WPP and BigCommerce (NASDAQ: BIGC), a leading Open SaaS ecommerce platform for fast-growing and established B2C and B2B brands, today announced a new strategic partnership offering omnichannel solutions to help WPP clients drive growth and maximize sales across hundreds of advertising channels and marketplaces. 

This innovative partnership will give WPP priority access to new product tools on both BigCommerce and data feed management platform Feedonomics, in addition to providing APIs and data sets that will enable WPP agencies to develop unique insights for clients across product, trend and purchasing data.

The partnership reflects WPP’s ongoing investment in its commerce offer for clients. It includes a joint commitment from BigCommerce and WPP to help shared clients develop nimble commerce solutions and scale growth, and follows the announcement that WPP agency Wunderman Thompson has joined the MACH Alliance, of which BigCommerce is an early member.

As BigCommerce’s inaugural data partner, WPP will receive priority access to alpha and beta products as well as platform integrations including Amazon, Meta, Google and TikTok. These tools will allow teams to maximize omnichannel sales and optimize spend for both B2C and B2B clients.

WPP will help shape product development and innovation at BigCommerce with commerce specialists joining product and partner councils, in addition to receiving access to a custom training program and certification pathways. As part of the partnership, WPP will commit to upskilling 150 commerce specialists within the first year of working with BigCommerce.

The partnership announcement aligns with WPP’s accelerated growth strategy to strengthen technology and commerce offerings, and follows the news of the company’s ranking as a Leader in Forrester’s latest global Commerce Services Wave.

What do I mean by this? I ran a little experiment in January: continue to integrate the new and improved ChatGPT into my work life to see what it’s capable of and if the nature of my work changes.

ChatGPT has been in and around our agencies at WPP during its development for some time. Many creative teams have been using it as a ‘test and learn’ tool in the ideation process in a project’s initial stages. 

Its output serves as a springboard for even more innovative and imaginative ideas crafted by human creativity. 

No doubt, as we see more improvements in AI and we share techniques on how to use them, we will see AI enhancing the creative process but seeing it replace the power of the creative human is highly unlikely. 

The advertising industry will need to continue to make strides in reducing bias in AI results, and continual efforts toward checks and balances will continue to promote ethical and empathetic creative work by human professionals.

The debate on what ChatGPT can and can’t do with the creative industry way of working will rage on, but the only way to find out is to put it to the test. And let me tell you, AI and machine learning are taking over the workplace faster than a robot on steroids.

The nature of work inside a creative transformation company is constantly changing and evolving, and the debate on what ChatGPT can and can’t do will be around for some time, but the only way to find out is to use it often for everything and see how it performs.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning technology have been growing with our agencies. They will play a more significant role in the workplace as the year role on as we integrate them into a broader range of systems and applications, and our clients demand help in their own evolution of AI-powered brands. It is difficult to predict precisely how these developments will play out and their specific impact on the nature of work this year but we are investing greatly that it will.

My experiment showed that conversational interfaces increase the demand for advanced language models like ChatGPT. I connected it to a text-to-speech engine, settling on Microsoft Azure Text-to-Speech with over 180 voices, and added delay to make the AI voice more like me. 

ChatGPT shines in its real-time responsiveness, consistent responses, and multilingual language use. Although it has a higher error rate than my human approach, its knowledge base is constantly growing and updated.

The knowledge base of ChatGPT is still limited to the information and knowledge it has been trained on, whereas my human brain, after some fifty years plus on this planet, still has a broader range of knowledge and experiences. That is very reassuring, knowing that I still have the edge over my AI counterpart.

Our tech team put my bot version to test with a CAPTCHA. An Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans apart – and I passed with flying colours. But the reality is that AI is making it increasingly difficult to differentiate between bots and humans. This will play a huge role in agency communication in the future.

Thanks to ChatGPT, I’ve saved time and increased efficiency in my work. It’s a valuable tool for data analysis and allowed me to collaborate with my team by assisting with scheduling and communication.

But there are limitations, and content creation is one of them. ChatGPT can create basic content, like product descriptions or social media posts, but has yet it has not replaced the creativity of the amazingly talented people in our agencies. That said, the possible workstreams are exponential.

