GroupM will trial its native advertising platform with brands and publishers this side of Christmas, with global clients the first brands off the mark.
WPP bought native ad platform Plista in January. The group has rolled out the platform in Northern European countries with the UK about to launch the service.
In Australia, GroupM last week held 28 meetings with brands, agencies and publishers regarding Plista, which will focus on native advertising on main media sites, such as News and Fairfax titles, and brands' own websites and other owned assets.
The native platform will initially see GroupM amplify existing content for brands and publishers, although it is understood that the WPP-owned unit will then move into content creation.
“Plista right now doesn't offer content creation. But GroupM will be moving into that space,” said chief investment and intelligence officer Danny Bass. “If media agencies don't offer these services then somebody else will.”
Bass would not be drawn on the business model, nor what kind of a cut GroupM will take, but said that the Plista launch was part of a three-pronged approach by the holding group to better leverage its technology platforms.
The group's trading desk partner, Xaxis, was moving to become “a pure audience play,” said Bass, that is “premium audience across all media that can be transacted in a programmatic fashion based on audience.”
Meanwhile Plista, which is about “premium positioning but sold on a performance metric,” would complement the third plank, called Quisma. Another Germany-based firm that WPP acquired in 2007, Bass said Quisma was “all about performance: guaranteed outcomes across search, affiliate marketing, EDMs and performance display.”
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