• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, July 2, 2014

At a time when much of the ad industry seems preoccupied with so-called “Big Data,” WPP data unit Kantar is investing in visualizing data in order to make it more accessible and meaningful to the people who use it. Kantar this morning announced the acquisition of Guardian Digital Agency, a London-based digital shop specializing in “data visualization, site design and interactive development.”

GDA, which has been part of the U.K.’s Guardian News & Media group, will be renamed “Graphic.” The 13-person shop will operate as a stand-alone unit, marketing its services both internally to WPP units and their clients as well as to unrelated external clients.

The company will continue to be run by Managing Director Emma Whitehead and directors Adam Frost, John Loder and Tobias Sturt.

Kantar said it “many” of its 12 companies had already been working with GAD to increase the value of their data via better visualization techniques, which Kantar Creative Director Aziz Cami describes as a form of “storytelling.”