Tag: GroupM

London, United Kingdom — Reddit, the social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website, has entered into a long-term consultative partnership with global marketing communications company, WPP. The partnership, a first of its kind for Reddit, and led by its global agency development team, will strengthen Reddit’s on and off-platform commerce offering by closely aligning with WPP’s industry-leading commerce roadmap.

The partnership will tap into the commerce and technology expertise across WPP and its media agencies within GroupM through quarterly advisory meetings. Teams will consult on Reddit’s commerce strategy, ensuring it incorporates the latest insights and intelligence from across the WPP network. WPP will receive a first look at Reddit’s commerce solutions with early access to alpha and beta tests so both companies can collaborate on joint products to take to shared clients. The joint collaboration will also include a joint research piece, to test the effectiveness of future commerce products on Reddit, along with a training program through Reddit Ads Formula, which soft-launched last year.

Reddit builds on its existing partnership with WPP media arm, GroupM, which was one of the very first to meet with Reddit’s ads product team when it was first introduced, this partnership will widen the aperture of Reddit’s relationship with WPP and help inform Reddit’s long term commerce strategy, firmly cementing its role in the wider commerce mix.

Harold Klaje, global EVP and president of advertising for Reddit, commented, “Online communities are not new but they have emerged throughout the pandemic as an integral part of the commerce mix thanks to the highly influential role they play in the consumer path to purchase. I am excited to further strengthen our relationship with WPP and its suite of clients as we continue to collaborate and build together, tapping into the holding company’s impressive expertise and working towards mutually beneficial outcomes for our advertising partners.”

Meanwhile, Amanda Grant, vice president, managing partner, and global head of social for GroupM, said that being a part of the Reddit product council in the past year has given them a seat at the table in terms of early product design, leading to better-aligned product development and advertiser interest.

“The partnership brings key stakeholders in early enough to steer concepts rather than confirm a formed hypothesis. GroupM and WPP are approaching commerce evolution much more methodically with our partners, as our performance expertise helps to connect user behaviours, to platform utility, and finally advertiser need. We are looking forward to richer contributions and partnership with Reddit,” Grant said.

Many WPP client brands are already working with Reddit to drive commerce solutions through Reddit’s highly engaged user base and 100,000+ communities. WPP was also an instrumental part of Reddit’s Product Council, which launched last year as a first-look and feedback session for key partners regarding Reddit’s evolving ads product roadmap. This new partnership will see Reddit and WPP continue to partner on client campaigns with a particular focus on lower-funnel education, strategy, and tactics to drive the strongest purchase outcomes.

The partnership comes as Reddit continues to grow its Global Agency Development team, which has recently appointed London-based Susanne Schmid who joins from Facebook where she was regional agency lead and will serve as Reddit’s global agency lead for WPP. Additionally, former VP, global head of partnerships at Verizon Media, John Baylon has also joined the team as the regional agency lead for Europe, the Middle East, and Asia (EMEA), and will be responsible for servicing all holding companies across EMEA in a newly-developed role.

Karachi, Pakistan — Media investment group GroupM announced the Pakistan launch of its AI-powered brand-safe influencer marketing solution, INCA during its latest virtual event. Leveraging GroupM’s remarkable scale, INCA connects brands to a vast network of reliable publishers and influencers to create and promote content in social channels that will drive brand engagement across digital platforms.

With the platform now entering Pakistan, clients in the country can now leverage the additional benefit of global expertise and run campaigns across YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok. Assisting these clients is INCA’s specialist teams in four regions and 30 countries who have created more than 2,500 campaigns with over 100,000 content pieces for more than 300 unique clients around the world.

INCA’s proprietary end-to-end AI-powered platform provides numerous useful offerings namely unique creator and audience insights, fraud detection, workflow tools, content amplification, and detailed campaign reporting dashboards. It leverages a proprietary algorithm that uses real-time data to source, curate, and match influencers and publishers to a brand’s campaign objectives to deliver the most credible partners and content for the greatest impact.

