Omniture Gets Cozy with WPP

Omniture dropped news today of its newly minted partnership with the WPP Group. WPP is the second largest media conglomerate on the planet and not a bad dance partner for OMTR.

The partnership involves three key facets:

1) An investment by WPP into Omniture to the tune of $25M. This gives WPP a 3.5% stake in Omniture.

2) A commitment to joint development of new technologies and integration of existing solutions. This will include integration of some WPP assets into the Genesis platform and potentially new offerings.

3) An educational component that includes training 500 WPP consultants on OMTR products.

Here are a few thoughts on why this is a strong play:

It’s good for Omniture because:

WPP brings marquee advertising brands like Gray, Ogilvy, Y&R Advertising and Wunderman which will all have exposure to Omniture’s suite of optimization products.

They have the opportunity to train 500 new consultants on their products; thereby elevating the accessibility of OMTR trained experts.

Omniture just gained 130 new resellers.

Their visibility into advertising analytics just increased exponentially with a slew of new integrations to the Genesis platform.

WPP derived $4 billion worth of revenue from consumer insights. If OMTR gets even a sliver of this business, expect their market cap to rise.

It reaffirms their solid placement as a leading vendor in the optimization space, despite their recent hiccups and bad press.

It’s good for WPP Group because:

They can benefit from the increased knowledge of customer insights that OMTR provides.

It expands their research capabilities by incorporating the business optimization intelligence that OMTR delivers.

It brings a foundation for measurement and accountability to marketing activities conducted by agencies. Clients can monitor success through a hosted 3rd party tool that is configured to demonstrate results.

It provides a foray into new business opportunities for WPP companies.

It’s potentially good for the Marketing industry because:

We may start to see some common analytics definitions and standards that both advertisers and site operators can agree on.

It elevates the practical use and understanding of optimization technologies to a wider audience. This offers the potential for more companies to reach out to their agencies for help performing analysis and making the jump from data to action.

Okay, so when you tally it all up, it appears that Omniture should be all smiles about this deal. And they are…

I had the chance to speak with Aseem Chandra today (Omniture’s SVP of Product Marketing). When I asked…”Why the $25 mil? From an outsider’s perspective, it seems like you could have established this partnership without any financial terms.” He responded that the investment was proof of commitment to ensure that WPP had some skin in the game. Aseem went on to say that the investment also ensured that both parties would advance the partnership and develop mutually profitable solutions that would in turn aid their clients in achieving success. He was clear that the partnership does not preclude Omniture from forming relationships with other agencies, so the door is still open for more expansive agency relationships. That said, WPP retains the option to purchase more shares if undisclosed performance goals are achieved.

So, congrats to Omniture and let’s hope this new partnership bears innovation that benefits the entire analytics industry and moves us forward.