Publicis Groupe has signed a global partnership with Chinese Internet "behemoth" and WeChat Owner Tencent, according to Rebecca Stewart of THE DRUM. The holding group's deal with Tencent "will give it access to a large amount of behavioural data" with the aim of providing Publicis clients with "improved programmatic offerings, cross-screen planning capabilities and conversion performance." Tencent owns messaging app WeChat, which "lays claim to 760 million monthly users." It also owns digital platform QQ which has 860 million users, "these two assets alone" could give Publicis Groupe a potential audience of 1.6 billion consumers. The agreement is "the first-of-its-kind collaboration" across a global advertising firm and all 11 products of Tencent, and is also the first deal to "transcend the French-based group's three division -- Publicis Media, Publicis Communications and Publicis.Sapient." Both businesses "will co-create and co-invest on advertising content for brands, and will also launch a 'Drugstore' startup incubation offering" (THE DRUM, 7/2).