Naveed Asghar, CEO of GroupM Pakistan, commented, “We are thrilled about INCA’s launch in Pakistan. We look forward to helping brands scale up their digital campaigns through our best-in-class AI-enabled influencer marketing technology to guarantee not only effective marketing but also connect brands with relevant, authentic influencers and publishers.”

With INCA’s trusted and scalable solutions, the platform can accommodate publishers, influencers, and their content needs to be manually identified, screened, and managed to ensure quality and brand safety, as the trend of fake followers enabled by bots makes it harder to tell if an influencer is a genuine and valuable creator.

Ghulam Jillani, business director (INCA) of GroupM Pakistan, said, “Using technology to challenge norms is the route to change the landscape. INCA addresses these challenges to provide a trusted network of verified influencer partners and campaign management processes. With this step, we expect for the ecosystem to change in order for us to bring that change in Pakistan we have INCA at GroupM.”

Meanwhile, Ateeq Rehman, CIO of GroupM Pakistan, shared, “At INCA, we build genuine relationships between brands, consumers, and creators to drive business outcomes for clients and maximise returns on their digital spend. Influencer marketing is growing at a phenomenal pace in Pakistan and we look forward to implementing INCA’s influencer marketing solutions for our valued clients in this region.”

Singapore — MediaCom, the media agency by media investment company GroupM, has promoted its regional chief product officer for APAC Josh Gallagher to now become the chief operating officer for APAC. The COO role is newly created and is designed to provide additional senior support for the network’s teams and enhanced leadership to clients.

MediaCom shared that the decision to create this role was made by newly appointed APAC CEO Rupert McPetrie and reflects the growth the agency has experienced over the last year, bagging multiple awards from various distinguished organizations.

Gallagher joined the GroupM network in 2018 from Havas where he was APAC CSO in the role of chief product officer, MediaCom APAC. As the agency’s product suite and capabilities have grown, Gallagher has been essential in helping the company across performance and eCommerce and has led the global commerce consulting offering within BLINK Consulting. 

In his new role as COO for APAC, he is tasked to ensure that the agency builds on the business momentum by scaling its capabilities, through MediaCom’s distinctive and differentiated offering of its ethos ‘Seeing The Bigger Picture’, and by consistently delivering for the agency’s clients across the region.

Mcpetrie commented on the promotion, saying, “It’s always fantastic when you can look inside your organisation and find someone who is perfect for the most senior roles. Josh has done a terrific job building new capabilities and products for our clients over the last three years and has also played a significant role in our new business successes, including the recent wins of Bayer and The Coca-Cola Company. He will be an amazing COO for our region and will help MediaCom continue its successful trajectory.” 

Gallagher shared his enthusiasm for his newly assumed role, saying, “I look forward to bringing a forward-thinking and challenging mindset to the role, helping our people and clients continually grow. My focus will be on driving the culture to do so. In an industry that is ever-changing, being able to evolve the way we work through more agile talent and technology capabilities will deliver work that transforms our clients’ businesses.” 

Singapore — Media investment group GroupM has announced the appointment of Anne Ng, former senior director for corporate communications in Lagardéré Sports, as the new director of marketing and communications for the Asia-Pacific. Ng will lead communication strategies for the APAC market, moving forward GroupM’s vision of “Making Advertising Work Better for People”.

Ng holds extensive experience in marketing campaigns for high-value clients. Aside from her director role at Lagardère Sports, she’s held positions as communications manager for Singapore Grand Prix where she was in charge of the media centre and press functions for Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix. She also authored and published a book, produced an HIV anti-stigmatisation movie, and founded a publishing and communications consultancy ‘A Good Word’ prior to joining GroupM.

At Lagardère Sports, Ng headed corporate communication functions across APAC and the Middle East and was instrumental in amplifying the company’s brand equity in Greater China.

Ng will join the APAC regional leadership team. She reports to Ashutosh Srivastava, CEO of GroupM APAC, and Jill Kelly, chief marketing officer of GroupM Global.

