ and Weixin/WeChat platforms.
Sir Martin Sorrell, founder and CEO of WPP said, “This partnership combines the best of talent and technology within WPP and Tencent. Fostering innovation in the social sphere is key in today’s world of hyper-connectivity. Collaborating with partners and clients is a strategic way forward for WPP and our agencies to create stronger products for better engaging end-users.”
Davis Lin, Vice President of Tencent said, “This partnership represents Tencent’s efforts to create a vibrant content industry through creative social advertising formats, data and technology. Tencent’s QQ and Weixin/WeChat are among China’s most-used mobile applications. In conjunction with WPP’s global agencies, we will connect businesses with people while offering both businesses and users an enhanced social experience.”
The MOU was signed on the sidelines of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity where WPP was named the world’s most creative holding company for a sixth consecutive year. The win means WPP now holds the title of Parent Company of the Year for 2016 at four of the industry’s leading awards programmes: Cannes Lions, the Effies, the Warc 100 and The One Show.
