Tag: GroupM

Manila, Philippines – Building on their recent partnership agreements in Indonesia and Malaysia, media investment company GroupM and global outdoor advertising technology provider Moving Walls have partnered anew to bring automation and accountability to Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) advertising across the Philippines.

The latest collaboration enables GroupM Philippines’ agencies to leverage Moving Walls’ Moving Audiences, an end-to-end audience data-driven planning, buying, and verification solution for DOOH media. Moving Walls has developed a comprehensive technology stack including a DOOH planning tool that predicts audiences based on the most recent movement trends. The Moving Audiences platform has already been used to execute campaigns for multiple GroupM clients.

According to Moving Walls, a majority of DOOH inventory in the Philippines is already connected to this ecosystem by Location Media Xchange (LMX), the supply-focused subsidiary of the Moving Walls group. 

Yasmin Mallari, chief investment officer at GroupM Philippines, stated, “There is no doubt that DOOH’s role in the omnichannel mix will continue to grow as the potential reach of this medium is now across locations where consumers commute, work, eat, reside, and more. Brand investments will also grow when there is accountability around where the ads are being served and how campaigns perform. This partnership enables us to enrich our suite of offerings in DOOH planning and extend further measurement capabilities to our clients.”

Meanwhile, Norman Davadilla, CEO of Moving Walls Philippines, highlighted how this partnership will continue to transform DOOH media in the Philippines. 

He said, “Philippines is a regional DOOH leader where both the buy and sell side industry associations have launched initiatives to implement common measurement standards. We have partnered GroupM in other markets and are excited to extend these capabilities to brands in the Philippines.”

The partnership with GroupM comes less than a year after Moving Walls partnered with the Out-of-Home Advertising Association of the Philippines (OHAAP) to scale the data-driven OOH industry in the country for further growth.

Sydney, Australia – Finecast, GroupM’s addressable TV business, has partnered with Australian broadcaster Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) to make connected TV (CTV) advertising better, and help advertisers reach bigger audiences through BVOD campaigns.

The partnership, which is done also with Xandr, will utilise the strength of ‘Header Bidding’ technology on CTV campaigns, representing a positive shift in the access capabilities for addressable TV, whilst maintaining the benefits of buying flexibility.

The ‘Header Bidding’ technology has long been a part of the digital media ecosystem creating a fairer and more competitive programmatic marketplace for publishers. This provides increased access to inventory for buyers and greater transparency and visibility of available inventory for marketers. By allowing advance bidding on inventory from multiple ad exchanges simultaneously, header bidding reduces the inefficiencies of a sequential waterfall approach.

John Miskelly, APAC investment director at GroupM, said, “This is an exciting development in the connected TV/OTT video space where we can harness the agility and addressability of programmatic and have access to the best inventory. The broadcasters are doing a great job as TV transforms, and SBS and Finecast are demonstrating true best practice for access and innovation in the CTV ecosystem.”

Meanwhile, Lee Callagher, national digital operations and technology manager at SBS, commented, “Being able to prioritise both direct and programmatic demand whilst maintaining our premium ad experience is important for SBS’ future commercial strategy. Working with Finecast to successfully bring ‘Header Bidding’ to connected TV enables greater scale and reach for advertisers in BVOD.”

Vietnam – GroupM, a WPP media investment group, has elevated media agency veteran Nitin Kumar to the role of chief investment officer at GroupM Vietnam. Kumar will be based in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam and will assume the position on 1st July 2022, taking over the reins previously held by Huyen Trinh.

Formerly the Principal Partner of Products at GroupM Indonesia, Kumar has spent more than one and a half decades immersed in the media and marketing industry. From client leadership to trading, investment, general management and most recently, products development, Nitin accumulated a wealth of experience across key remits at the world’s biggest media investment company including significant tenures at GroupM agencies – Wavemaker and Mediacom.

Nitin has worked with a star-studded roster of clients including P&G, Heinz, Coca-Cola, Wipro, Airtel, Del Monte and many other brands across India, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

Nitin will report to both Himanshu Shekhar, CEO of GroupM Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam as well as Anita Munro, GroupM’s chief investment officer for Southeast and North Asia, who also chairs the APAC Investment Committee.

Commenting on his appointment, Kumar said, “I am thrilled to join GroupM Vietnam whose roster of local and global advertisers makes for an eyewatering portfolio. Together with my investment team, I look forward to leaning into our local and regional partners to create differentiated and market-leading advantage for brands. We will help our clients unlock even more premium content, data, and first-look rights as well as offer beta testing and priority access to premium inventories.”

