WPP expands AI partnership with Google

WPP has expanded its cloud and AI partnership with Google, integrating Earth AI models and datasets into its WPP Open marketing platform.

The move positions the company among the first in the media and marketing services sector to embed Google’s planetary-scale geospatial intelligence into its core operating system for marketing.

The integration follows a broader collaboration announced in October 2025 and is designed to connect digital consumer data with real-world environmental signals such as traffic patterns, weather conditions and local movement trends. WPP says this approach enables a more immediate understanding of how physical contexts influence consumer behaviour and purchasing decisions.

WPP integrates Google Earth AI into marketing platform

The company estimates that more than 80 percent of retail sales still occur offline, underscoring the importance of linking digital marketing data with physical-world conditions. Through Earth AI models, WPP Open can now analyse population dynamics and environmental factors to support more localised marketing decisions.

Stephan Pretorius, Chief Technology Officer at WPP: “Google Earth AI brings together a whole universe of datasets representing the physical world into a single foundation model that for the first time, allows us to make decisions in an entirely new way. As an industry, we have had access to enormous amounts of digital data to understand human dynamics, trends and what content people consume. But people don't just live in the digital world – they live in the physical world. By integrating this foundational physical-world data with our marketing data, we are changing the way the marketing industry thinks about consumer journeys.”

Yael Maguire, VP and GM, Google Maps Platform and Google Earth: “Google Earth AI brings together our decades of modeling the world, along with Gemini’s advanced reasoning, to help businesses achieve much deeper insights about the planet. WPP is using Earth AI datasets in novel ways that can transform industries, and we’re proud to help drive impact for their clients.”

The system is built on WPP’s Open Intelligence framework, which is designed to enable privacy-first data collaboration while keeping client data secure. According to the company, the integration supports more predictive and automated marketing decisions at a hyper-local level.

AI-driven audience intelligence and planning tools

WPP says the expanded capability will support three main areas of application: audience intelligence, predictive media planning, and production workflows.

In audience intelligence, Earth AI data is combined with behavioural signals to map consumer activity against environmental and societal indicators. In sectors such as insurance, this could include using weather and population data to anticipate risk patterns and support proactive customer communication.

In media planning, WPP is applying geospatial datasets to validate campaign targeting at a local level. The company cited an automotive case study in which it developed an Electric Vehicle Readiness Index using Google Maps Platform data and population insights. The index informed media buying decisions and delivered a 77 percent performance improvement versus a standard approach, alongside a 15 percent lower cost per conversion.

In production workflows, WPP is using location-based data to support culturally specific creative development. Its Cultural Insights tool, built within WPP Open, uses Google Maps and imagery data to identify trends in more than 100 cities and generate locally relevant content.

The partnership also extends into logistics applications through WPP-owned Satalia, using real-time mapping data to improve route optimisation and delivery planning for enterprise clients.

www.wpp.com

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