WPP and Waze today announces a new collaboration making it simpler for retail brands to run campaigns on Waze, the global social navigation app owned by Google, which has over 100 million monthly active drivers. The partnership, designed to direct drivers to retail locations through en route messaging, will launch in Canada, France, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States.
WPP will work with Waze to make it easier for WPP’s clients to advertise on Google and directly reach and target drivers via the in-car platform, driving store footfall and product sales.
Waze is the only app used by drivers that delivers distraction-free advertising which is contextual and corresponds with a driver’s journey. The platform also gives insight into how, when and where people are engaging with brands during their drive, providing further value to clients.
Stephan Pretorius, Chief Technology Officer at WPP, said in the press release: “WPP already brings the most creative, technology-led ideas to our clients to generate growth. Through our innovative partnership with Google, we’re now able to give clients exclusive access to Waze software that puts them in the driving seat to influence the shopping habits of the future”.
Samuel Keret, Global Director of Waze Ads, said: “We are excited about the opportunity to collaborate closely with WPP and its global client base, sharing best practice and creating optimal solutions to drive in-store foot traffic for WPP’s many consumer product clients. This is the first collaborative relationship Waze has undertaken with agency partners to explore and identify shopper marketing-specific creative solution needs”.
The initiative was developed following a Google and WPP SWARM session. SWARM is a series of regular hackathons that bring together a varied network of creative thinkers, answering client challenges with innovative solutions powered by WPP expertise and Google engineering.