Himanshu Shekhar, CEO of GroupM Indonesia, Thailand & Vietnam, shared, “Nitin’s all-round expertise in media strategy, planning, negotiations, trading and product development makes him a highly valuable leader to drive our investment vision and roadmap for Vietnam. This is one of the fastest-growing markets in Southeast Asia with latent potential, and I’m confident that with Nitin’s entrepreneurial skills and commercial acumen, he will be able to lead the team to extract maximum value for our clients in a rapidly evolving digital media ecosystem.”

Meanwhile, Anita Munro, chair of GroupM’s APAC Investment Committee, said, “GroupM Vietnam has built a strong investment legacy that will be further advanced with Nitin at the helm. As he focuses on enhancing the partnerships in-market and augmenting our investment capabilities across all channels, our clients will be able to enjoy far-reaching value.”

Munro added, “In partnership with our regional investment team, Nitin will lead the delivery of GroupM’s Responsible Investment Framework in Vietnam that entails building a diverse, sustainable and high-quality media ecosystem that our clients can invest in confidently now and in future.”

Hong Kong – Global sportswear brand New Balance, in partnership with media investment company GroupM, has launched its newest 574 Green sneakers to bring the people of Hong Kong together, lift their spirits, and empower them to fearlessly create a sustainable future for the community. The partnership aims to redefine sustainability through the promotion of positive transformation journeys in Hong Kong. 

With the purpose of encouraging people to contribute to this common cause, New Balance Hong Kong invited Ruby Lau, lifestyle reporter and influencer, to explore three groups of ordinary people in the city who had transformed their lives during lockdown and share their personal stories of how they discovered a life of “new balance” on social media. Interviewees, including a local artist, barista and indie band, represented the positive changes to the city’s culture, nature, and soul. To encourage everyone to get involved, New Balance enhanced the campaign with exclusive offers on eCommerce. 

Commenting on the campaign, Vivien Yau, general manager of New Balance Hong Kong and Yoki Cheng, head of marketing of New Balance Hong Kong, said, “We wanted to acknowledge the great effort of GroupM and New Balance Hong Kong for harnessing the opportunity to empower people in pursuit of their passions, supporting the spirit of perseverance and creating positive changes in the community.”

Yau and Cheng added, “We were thrilled to partner with GroupM in Hong Kong, who led the way on this campaign, providing a platform for these truly inspiring transformation stories, as well as an integrated consumer experience that tapped into our understanding of Hong Kong. It was a small budget online campaign and we are very pleased that it garnered approximately 15.4 million impressions, 95,000 clicks and 172,000 views, while helping to raise the sales of the 574 Green sneaker by 15% in just two weeks!”

Clay Sen, who led the campaign and is responsible for the group’s SEO, CRO and Content functions in Hong Kong, shared, “We were honoured to partner with New Balance on their 574 Green campaign. From the moment we were briefed, we demonstrated not only our understanding of the unique nuances of Hong Kong, but also the versatility of our product offerings and talent at GroupM – this was a truly omnichannel campaign that compromised of the very best in content, creative, search, eCommerce, media and strategy, all of which worked harmoniously together to connect with the city.” 

Caroline Chan, CEO of GroupM in Hong Kong, commented, “I’m so proud of the team and their work. This campaign perfectly encapsulates of our evolution from media partner to New Balance’s fully integrated, end-to-end growth partner. The work also highlighted the team’s finesse for pairing New Balance’s business challenges with consumer insights to create innovative solutions that fused our high-quality media strategy with content and creative production capabilities, closing the consumer loop and delivering conversions—a true evolution for media agencies.” 

Indonesia – With over 15 years of experience in digital media with stints at GroupM, Omnicom Group, and Publicis Groupe, Praveen Pandey is appointed to the role of principal partner for performance at Wavemaker Indonesia. This is a comeback for Pandey to the GroupM family, where in 2011, he was with MediaCom as its associate director.

Through his industry experience, Pandey has worked with numerous clients with a wide portfolio of brands like Unilever, Volkswagen Group, Bose, P&G, Tata Motors, Cipla, and Shell, amongst others. He has also worked with a few starts-up in the earlier part of his career.

In his new role at Wavemaker, he will be responsible for leading the performance media & e-commerce business for one of the leading beauty tech brands globally – L’Oréal. 

