Indiantelevision.com Team

(13 July 2006 8:00 pm)

MUMBAI: WPP and online social networking service LiveWorld, Inc., have announced a joint venture to provide online community and social networking services to brands worldwide through WPP's global networks.

The 50-50 venture LiveWorld-WPP will be exclusively dedicated to collaborating with WPP agencies to offer, create and deploy LiveWorld's online community and social networking services as marketing venues for WPP's clients on a global basis, informs an official release.

WPP strategy director and wpp.com CEO Mark Read says, "Online communities and social networking are starting to offer significant opportunities to forward-thinking marketers. LiveWorld is a pioneer in its category and a proven leader with twenty years of experience in building online communities. They are an excellent choice for us to partner with to provide WPP clients with the most compelling and comprehensive community solutions available in the market."

"Major brands worldwide are embracing online community as the basic marketing construct of the new generation," says LiveWorld Chairman and CEO Peter Friedman. "Combining the depth of LiveWorld's online community experience and solutions with WPP's scope, scale of services and expansive client portfolio brings a new level of marketing power to the leading brands of the world."

The two companies have collaborated on projects in the past, most recently on Dove's Campaign For Real Beauty from WPP's Ogilvy Interactive unit, which won Adweek's 2005 Interactive Agency of the Year award, adds the release.