IPG Just Splurged $100 Million on a Retail Data Firm — Here’s Exactly What It Gained

Interpublic Group is betting on commerce and retail media.

The holding company has agreed to acquire retail analytics firm Intelligence Node. Exact terms were not disclosed, but the acquisition is valued at $100 million, which includes the price of the deal and the costs to scale Intelligence Node.

Intelligence Node’s 120 employees will become part of IPG’s data arm, Kinesso.

Mumbai-based Intelligence Node provides data that helps brands and retailers understand what products are in-stock at retailers, as well as market prices across 34 markets and more than one billion products. The firm claims to refresh its data showing the availability of products every 10 seconds, said Jarrod Martin, CEO of Kinesso and Acxiom, IPG’s engineering and data arms.

The data helps brands determine which retailers they should sell products in and how to price products relative to their competitors. It also informs decisions make decisions about where to spend their retail ad dollars and when to change the messaging and copy on ads, Martin continued.

For example, an apparel brand might be out of stock at Bloomingdale’s but be in stock at Macy’s. The brand might increase its ad spend with Macy’s to promote its items and drive sales, based off of Intelligence Node’s data. A brand could also change the URL on a digital ad to direct traffic to Macys.com.

“It could inform where you push consumers to buy products,” Martin said. “It could inform the price point on the website; it could inform the price point in the advertisement that’s trying to get consumers to that website.”

Intelligence Node’s core clients are retailers, and the goal of the acquisition is to connect them with IPG’s thousands of advertisers. 

“That’s where we think we can create net-new gains for both IPG and our clients—offering this data source to brands, as opposed to just to the retailers,” Martin said.

Agencies bet big on commerce

IPG is the latest holding company to make a big investment in commerce.

Publicis Groupe acquired commerce agency Mars United Commerce in September and also owns e-commerce data firm Profitero and retail media platform CitrusAd. Omnicom acquired commerce firm Flywheel Digital for $835 million last year. 

IPG’s investment in commerce comes as it scales back in other areas of the ad business. On Thursday (Dec. 5), the same day it announced the Intelligence Node acquisition, the holding company sold experience design and technology agency Huge to a private equity firm. It also sold off creative agencies Hill Holliday and Deutsch New York earlier this year.

The holding company is reshaping its portfolio as it trails competitors in market performance. IPG posted a 2.9% revenue drop in Q3, compared to Publicis Groupe’s 5.8% growth, Omnicom’s 6.5% growth and WPP’s roughly flat quarter. 

Jay Pattisall, vp and lead analyst at Forrester, said IPG’s acquisition is, “a move that is designed to keep up with their competitors and peers.”

“The big picture is making media more measurable,” he said.