“In continuous effort to strengthen Wavemaker Indonesia, I’m happy to welcome Praveen Pandey. He will help in building stronger agency capabilities and [strengthen] operational excellence on performance media. The landscape is moving fast and every Ad-investment are expected to have better return over the time,” said Amir Suherlan, MD of Wavemaker Indonesia.

Pandey shares that he is excited to rejoin the GroupM family and Wavemaker for the Indonesia market. He remarked that GroupM’s culture has had a huge role in shaping him as an individual and in his success as a professional.

“I am excited to re-join GroupM family in Indonesia. My endeavour is to move the client’s business with the help of enablers like platforms, people and processes. That said, it will be a great learning experience for me at Wavemaker, as we know how the new normal of digital has significantly shifted, I am keen to unlearn and re-learn to keep pace,” said Pandey.

He adds, “In the age of AI, ML, and data-driven marketing solutions, digital marketing can redefine the grammar of marketing. I am privileged to join ‘positively provoked’ culture of GroupM’s Wavemaker.”

Wavemaker in Malaysia has also recently unveiled a roster of new senior leaders. Amongst others, the new appointments included the elevation of Sheley Lim, its former head of digital, to become its new GM.

Hong Kong – Xaxis, the outcome media specialist from GroupM, has announced that it has launched its first-ever programmatic digital out-of-home (pDOOH) campaign at MTR’s advertising in Hong Kong. The campaign ran throughout Hong Kong for loan and financial services company United Asia Finance Limited.

The advertisements were shown in eight high traffic locations across 41 panels located within the MTR network in Wan Chai, Causeway Bay, Admiralty, Central, Tsim Sha Shui, Mong Kok, and Prince Edward through exclusive access with the MTR Trackside Digital Motion Network.

The campaign featured three creative advertisements that utilised time targeting based on the operational hours of surrounding businesses while factoring in weekends and public holidays to ensure the best content with the right context is shown to the right audience. 

“With Xaxis’ programmatic expertise, United Asia Finance Limited was able to take flexible campaign planning to the next level and elevate its OOH advertisements, allowing it to dynamically define its station mix, panel mix, and audience type, and set messages to be delivered at the best time possible,” the company said in a press statement.

The pDOOH campaign will catapult MTR advertising into a new automated phase of OOH with programmatic. It will provide real-time flexibility for United Asia Finance Limited to curate a captive viewing environment by identifying the best time, audience, location and messages to create an effective, efficient, and brand safe channel for its campaigns.

Andy Chung, managing director of Xaxis in Hong Kong, said, “We’re thrilled to make history with MTR advertising and United Asia Finance Limited to launch the first pDOOH campaign at MTR and deliver dynamic content to Hong Kong commuters. Programmatic will bring about a whole new definition of digital creativity for advertisers and consumers alike, providing a non-intrusive avenue for passengers to engage in relevant and high value interactions with brands. It gives marketers much more flexibility such as time targeting, creative changes, or even triggering the ad with real time weather conditions or stock market index.”

Meanwhile, Shirley Chan, managing director at JCDecaux Transport, commented, “Utilising the reach of Hong Kong’s MTR network and the flexibility of programmatic, advertising campaigns are reaching and best resonating with the audience at any time or place. MTR advertising offers the largest coverage of DOOH in Hong Kong, and by having this level of precision, marketers can truly direct the most captivating creative advertisements to the largest audience. We are excited that UA Finance smartly integrates the flexibility of programmatic digital out-of-home (pDOOH) into the MTR network with dynamic content capabilities to deliver tactical and contextual messaging, thus allowing its ad content to be optimised against specific data parameters to ensure the very best target audiences are reached.”

Lastly, Elvis Yan, chief marketing officer at United Asia Finance Limited, said, “We are eager to explore innovative and convenient ways to connect with our customers, and fascinated to learn that UA Finance is the first advertiser to tap into MTR advertising with pDOOH. It’s an exciting space for us to celebrate a new chapter of our innovative journey. Leveraging the powerful visual impact of OOH plus the new programmatic capabilities, this location-based marketing platform enables us to reach a large volume of on-the-go target audiences throughout the day, bringing big uplifts in impressions and efficiency.” 

He added, “At selected MTR locations, we adopt dynamic creative display technology to develop scenario-base ads to communicate our service offering. We strongly believe this innovative solution will be a popular trend for advertising in the new era. It perfectly complements our integrated marketing strategy, tapping into the holistic customer journey.”

New York, USA – To accelerate innovation for clients and further simplify GroupM’s operations, the media investment group by WPP has unveiled the merger of Essence with MediaCom and the integration of Mindshare with Neo, as well as its new 9,000-strong cross-channel performance platform built on AI technology.

