WPP Media has developed a Buyer Agent for Video Buying as part of its Agentic Standards Initiative. The initiative has brought together media owners, technology platforms, and industry bodies to create standards for communication, validation, and execution between buyer and seller agents in TV and video advertising.
The company has stated that the Buyer Agent has been developed within WPP Open and operates through its Agentic Activation Orchestration Layer. The initiative has initially focused on linear TV, connected TV, and premium video environments, where transaction workflows and governance requirements remain complex.
WPP Media has collaborated with Comcast Advertising and its adtech platform FreeWheel, Disney Advertising, Fox Advertising, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Paramount, IAB Tech Lab, and Prebid.org to define technical, workflow, and governance standards for agentic media buying. The collaboration has focused on areas including audience discovery, inventory evaluation, planning recommendations, proposal and approval workflows, activation processes, measurement, reconciliation, compliance checks, and audit trails.
The company has said that the initiative has aimed to establish common standards that support advertisers, agencies, and media owners while reducing fragmentation across the industry. Initial testing with participating partners has already begun, with broader findings and proposed standards expected to be shared in early 2027.
Brian Lesser, CEO, WPP Media, said, “Two decades ago, the move to programmatic marked a fundamental change in how media was bought and sold. We expect agentic media to have an even bigger impact on our industry in the months and years ahead. The companies that lead this next era will be the ones that combine intelligence, interoperability, and governance to define how media decisions are made. That’s what we are building with our partners: a trusted buyer-agent strategy designed to operate in our clients’ interests, maximize the value of their media investments, deepen consumer relationships, and translate intelligence into growth.”
James Rooke, President, Comcast Advertising, said, “Against the backdrop of uncertainty that comes from the emergence of any new technology wave, it’s critical the industry focuses its efforts on architecting the right, scalable blueprint for an agentic future that delivers for marketers. WPP Media’s Agentic Standards Initiative is an important step towards creating this future and aligns well our long-held philosophy on supporting initiatives that prioritize transparency, trust and industry interoperability.”
Jamie Power, Senior Vice President, Addressable Sales, Disney Advertising, said, “The future of media buying isn’t just automated – it’s intelligent, interoperable, and outcome-driven. The real opportunity is giving buyer and seller agents a common foundation to make better decisions, faster, while preserving the trust and accountability premium advertising demands. We’re excited to work with WPP Media and industry partners to help establish the standards that will unlock the next generation of premium video advertising.”
Jeff Collins, President, Advertising Sales, Marketing and Brand Partnerships, Fox Corporation, said, “We’re pleased to partner with Brian and his team at WPP Media to help advance industry standards for agentic media buying. Establishing a shared framework for transparency, interoperability, and governance will be key to scaling innovation across premium video.”
Travis Scoles, EVP, Advanced Advertising, Paramount, said, “Paramount’s continued and increasing investment in driving innovation extends through our partners. We are excited to work with WPP to leverage frontier technologies like agentic AI, pushing forward new ways for buyers and sellers to collaborate for the benefit of brand marketers and the future of TV advertising.”
Anthony Katsur, CEO, IAB Tech Lab, said, “IAB Tech Lab is delighted to work with WPP Media to establish new technical standards and enhance existing ones that will define how agentic advertising scales across the industry. We’re excited that the Tech Lab’s Agentic Ad Management Protocols (AAMP) have served as an important reference for WPP Media’s Buyer Agent, demonstrating how open, interoperable standards can enable buyer and seller agents to communicate, validate, transact, and operate within trusted governance frameworks. We look forward to collaborating with WPP and the broader ecosystem to reduce fragmentation, strengthen transparency, and build the technical foundation for responsible, scalable agentic media buying.”
Mike Racic, President, Prebid.org, said, “As agentic technologies reshape digital advertising, the industry has a unique opportunity to build a more transparent, interoperable, and efficient ecosystem. ADCP is an important foundation for that future, enabling trusted communication between buyers and sellers at scale. We’re excited to work alongside WPP and other industry leaders to advance these efforts and, through the Prebid Sales Agent, help drive the open standards and innovation that will shape the next generation of digital advertising.”
