WPP Goes 'Bespoke' For BP; Unlockd Vs Google

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Bespoke Petroleum

BP has consolidated its corporate, fuel and castrol marketing business under WPP after an almost year-long review process. The holding company will launch a new unit called Team Energy to provide services for advertising, media, investment, digital, branding, PR and research. Talent will be sourced from Mindshare, Essence, Ogilvy and other WPP agencies. The “bespoke” agency concept is a major trend, as more clients demand the best talent from across holding company networks. “As we enter the third decade of our relationship, we have agreed on a completely new way of working to enable easy access to the best talent and ideas that WPP has to offer,” said BP communications head Geoff Morrell. Read the release.

Muscled Out

Australian startup Unlockd, which rewards consumers with data credits and loyalty points for sharing personal data, has sued Google in the UK in what amounts to an antitrust complaint, The Wall Street Journal reports. When Google threatened to remove its app from the Google Play Store in 2017, Unlockd alleges the larger company used its market dominance to choke off a threat to its ad dominance. Google declined to say why it removed Unlockd but did state that “despite having agreed at the outset to comply with our product policies, they remain in infringement today.” More.

Attributable Risk

When GDPR goes live on May 25, the most immediate change for the online advertising industry may not come from EU enforcers, who could take months, if not years, to identify and take on companies. Rather, it could come from Google’s policy change preventing marketers from using the DoubleClick ad ID outside of the Google stack. For example, the move could make agency employees disposable if they specialize in omnichannel measurement, AdAge reports. “It’s a monopolistic play that is disguised as a privacy solution,” says Anthony Iacovone, CEO of the independent attribution company Barometric. More. And, related in AdExchanger: The policy change threatens to kill off independent attribution.

All Systems Ro’

Roku stock jumped after it report earnings Wednesday afternoon, when the company beat revenue estimates due to strong growth in its platform business, the advertising and data services arm. Total revenue was up 36% year over year to $136.6 million, and it was the first quarter when the platform division exceeded “player revenue,” the streaming boxes and accessories Roku is best-known for, Deadline reports. More than 10 million of Roku’s 21 million users have either dropped cable or never had pay-TV, which founder and CEO Anthony Wood said is a valuable strategic position because those viewers “simply cannot be reached through linear TV.” More.

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