EssenceMediacom is designed to power client growth globally with an agile response to a rapidly evolving media landscape. It infuses the digital and data-driven DNA of Essence with MediaCom’s scaled multichannel, audience planning, and strategic media expertise. Through this, clients will be able to leverage an expanded global organisation founded by two agencies that are strategic complements, designed exclusively to fuel client growth. Essence and MediaCom are already using this operational model for three shared global clients, namely Google, Mars, and NBCUniversal.

Meanwhile, Mindshare and Neo will be operating under the Mindshare brand but will retain and scale Neo’s operating model, focused on pureplay performance solutions, and will integrate this into Mindshare’s full-funnel offering. Neo’s 1,200 digital-first, performance experts and consultants will also be integrated with Mindshare’s 10,000 media specialists and Neo’s digital-first services will be fully embedded into Mindshare and GroupM’s offering.

GroupM Nexus will be composed of 9,000 practitioners globally, collectively responsible for the activation of more than two million campaigns managed by GroupM each year. This global community represents the industry’s leading team of experts in digital channels and platforms, search, social, programmatic, and AI, as well as cross-channel optimisation, and data-driven technologies and software. In addition, GroupM Nexus unites GroupM’s addressable content and TV, AI technology, and omnichannel solutions from Finecast, Xaxis, and GroupM Services into a single unit. The global organisation will be underpinned by a new cross-channel performance platform and international delivery hubs to set new benchmarks for performance innovation and efficiency for GroupM’s agencies and clients.

Christian Juhl, GroupM’s global CEO, said, “Through GroupM Nexus and our agency powerhouses Mindshare, Wavemaker, and EssenceMediacom, we are building a tech-enabled future, side-by-side with our clients, that is accountable to advertisers’ growth goals and to our vision for an advertising ecosystem that works for everyone.”

With these moves, Nick Lawson, MediaCom’s global CEO, will be leading the newly formed EssenceMediacom as global CEO, and Kyoko Matsushita, Essence’s global CEO, will be promoted to the new role of WPP’s CEO for Japan, as the company continues to invest in expanding, high-growth markets, as well as Nicolas Bidon, Xaxis’ global CEO, will be overseeing GroupM Nexus as global CEO.

Lawson noted that the formation of EssenceMediacom builds on the strong and proven relationship between the agencies to create the agency model their clients want for the future — one founded on brilliant strategy and brand-building capabilities, with pioneering digital expertise running throughout. 

“EssenceMediacom will not only help our clients see the bigger picture and reimagine what’s possible; it will also provide opportunities for our people to upskill and train in new areas, further enriching and enhancing their careers,” said Lawson.

Meanwhile, Matsushita said, “Bringing together Essence and MediaCom – each with their own celebrated histories of excellence – will create a truly unique combination of agile innovation and global scale in a single agency.”

Bidon also commented, “GroupM Nexus unites leading media talent, digital services excellence, cutting-edge AI technology and unique scaled partnerships into a new cross-channel performance organisation with one purpose: power growth for our people, our agencies and the amazing brands they represent. We cannot wait to innovate together and unlock new opportunities for everyone.”

Adam Gerhart, Mindshare’s global CEO, said that the merger delivers seamless access to Neo’s digital-first capabilities and a relentless focus on performance models to accelerate good growth. 

“For our teams it means more opportunity and the ability to create greater impact across the world. I’m delighted to partner with Neo CEO Nasreen Madhany as we complete the integration of the two businesses and move into a new future together,” he added.

Bangkok, Thailand – Media investment company GroupM has appointed Pathamawan Sathaporn as its chief executive officer for Thailand, effective 1 May 2022. She assumes the portfolio held by Niklas Stalberg who will be leaving the network after a decade of service.

Pathamawan crosses over from her current position as CEO of Mindshare Thailand where she held various leadership roles for over one and a half decades. She will be reporting to Himanshu Shekhar, whose remit as CEO of GroupM Indonesia and Vietnam has been expanded to include Thailand. As CEO of GroupM Thailand, Indonesia & Vietnam, Shekhar will report to Ashutosh Srivastava, CEO of GroupM Asia-Pacific.

Speaking about her appointment, Sathaporn said, “I am honoured to embark on a journey that is both familiar and new – the purple blood running through my veins has now taken on a shade of blue. Growing alongside Mindshare the past 16 years, I feel privileged to have witnessed the dramatic evolution of the media landscape which sets us up for new adventures daily.”