My next goal is to make ChatGPT a more engaging and interactive training tool, allowing learners to ask questions and receive real-time feedback. But in the end, the human touch is still essential today, but replication is possible and coming, and I expect considerable advancement over the coming months. It’s the brief of the year.

I was delighted and honored to be invited to join a new ANA Growth Council called Data & Technology working alongside members Raja Rajamannar (MasterCard), Julia Goldin (LEGO Group), Marcel Marcondes (AB InBev), Mathilde Delhoume (LVMH), Elizabeth Rutledge (American Express), Karen Walker (Intel), Alicia Enciso (Nestlé), Norman de Greve (CVS Health).

The Global Growth Councils for Progress have been established by Cannes Lions and the ANA to help our industry achieve its full potential and make progress as a global force for growth and a force for good.

As a community of CMOs from the world’s top brands, the Global CMO Growth Council has made significant progress in tackling the core issues that are paramount to achieving success for your business – and indeed making the world more sustainable and equitable.

This year, it extended its remit and reach, and welcomed professionals from both agencies and brands to join its work as it focuses on the five most pressing issues – as identified by LIONS and ANA research.

Measuring the impact marketing has on business, people, and the planet is essential to creating long-term value. Yet, CMOs have struggled to demonstrate clear progress across an increasingly complex array of standards, frameworks, and initiatives. The recent Lions State of Creativity Study mirrors the key issues we face as an industry.

Mastering data and technology underpins our ability to deepen the connections between our brands and the people we serve – especially as the frontier of Web 3.0 unfolds. But we must first master the ability to measure our investments in the physical world before we can build brave contemporary brands in the blockchain-driven, token-based economy of a virtual multiverse.  

Together, Lions and the ANA will provide the year-round platform for the industry to convene and track progress, with the councils returning to Cannes Lions in 2023 for an update on the industry’s collective progress.

Excited to get involved.

Hogarth, WPP’s specialist global creative content production company, is launching The Metaverse Foundry to deliver brand experiences in the virtual world. It will consist of global team with more than 700 creatives, producers, visual artists, developers and technologists.

The metaverse, for those of you who haven’t been listening at the back, is defined as a “simulated digital environment that uses augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and blockchain, along with concepts from social media, to create spaces for rich user interaction mimicking the real world.”

The Metaverse Foundry is built to take ideas to the next level at scale. A limitless place where creative, production and innovation come together to bring to life the greatest ideas, elevate e-commerce and customer experiences.It will provide  every aspect of experience design and production, virtual art, virtual stages, development of VR/AR applications, technology, and R&D.

WPP agencies are already delivering multiple metaverse projects for clients including Wendy’s, Under Armour, Duracell, Pfizer, Pizza Hut and Bombay Sapphire. 

The foundry will also collaborate with specialist WPP agencies such as Subvrsive (virtual events and immersive experiences) and Ars Thanea (design/animation and live action/visual effects studio) to supplement with specific additional skills.

The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of innovative technologies as people have learned to connect with each other in new ways.

The metaverse, with connected virtual worlds, augmented reality, NFTs and the blockchain. presents limitless opportunities for brands to build creative experiences and engage with diverse, highly loyal audiences.

Its market size in 2021 was estimated to be more than $1 trillion, growing at mid double-digits.

Andy Hood, VP Emerging Technologies at WPP, hosts a 6-minute metaverse masterclass.

Too much screen time we know is a problem.

Covid created more screen time as we went from zoom call to zoom call and more time on the couch with streaming visual content binging. Going from a working screen to an entertainment screen does create some well-being challenges.

Enter audio time.

After years of visual screen dominance, people started to find and enter a new era during Covid– the time with Sound.

Technology is a powerful enabler for this shift as it intensifies and diversifies how we listen.

Good sound quality triggers positive emotions. When your right moment, music is started at the right time and right place. Your life improves.

Your feelings change; you become uplifted or feel relaxed.

If you think of the opposite, what can happen if bad quality audio triggers negative emotions such as dissatisfaction, annoyance, or disappointment.

Despite a trend in visual and screen time where we can sacrifice quality for convenience, our audio behavior suggests quality matters very much.

I am seeing a growing demand for personalized audio experiences that are immersive, intimate, and fine-tuned by the listener.

Audio and Sound technology enhancements act as a catalyst for this change, offering people unlimited ways to experience Sound is a creative pallet to explore and is only just started.

