Sponsorships Still Win In Niche Sports; For AI Ads, Perplexity’s No Google

The Home Run

When every ad impression is carefully bid on and monetized, it’s hard for advertisers to score outsized wins.

Mailchimp probably wouldn’t have been able to sponsor the entire Serial podcast, which became a smash hit, if it had been possible to buy podcast ads programmatically back then.

The exception is sports.

There are always brands willing to place a bet on unusual sporting events in the hope that they have a breakout moment, like Timbersports, for example. Or remember when finance brand Ramp sponsored a motley crew of non-top players at the Masters last year, one of whom hit a hole in one and another who luckily paired with Tiger Woods on the tournament’s biggest day?

Which brings us to a piece in Marketing Brew about Tata Consultancy Services, a B2B tech services provider that now sponsors five of the seven top marathon races, plus more in the next tier.

B2B consulting is not “a sector that you get emotional or excited about,” says Tata’s Global CMO Abhinav Kumar. But marathoners appreciate their sponsor, and many of Tata’s clients and employees are runners.

The company’s analytics shows that its brand consideration among nonrunners is 27%, while 67% of B2B account targets who run races place Tata in their consideration set.

A Perplexing Situation

When generative AI search engine Perplexity launched its ad business six months ago, it was a first mover and shaker in the category. But the sheen wears off quickly. 

For one, Google is also now pushing ads into generative AI searches. And while advertisers might be intrigued by Perplexity’s offerings, including its merchant program for shopping recommendations, there are already concerns about efficiency and reach.

Perplexity gets points, however, for being “the first AI platform to make a splash with advertising” and for continuing to “lead the way in integrating commerce into the AI search process,” Debra Aho Williamson, founder and chief analyst at Sonata Insights, tells Digiday.

But its 22 million active users are no match for ChatGPT’s 400 million – or Google’s billions of AI Overviews in traditional search feeds.

That said, there is interest in being an early adopter of Perplexity among clients, says Robert Kurtz, strategic business outcomes partner at Basis Technologies. The problem is they’re not committing budgets yet because of Perplexity’s “low scale and because of its focus on awareness compared to other options,” he said.

The Name Game

GroupM has officially rebranded to WPP Media.

In an interview with Ad Age, WPP CEO Mark Read and WPP Media CEO Brian Lesser pitched the move as a way to make it clear the holdco is bringing its various agency groups under the purview of one new entity.

WPP Media will manage WPP’s $60 billion media-buying portfolio across 80 markets. WPP agencies including Mindshare, Wavemaker and EssenceMediacom will no longer operate independently, but as teams under the WPP Media umbrella.

Alongside the rebrand, WPP is also launching a B2B marketing campaign to promote its new federated AI marketing model. The model relies on data connections with many independent partners, rather than acquiring and warehousing data assets.

GroupM’s rebrand is the latest indication of how agency holding companies are reinventing themselves in light of digital marketing’s AI revolution.

The pending merger between Omnicom and IPG knocks WPP off its pedestal as the largest agency holdco by revenue. Plus, WPP’s revenue shrank 1% in 2024. But WPP sees an opportunity for a fresh start with buyers demanding more AI capabilities from their agency partners, Lesser tells Ad Age.

“Clients care less about the brand on the door,” Lesser says, “and more about the people that work for their business and the technology that’s powering our operations.”

But Wait! There’s More

Horizon Media has RFPs out for vendors in a plan to build a partner network behind its Blu marketing platform. [Ad Age]

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei says AI companies are “sugarcoating” the truth, which is that AI could wipe out half of white-collar jobs and spike US unemployment. [Axios]

SEO remains relevant for web publishers despite the rise of AI. [Search Engine Journal]

Netflix Co-Founder Reed Hastings joins Anthropic’s board of directors. [TechCrunch] 

You’re Hired!

David Droga is stepping down from his role as CEO of creative consultancy Accenture Song. Ndidi Oteh, the current Accenture Song Americas lead, will take over as CEO in September. [Adweek]

AI video platform Waymark brings on Michael Tuminello as director of product. [release]

AdLib adds Kenton Nguyen, Pragya Bharti and Calvin D’Souza as strategic account managers, and Andrew Jaquez and Katelyn Smith as campaign managers. [release]

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