RE: WPP14 Jun 2026 10:08
Look I know this is conjecture, but.
CIQ is deathly, and frustratingly silent. The only tangible things we’ve been told about it are its integrated into Iris.tv, partnered with Magnite and a Pubmatic, says it’s been in discussions, pilots and tests since May last year, and sees white labelling as a capital lite route to scale. But in Feb we saw a tangible uptick in social media comms, hires, and a revamped website.
Equally Pubx. Hardly anything at all to note it’s huge pivot to an agentic marketplace, again in Feb, but an absolutely huge hiring drive since following a total overhaul to its site.
For me there is much greater linkage between the Pubx marketplace and CIQ than has been disclosed, for a variety of reasons I’ve done to death on here for over 18 months. In fact, I think there’s a huge degree of coordination between two companies acting as a pseudo group.
So why are they both so quiet? Well, I think all the discussions, tests and pilots CIQ has talked about weren’t just about using it, but to use it through the Pubx marketplace within which it’s embedded. That was the beta testing. I think that all ended in Feb with the launch of first live campaigns. Pubx would certainly not have plastered the new marketplace all over its new site unless they had determined its viability as an offering following months of build and tests beforehand.
So, that then leads us to who these first campaigns are for. We don’t know, and we don’t even know if anything I’m musing about here is true. Might all be rubbish.
But if there are first campaigns, then there is now a much better chance it’s with WPP. We know the value they see in CTV contextual targeting and so it stands to reason they will have been testing and piloting solutions over exactly the same period DH told us we were in tests/pilots.
And if it is WPP, using Pubx as a central marketplace solution, then the numbers here become potentially staggering.
CIQ will be paid a % take rate, being a % of the spend it provides signals for.
I believe that’s typically between 1-3%.
Just think what the annual WPP CTV ad spend is, and what miniscule % amount of that CIQ would need to “touch” in order to generate many £millions of revenue at what will be very high margin.
The silence is deafening. It’s either because all has gone terribly wrong, or because it’s all gone monumentally right. Given all the history and signalling since Feb, my money is very much on the latter and I can see a huge uptick in revenue and SP round the corner.
All just my views - ignore as you will!
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