Consider the explosive growth of podcasting over the last few years – the medium has firmly crossed into the mainstream as more than half of Americans and Australian’s over twelve years old have listened to one.

And then there is the rise of smart speakers, the fastest-growing tech sector in the United States and emerging in Australia. Nearly one-third of households have one audio streaming service, and almost every smart speaker owner has more than one device.

Who didn’t increase Sound and audio combined with a healthy walk in your Covid lockdown? More and more, produced audio is becoming an essential addition to our daily lives.

And as we enter a post-Covid reality, we are about to turn a corner into a sound-first era. Technology is fueling the audio revolution: it has unleashed the sound experience from any tether. Streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music mean that Sound is no longer dependent on a carrier medium or dedicated device. Instead, listening has become mobile and on-demand.

Like an invisible companion, Audio is no longer dependent on a carrier medium or dedicated device. Instead, listening has become mobile and on-demand. Sound accompanies us wherever we go, without interruption.

While audio quality continues to advance both in how it’s produced and delivered. The addition of 3D and surround sound technology will change the category even further.

Sound will accompany us like a kind of halo and open up new virtual spaces for listeners—the ability to combine listening to audio programming with virtual spaces for an entirely new experience.

While advances in mobile and streaming technology have been fundamental to shaping the listening experience of today, A.I. will open the next frontier of personalisation.

Consumers will be seeking audio programming that that can remember and adjust their listening preferences according to different environments.

From waking up, self-love rituals, exercise, entertainment, and downtime.

Audio with A.I. will allow for this level of personalisation, with content, tracks, and moods tailored precisely for each listener and acoustics that auto-adjust as you move through your day.

Sound and audio programming will increase and advance so much in the next decade because the experiential Sound delivered will see consumers’ time on the visual screen be reduced.

And that sounds very positive for our well-being.

The Forrester Wave™: Commerce Services, Q1 2021 evaluation ranks the 14 most significant commerce providers as Leaders, Strong Performers, Contenders or Challengers against their current offering, strategy and market presence. Fulll report found here

WPP received the highest scores possible in 12 criteria including Omnichannel Commerce Strategy, Organisation Design & Change Management, Global or Multibusiness Unit Commerce Architectures and Vision.

The report suggests that “companies seeking help with their commerce transformation should look for service providers that: offer a full set of services including commerce strategy and implementation… have expertise and capacity in their commerce platform – or headless architecture… [and that] focus on their industry region.”

Following the rapid growth of ecommerce and the digitisation of services due to the pandemic, the demand for agile, full-service partners has increased from companies that require omnichannel expertise to support commerce transformation or to adapt existing business strategies around evolving customer needs.

The Forrester report states, “WPP leads with strategy and implementation as well as in Amazon and social selling.” The report gave WPP full scores in the criteria of: global or multibusiness unit commerce architectures; emerging commerce touchpoint services; commerce experiences supporting services; privacy and compliance; programme management; vision; and partner ecosystem.

The Forrester report notes, “Compared with other providers we evaluated, WPP shows strength and higher client satisfaction in commerce strategy services, emerging commerce touchpoint services, commerce experiences supporting services, and programme management… WPP is a good fit for companies seeking a global omnichannel commerce partner with expertise in helping clients navigate and monetise emerging channel options”.

WPP works in collaboration with its partners across all major commerce technology platforms including Adobe, Amazon, Alibaba, Salesforce, SAP, Shopify and Sitecore.

WPP and TikTok today announced an innovative global partnership to enable WPP agencies and clients to tap into the culture-shaping impact and reach of the platform. The partnership allows WPP clients to benefit from unique access and capabilities on the TikTok platform.

Recognising the significant opportunities for brands that both short-form video and digital content continue to present, WPP will have early access to advertising products in development, ensuring WPP and its clients remain at the forefront of innovation as TikTok further develops its suite of products for brands. This includes partnering on marketing API integrations and next-generation formats, such as augmented reality offerings. Subvrsive, a WPP company, was one of the first TikTok Effects Partners.

TikTok will also collaborate with its talented creator community to build a diverse network of creators to partner with WPP and facilitate exclusive opportunities for collaboration with select advertisers. WPP will be the Lead Agency Development Partner to new creator-focused APIs, which will incorporate WPP’s brand safety methodology while leveraging unique brand and marketer data signals. The goal of these new solutions will be to enable brands to gain deeper insights on creators, connect with diverse voices and have early access to these creators for their campaigns.

