With the goal of improving the effectiveness of branding and performance marketing, the agreement also provides an exploratory framework for future collaboration between the two by leveraging both sides’ resources in data management and data application.
According to Sidney Song, VivaKi’s general manager of data solutions, the absence of a single view of fragmented data makes understanding users and target audiences the biggest challenge for advertisers in terms of generating valuable insights for effective media planning.
Tencent will share its pool of data, collected from numerous internal sources, with VivaKi's DMP, which Song believed will resolve the above problem. The agreement will ultimately benefit all the clients who work with Publicis Groupe agencies in China, in particular those of Starcom Mediavest Group (SMG) and ZenithOptimedia.
ZenithOptimedia China CEO Mykim Chikli added that programmatic buying has been established for many years in the US and Europe markets, in part due to close cooperation with key media publishers.
This partnership with Tencent is a “huge step forward” for China's programmatic progress, she said.
SMG China and Tencent joined forces last year in a separate strategic partnership that gives SMG clients preferred access to Tencent's offerings.