Back to the future: AI brings the agency world full circle

WPP-backed The&Partnership is today formally combining with its media buying and planning agency mSix&Partners, to create a new fully-integrated agency with AI at its heart, under the new global brand T&Pm.

AI is transforming marketing communications, from the creation of content to its deployment and
optimisation, but the siloed nature of the marketing industry limits its adoption. T&P
m promises to ‘connect talent and tech to fuel brand growth’, combining capabilities across creative and media, experience and technology, to offer the kind of genuinely end-to-end marketing solutions it has already
built for the likes of Toyota and News Corp.

Founder and CEO Johnny Hornby said: “Looking back, I’m not sure whose idea it was for our industry to
separate creative and media agencies, but I’m sure the motives were more profit - than client-driven. If
that separation ever made any sense, it certainly doesn’t today. Modern brands need to connect the
dots, brilliant creative thinking can’t be divorced from the smart media systems that bring it to life, all of
which can now be personalised at scale by breakthroughs in AI.

“AI’s power really is at a pivot point for our industry, but will only be harnessed by a much more holistic approach. Combining our unique model with WPP’s £250m annual AI investment, means T&Pm will be well placed to help our clients seize this opportunity.”

The move is the next evolution in The&Partnership’s long-term strategy to provide clients with uniquely
integrated, agnostic answers to their marketing challenges and it will unite two already thriving agencies.
The&Partnership is one of the world’s fastest growing creative networks, more than doubling revenues
over the last five years through innovative partnerships with major clients like Mars, Toyota, NatWest,
TELUS and News Corp.

Similarly mSix&Partners, a joint venture with GroupM, has quickly established itself as one of WPP’s
fastest growing media agencies, with deep expertise in performance-led solutions for clients including EA, easyJet, and PVH’s Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger.

T&Pm will now build on this momentum, applying its independent Partner-led mindset to WPP’s
market-leading AI platforms, to effectively become WPP’s AI ‘speedboat’, and accelerate growth across
its entire roster of clients. 1,900 people, spanning four continents with 45 offices worldwide, the new combined company will be operational from Monday 25 March 2024.