Ng shared her thoughts on the appointment, saying, “As many media evangelists like me will attest to, GroupM is a leading, visionary brand whose work has fundamentally transformed the landscape of media, influenced consumer habits, and shaped global culture. GroupM is poised to be a force for good and I look forward to maximizing the potential of our trailblazing talents across the region, help strengthen the agencies’ already powerful legacies, and generate far-reaching value for clients.”

Meanwhile, Srivastava welcomed the investment group’s new signing.

“We extend a very warm welcome to Anne whose values, mindset, and wealth of experiences dovetail with the GroupM ethos. She will work closely with our regional leadership team to drive our collective agenda in shaping a new era of advertising that’s focused on bettering businesses and benefiting communities,” Srivastava said.

Last November, GroupM held its third annual ad marketing conference entitled SourceCode in Malaysia, which saw the company inviting key leaders from several top-tier brands to talk about how they are shaping the marketing landscape.

Singapore – MediaCom, the media agency by media investment company GroupM, has announced the appointment of Rupert McPetrie as APAC CEO, following the upcoming departure of Mark Heap, who is moving within the group to join sister agency Mindshare as its EMEA CEO.

McPetrie, who will also continue his current role as CEO for Greater China, will expand his area of responsibility to lead the regional operations of the WPP-owned network and take responsibility for more than 1600 people across 21 offices. He will also join the MediaCom Worldwide Exco and will be reporting directly to Global CEO Nick Lawson. 

Rupert holds extensive experience in Greater China having spent six years leading MediaCom in the region. Aside from his work in MediaCom, he’s held leadership roles in regional operations during his time as the CEO of media company Zenith for Central and Eastern Europe.

Lawson shared his praises for the upcoming APAC CEO.

“Rupert is quite simply a brilliant leader. Throughout his time leading our China operations, he has developed numerous client solutions and brought the best talent to our agency via game-changing solutions and capabilities, such as Incite Consulting and China Passport. All his great work has grown our business from number 6 to number 2 in the market, and we look forward to him reapplying this magic across the region building on Mark’s outstanding legacy,” Lawson said. 

McPetrie said he is thrilled to take on this expanded role and have the opportunity to work with all the people and clients to build on the strong business momentum the company has in the region.

“This is in part due to the recent slew of new business wins, such as The Coca Cola Company and Bayer, but importantly also down to our incredible clients and the work we do for them across APAC. Our People First, Better Results proposition has been at the heart of our growth, together with our extended Bigger Picture capabilities that drive our clients’ businesses forward,” Mcpetrie said.

Malaysia – Media investment agency GroupM has held its third annual ad marketing conference in Malaysia, SourceCode, which brought in key leaders and brand decision-makers from top-value brands such as Unilever, Fonterra, Coca-Cola, and Oppo to discuss current trends and phenomena that are currently shaping the future of marketing.

Held virtually in November 2021, SourceCode was joined by key leaders from GroupM’s agencies such as Mindshare, MediaCom, and Xaxis as well as representatives from Unruly, Metamorfosa, and DoubleVerify for a series of roundtables where key main three themes of discussion emerged – the future of e-commerce, the role of talent in building a diverse workplace, and the stronger call for leadership responsibility in the fast-evolving market ecosystem.

During the event, the fresh concept of ‘E-joy’ was discussed, which refers to the wonderful feeling derived from the perks of e-commerce – its convenience, versatility, and the bouquet of brands and offerings such as online-only promotions and attractive bundles.

“The number of hours spent in a week by a highly engaged audience looking to discover and purchase, means e-commerce is all set to win, especially with the advent of online marketplaces,” said Tejas Kirodiwal, head of growth at Zalora, at SourceCode. 

Moving forward, leaders agree that the future of e-commerce is ‘entertainment commerce’. 

Another topic in focus at SourceCode is the issue of ‘The Great Resignation’ and how technology can help cultivate teams of the future that are inclusive and diversified. 