She added, “At GroupM, I look forward to building pathways for our talents to flourish in their careers, accelerate our capabilities to continue doing great work for our clients, and bring to life our company’s aspiration to make advertising work better for people in Thailand.”

Having spent two decades within the GroupM network, Himanshu rose through the ranks in Mindshare managing the business in volume-heavy India as well as Indonesia. He was appointed CEO of Mindshare Southeast Asia from 2014 to 2018. 

Meanwhile, Shekhar commented, “The group’s strategy to cluster Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam under one unified leadership will strengthen market capabilities and network agility. Given the breadth and depth of resources across these three important markets, we will be able to scale our capabilities and solutions to deliver enhanced value for all our clients and partners. I am thrilled to partner with an illustrious leader like Pathamawan whose depth of field experience in Thailand will undoubtedly propel us into an even more glorious future.”

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Media investment company GroupM and global outdoor advertising technology provider Moving Walls have partnered to bring automation and accountability to digital out-of-home (DOOH) advertising in Malaysia.

The partnership enables clients of GroupM agencies, namely Mindshare, m/Six, MediaCom, and Wavemaker, to leverage Moving Audiences Plus, an audience data-driven planning, buying, measurement, and ad-play verification solution that can activate all connected DOOH screens across the country.

Moving Walls has developed a comprehensive technology stack including a DOOH planning tool that predicts audiences based on the most recent movement trends, a demand-side platform that activates against these plans, and an in-campaign analytics tool that measures actual campaign performance that can then be compared against the predictions.

The inventory is connected to this ecosystem by Location Media Xchange (LMX), the supply-focused subsidiary of the Moving Walls group and a variety of advertisers including Chevron, Dell, Lancome, and Shell have already run outcome-based outdoor advertising campaigns powered by the new solution. Through this new solution, clients will now be able to estimate and measure audience delivery down to specific ad plays rather than relying on historical vehicle traffic numbers. 

Anne Leow, GroupM Malaysia’s head of GroupM Outdoor, shared that as outdoor advertising embraces digital efficiencies, it is important to first streamline and legitimise the delivery of the advertising in a manner that is verifiable by all parties – the media owner, media buyer, and the tech providers. 

“This partnership enables us to apply market-leading DOOH technology to optimise media spends across thousands of screens that are present in different venues, both indoor and outdoor locations,” said Leow.

Meanwhile, Srikanth Ramachandran, Moving Walls Group’s founder and CEO, commented that they are excited to launch this with GroupM Malaysia in a market that has some of the region’s most iconic DOOH sites and where many static sites continue to convert to digital panels. 

“Verification of ad plays and campaign performance will improve confidence amongst brands to extend their digital video campaigns to the big screens,” said Ramachandran.

Singapore – Media investment company GroupM has appointed Anito Munro to the role of chair of the APAC investment council, on top of her new role as chief investment officer for Southeast Asia and North Asia. Munro will be steering the group’s investment strategy across the burgeoning markets in the region from 1 April 2022. 

Munro will be part of GroupM’s APAC leadership team, reporting to Ashutosh Srivastava, CEO of GroupM APAC, and Andrew Meaden, GroupM’s global chief investment officer.

With two decades of agency experience, Munro crosses over from GroupM’s agency Mindshare, where she was most recently chief investment officer of Mindshare for APAC. At Mindshare, she had led the media business for LVMH at L’Atelier; while throughout her tenure in APAC, Munro has led the investment activities for key client accounts including Unilever, L’Oréal, Huawei, Ford, Jetstar, Mondelez, and more.

Speaking about her appointment, she said that with GroupM’s global scale and unparalleled reach, they are poised to shape a new era of media by helping clients apportion their media spend for good, while extracting maximum value for their investments.

“As the first woman to helm the chair role on our regional investment committee, I’m thrilled to be part of an organisation that’s leading the charge to cultivate greater equity and diversity across the entire industry. Together with our investment community, I look forward to continuing creating value for clients across the entire media supply chain, and propel us towards a more sustainable and vibrant media future,” she stated.

Meanwhile, Srivastava commented, “Anita’s diverse experience across a plethora of roles that span client leadership, investment, strategic planning and operations has gifted her with a deep appreciation and understanding of the holistic business as well as the investment needs of clients and markets.” 

She added, “As we continue to help our clients evolve their media strategies in an increasingly digital and biddable world, Anita will undoubtedly be a transformative force in stewarding responsible investment that will make advertising work better for people.”