At an investor day in April, CEO Mark Penn introduced that Stagwell was testing a partnership with Palantir to discover whether or not the controversial AI agency’s expertise can enhance efficiency media focusing on.
On Stagwell’s second quarter earnings name final week, Penn elaborated barely on the partnership, telling traders that the businesses are working to “develop state-of-the-art information focusing on” expertise inside Stagwell’s ID Graph, leveraging structured and unstructured information from throughout its community.
In an interview with ADWEEK following the earnings name, Penn defined how Stagwell is testing Palantir’s AI on its inner information platforms equivalent to BERA, an AI-powered model insights platform that conducts 50,000 shopper interviews weekly, and advertising analysis agency Nationwide Analysis Group (NRG), which tracks leisure and media habits. That information is then fed into methods like Stage, Meeting’s media planning and shopping for platform, to gasoline higher media outcomes.
“How do they take our structured and unstructured information and enhance the focusing on out of that?” Penn mentioned of Palantir.
Penn mentioned Stagwell is piloting the expertise with a single consumer for now and can assess a broader rollout from there. He described the collaboration as a managed trial: “You get a profitable drug, and then you definitely go to market.”
Whereas Palantir’s AI is presently being examined inside Stage, its integration into Stagwell’s broader ID Graph system has not but begun—although that’s the final word purpose. “If they will [enhance targeting], we’ll then talk about how one can take the partnership to a different degree,” Penn mentioned.
The collaboration started roughly three months in the past and is being led by a brand new cross-agency tech group at Stagwell, which incorporates current rent Slavi Samardzija, the previous CEO of Omnicom’s Annalect and one of many architects of its Omni platform, alongside chief AI officer John Kahan, former Accenture govt Mansoor Basha, and former Microsoft exec Elspeth Rollert.
Individually, Stagwell is creating an AI platform referred to as The Machine, which centralizes and automates workflows and content material creation and permits groups to watch efficiency in the identical interface. Penn mentioned the long-term purpose is to permit shoppers to question marketing campaign efficiency, timelines, and artistic property straight by means of the platform.
A Polarizing Companion
Palantir is finest recognized for its authorities work—together with its contracts with the U.S. Division of Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the Inner Income Service (IRS). Its reported involvement in constructing a centralized “mega-database” of delicate U.S. citizen info beneath the Trump Administration has drawn scrutiny from lawmakers over potential privateness violations.
The agency additionally works with business shoppers together with Airbus, BP, Merck, and Ferrari, serving to them combine information to optimize operations—although its authorities enterprise stays the vast majority of its income.
Palantir’s intensive position in surveillance and regulation enforcement has made the corporate a lightning rod in debates over using military-grade AI in business settings. On Stagwell’s Q1 earnings name in March, Penn described the trouble as “creating superior military-grade focusing on to reinforce the utilization of Stagwell’s distinctive datasets.”
Penn underscored that Stagwell is solely utilizing Palantir’s tech to higher leverage its personal proprietary advertising information. Stagwell declined to touch upon whether or not it has considerations about working with a controversial accomplice like Palantir, or how company workers may understand the collaboration.
Whereas different holding firms like Omnicom, WPP, and Publicis have constructed proprietary AI platforms—Omni, WPP Open, and Marcel, respectively—Stagwell is the one holding firm to publicly accomplice with Palantir.
Penn mentioned additional updates on the partnership are anticipated later this 12 months.
Palantir didn’t reply to ADWEEK’s request for remark.
