Snapchat, WPP and DailyMail Launch Content Marketing Agency

Snapchat has partnered with WPP Group and the Daily Mail to establish a content marketing company that promises to deliver the best of ‘global agency, newsroom and social media talent combined’. The announcement was made at an exclusive press conference at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

The new company called Truffle Pig, will offer brands reach through content creation, video production, social media management, insights and analytics. The 12-person agency will be run by Alexander Jutkowitz, managing partner of Group SJR, as a tri-party venture.

WPP chief executive (CEO) Sir Martin Sorrell, alongside Snapchat’s CEO, Evan Spiegel, and Daily Mail’s North American CEO Jon Steinberg, spoke about the reasons behind the partnership and the overall shift in demand of online content.

“The industry has been under a number of pressures including slow growth but with a heavy focus on the top line. Clients are looking for ROI in different ways and we’ve seen the development of new approaches in the technology and content area. This is another development. It is the evolution of the media agency and we want to create a roadmap for the entire industry because it will help us all,” said Sorrell.

From left to right: Jutkowitz, Spiegel, Steinberg and Sorrell at press event, Cannes. 

Truffle Pig will use DailyMail.com and Snapchat as test beds for original concepts in story-driven marketing, but its content and services will extend to any digital properties the client brands wish to market on. The content marketing company will work closely with Snapchat to create best of breed “3v” (vertical video view) ads on Snapchat.

“A truffle pig finds the rare and tasty. With the need for story-driven marketing on our sites and those of other media companies, and new ad formats like Snapchat, brands need a truffle pig,” said Steinberg.

Meanwhile, while Snapchat’s Spiegel was present at the press event, his words were but a few: “This was so obvious we had to do it.”