• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, August 26, 2014

Millward Brown, a WPP company, announced Tuesday the acquisition of InsightExpress, which focuses on media analytics for brand marketers.

The InsightExpress acquisition builds out Millward Brown's cross-platform advertising measurement capabilities across digital, mobile and TV. "We wanted to accelerate the development of our platform," said Stephen DiMarco, president, Millward Brown Digital. "There's little overlap between the clients. The acquisition doubles the size of our presence."

Millward Brown acquired Compete in 2008, and Dynamic Logic in 2005, to provide marketers an understanding of how digital fits in to their branding, marketing and advertising initiatives by analyzing insights from consumer shopping behavior, making the connection with media.

InsightExpress, founded in 1999, will fold into Millward Brown Digital. The company's unaudited revenue, ending Dec. 31, 2013, was $26.4 million. About 100 employees support more than 200 media companies, ad agencies and client marketers such as Google, Microsoft, and NBCUniversal. The company also gains support for programmatic advertising measurement capabilities.

Aside from the technology and the clients, Millward Brown gains a leadership team with deep media and research experience. Co-CEOs Drew Lipner and Marc Ryan will join the Millward Brown Digital leadership team led by Stephen DiMarco, who transitions into the role of president from CMO. He takes responsibility for solutions, technology and talent.

Millward Brown -- part of Kantar -- provides insights and analytics around digital media, including search engine marketing campaigns. The company benchmarks activities in the funnel to demonstrate the impact of a search impression, although it does not run campaigns. The search ad may not immediately result in a conversion, but it becomes part of the strategy.

Millward Brown's parent company WPP has made 43 acquisitions this year, WPP CEO Martin Sorrell said during a call with analysts. Past acquisitions have added between 2% and 3% to WPP’s annual revenue growth. Millward Brown's 2013 revenue exceeded $1 billion in 2013.

WPP also said Tuesday that its GroupM division has agreed to acquire Keyade, a digital search marketing agency in France.