BuzzFeed Strikes First Global Agency Deal With WPP’s GroupM

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In BuzzFeed’s first major agency coup, the company struck a deal with WPP’s global media buying arm, GroupM, worth millions.

The partnership will give GroupM and WPP agencies “unprecedented access to BuzzFeed’s creative and data assets,” the companies announced Thursday.

That access includes “preferential” media pricing and becoming the first beta test partner with POUND, the technology that BuzzFeed introduced at NewFronts this year to track how and where sponsored content spreads across social channels . In addition, a dedicated team at BuzzFeed Motion Pictures will create branded videos for WPP clients.

BuzzFeed says it now reaches more than 200 million unique visitors and generates 1.5 billion video views a month.

“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,” said Rob Norman, Chief Digital Officer of GroupM. “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.”

Creative teams from WPP agencies will also be able to tap into BuzzFeed’s social content production experience through a creative residency.

“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,” said BuzzFeed president, Greg Coleman.

Neither company discussed the terms of the one-year deal other than to say that WPP will not be taking an equity stake in BuzzFeed.

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Ginny Marvin

Ginny Marvin is Third Door Media’s Editor-in-Chief, running the day to day editorial operations across all publications and overseeing paid media coverage. Ginny Marvin writes about paid digital advertising and analytics news and trends for Search Engine Land, Marketing Land and MarTech Today. With more than 15 years of marketing experience, Ginny has held both in-house and agency management positions. She can be found on Twitter as @ginnymarvin.