Additionally, WPP and TikTok will co-create an industry-leading training and accreditation program for WPP agencies, which will secure priority access to content tailored to media and creative disciplines. This program certifies that WPP’s talent is leading the development of best-in-class creative and media solutions on the TikTok platform.

TikTok Revenue and Usage Statistics

To further build brand safety solutions on the platform, GroupM, the media buying arm of WPP, and TikTok will continue to work on complete integration with third party verification vendors, developing meaningful first party inclusion and exclusion controls, and alignment with the GARM Brand Safety and Suitability Framework. The companies also intend to jointly conduct market-leading research to guide brands on TikTok best practices and assist them with employing data-informed strategies for driving engagement on the platform. GroupM has already engaged TikTok on niche auction training and will continue advancing buying capabilities through its large network of specialists.

Telstra today announced the rebrand of recently acquired business, Globecast Australia, to Telstra Broadcast Services, unveiling the new brand at the International Broadcasting Conference (IBC) in Amsterdam.

The move cements Telstra’s commitment to providing deeper capabilities in media services for customers in the broadcasting industry. Telstra Broadcast Services offers its global customer base media delivery over satellite platforms, including direct to home satellite transmission and IPTV managed services; IP streaming and encoding; satellite monitoring and disaster recovery. It has also developed live point-of-view miniature camera technology which is used extensively at sporting events through its Globecam business.

Martijn Blanken, Group Managing Director, Telstra Global Enterprise and Services, said, “Telstra Broadcast Services, formerly known as Globecast Australia, has built an enviable reputation ensuring its customers can deliver the quality content their users expect, quickly and effectively. When coupled with our extensive investment in Ooyala, our partnership with Akamai and our growing portfolio of specialised media products,  our decision to rebrand and clearly define our media services division is a strong indication of the strategic importance of this industry to Telstra.”

One of the first deals reached under the Telstra Broadcast Services name, has seen Network Ten renew a multi-year contract for its global content delivery via fibre.

Jason Tuendemann, Chief Technology Officer at Network Ten said, “Network Ten has entrusted the Globecast Australia team with delivery of its live, digital television for more than a decade across satellite and fibre.

“In recent years, OTT via Globestream and the Globecam miniature cameras have added new dimensions to the service provision and indeed to Ten’s interaction with audiences across news, sport and entertainment.  Telstra is also a long-standing, trusted partner of Ten and we now look forward to working with the Telstra Broadcast Services team.”

This year will also see Telstra Broadcast Services increase its Globecam live, digital devices commitment for Network Ten’s broadcast of the KFC Big Bash League, with more games than ever before.

Ever sat down to watch TV in your living room with your tablet in hand to check your favourite websites and social feeds? Only to then pull out your phone to check a text message that’s popped in?

You’re not alone! In fact, ‘Triple Screening’ is actually a fast growing Aussie trend among connected smartphone owners, as revealed in the 2014 Telstra Smartphone Index released today.

The Index – our annual study with Nielsen on smartphone ownership and usage amongst Australians – reveals 42 per cent of us are triple screeners, with 69 per cent of 16-24 year olds leading the charge.

The most popular combo for triple screening is Smartphone+TV+Laptop followed by Smartphone+TV+Tablet – and women triple screen more than men.

So what does that mean for the everyday Aussie?

As more people become multi-device owners and are engage in triple screening behavior, the more competition there is for content providers to hold the attention of viewers.

In recent times we’ve seen an explosion of content across platforms. As an example, huge increases in network traffic across AFL.com.au and NRL.com in the past year reflect a desire from sports fans to get closer to the action via a mobile device, while they’re on-the-go.

Such is the demand that last year Telstra and the NRL set up a Digital Media Unit to provide a constant stream of quality content to a growing digital audience. Meanwhile both the AFL and NRL Official Apps have notched up more than 1.3 million and 1 million respective downloads.

In fact, the Smartphone Index tells us sport consumption on smartphones in general has jumped – 44 per cent of active Smartphone users access sport content, which is up 10 per cent from 35 per cent in 2013.

To find out more about how we’re consuming more content via more screens, take a look at our 2014 Smartphone Index Whitepaper.