Yahoo and WPP Announce Ad Sales Tie-up

WPP Group has forged a strategic partnership with Yahoo allowing its digital agencies to buy display ads more efficiently through Yahoo’s Right Media Exchange. The relationship is in line with Yahoo’s mission to foster stronger bonds with advertisers, agencies and other media firms in the hopes of becoming the Web’s largest ad network.

According to the agreement, WPP will develop a propriety trading platform which will link directly to Yahoo’s ad exchange, and integrate targeting technology from 24/7 Real Media, WPP’s recently acquired network.

“Linking our technology with Yahoo’s Right Media Exchange will enable us to create a trading platform tailored to the bespoke needs of advertisers,” said Jonathan Hsu, COO, 24/7 Real Media.

“Advertisers will be able to use the scale that the platform will create to offer targeted capabilities and far more efficient buying,” he continued.

In addition, WPP will work with Yahoo to develop a marketplace, encompassing inventory from both Yahoo-owned and affiliated networks, and 24/7 Real Media’s Global Web Alliance, which consists of over 1,500 sites, according to Hsu. The “WPP Marketplace” would also be open to third party publishers.

Although Hsu could not specify when the platform will roll out, he said the majority of work for the platform had already been “scoped out,” by 24/7’s team of 100 developers.

Presumably Yahoo is not obliged to work exclusively with WPP in terms of custom platform offerings, meaning it potentially could provide similar solutions for other agencies or ad networks in order to further extend its access to advertisers.

Similarly, Hsu hinted at other possible partnerships for WPP, perhaps with the likes of Microsoft-owned Drivepm. “Since 24/7 was acquired, we have been in constant dialogue with all major technology companies, and remain committed to all media,” he said.

Though Microsoft indicated it is no longer interested in acquiring Yahoo, the Sunnyvale firm remains embroiled in a battle for influence over its board of directors. The latest has activist investor Carl Icahn proposing an alternate Yahoo board, aiming to continue pushing for a Microsoft takeover.