IBM Watson's Data-Crunching Gains Traction with Marketing Firms

Employing IBM IBM 0.26 % 's artificial intelligence technology has become a popular move for brands seeking to make better use of data in their marketing efforts. Havas HAV 0.33 % Group this week is officially unveiling Havas Cognitive, a new practice in partnership with IBM Watson, to help clients develop tailored marketing campaigns and products. Separately, startup Equals 3 on Wednesday is launching a new software product dubbed Lucy that utilizes Watson's cognitive computing capabilities to make the media planning process more efficient for marketers and agencies. That follows earlier announcements by Turner Broadcasting, which earlier this year signed a deal to incorporate Watson into its ad sales efforts, and Kia Motors, 000270 -0.11 % which used Watson to select social media influencers for its Super Bowl ad campaign. Watson, which gained fame after beating top human competitors on "Jeopardy" five years ago, analyzes troves of data to uncover patterns that humans might miss.