Tencent inks global-level partnership with Publicis

Latest deal with Publicis includes cultivating startups, investing in content and sharing behavioural data.

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Tencent's Lau and Publicis' Levy scanned a WeChat QR code together

On Friday, Publicis Groupe signed a strategic partnership with Tencent.

The partnership with Publicis, agreed at the Viva Technology Paris event, is said by the two companies to the first-of-its-kind collaboration across Publicis's three units (Publicis Media, Publicis Communications and Publicis Sapient) and all of Tencent's 11 products.

Maurice Levy, chairman and CEO of Publicis Groupe, and SY Lau, senior executive vice president of Tencent and president of its Online Media Group business, marked the partnership with the scanning of a WeChat QR code during a signing ceremony.

Through this partnership, Publicis and Tencent will jointly launch a 'drugstore' incubation facility to curate, invest in and cultivate startups offering data, ad tech, VR and AR.

The two companies will also partner on the co-creation of and co-investment in web-native content to drive new content models for key clients.

At the same time, Tencent will offer Publicis agencies access to online behavioral data on its users.

The agreement follows an announcement two days earlier of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Tencent and WPP's founder and CEO, Martin Sorrell, signed on the sidelines of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, to establish a 'China Social Marketing Lab'.

The lab is a strategic alliance to advance social innovation and ideation, according to the two companies, through knowledge sharing of technology, analytics and creative input.

Davis Lin, vice president of Tencent, pointed to campaigns for QQ and Weixin/WeChat platforms as beneficiaries in the global partnership.