“We need to see talents as our invested business partners. Therefore, they have to be managed using technology, the same way we manage our marketing investments,” said Rashi Kalucha, regional HR lead business partner for APAC at GroupM. 

In the event, an open call was made to HR practitioners to better leverage technology to “track, measure, learn from and create solutions” that will boost employee retention and enhance their overall welfare. 

Lastly, participants agreed at the conference that marketers need to assume leadership responsibility in resolving pertinent issues related to sustainability, brand safety, data privacy, as well as ensuring greater transparency across the value chain.

Senior representatives from Malaysia Airlines, Astro Radio, Rocketfuel Entertainment, GroupM, and Volvo Cars reached the consensus that as important as the crafted message is, marketers also need to carefully consider the consequence and impact on the receiver. 

‘Responsibility’ was brought up frequently when it came to marketing in a multidimensional world that involved virtual reality, non-fungible tokens, cryptocurrency and decentralized finance that places the power back into the hands of the end-users, the creators, and the consumers.

Vishal Jacob, chief digital officer at Wavemaker India, commented, “Publishers and platforms are now more focused than ever in creating unique hybrid online experiences for consumers that focus on activating first-party data. Delivering high-engagement value exchanges has never been more critical [when navigating in a] metaverse. Brands [need to] figure out what works and what doesn’t in the virtual world – it is an open invitation to experiment – for brands to be brave.”

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Huawei Ads, the mobile advertising solution arm of tech company Huawei, has announced partnerships with Malaysian Digital Association (MDA) as a member and with GroupM as its certified agency partner to drive the advertising sales in Malaysia. 

Said partnership aims to help the organizations to draw on each other’s strengths and allow HUAWEI Ads to contribute to the adtech industry growth in Malaysia.

The MDA membership will enable HUAWEI Ads to stay relevant to the current digital ad trends and play a part in shaping Malaysia’s digital policies and advertising standards. Meanwhile, as a ‘HUAWEI Ads Certified Agency’, GroupM and its agencies will have exclusive access to the inventory options available on HUAWEI Ads in Malaysia.

Rei Xiao, director of Malaysia Huawei Device Ecosystem, said, “GroupM is one of the most renowned brands in the digital advertising field with strong track records and market share. The partnership will allow us to expose our differentiated ad solutions to GroupM’s current and potential advertisers.”

New ad features such as in-app bidding and contextual ads will be introduced globally to meet growing advertiser needs. HUAWEI Ads is also actively in talks with other respected media firms to form more strategic alliances and expand its position locally.

“Built upon Huawei’s established ecosystem, HUAWEI Ads is leveraging the synergies between Huawei’s devices, native apps, open capabilities and over 33,000 third-party app media integrated into its network, to connect the data dots across various smart devices and apps, and helps advertisers reach out to more than 730 million global potential customers on its mobile ecosystem,” Xiao concluded.

Hong Kong – Global programmatic digital out of home (DOOH) adtech company Hivestack has been selected as programmatic digital out of home (DOOH) partner by a couple of global advertising and media companies including GroupM, Xaxis, Publicis, Havas and dentsu International Hong Kong.

Through these partnerships, Hong Kong-based advertisers will now be able to capitalize on the benefits of programmatic buying, activating against premium programmatic DOOH inventory through the Hivestack DSP via open exchange and Private Marketplace deals.

To date, programmatic DOOH is one of the fastest growing channels in Hong Kong and provides crucial opportunities for media buyers to plan and deliver contextualized, targeted and measurable campaigns at scale across premium DOOH inventory in the region.

Troy Yang, managing director for North Asia at Hivestack, said, “These partnerships are a testament to continued growth of programmatic DOOH opportunities across North Asia, we are delighted to have the opportunity to work with such influential leaders in media and advertising to pioneer programmatic DOOH in Hong Kong.”

Kenny Ip, head of investment for Hong Kong at GroupM, said, “It’s great to have partnered with Hivestack who continue to drive programmatic digital out of home (DOOH) in Hong Kong.”

Andy Chung, managing director at Xaxis and INCA, said, “We are pleased to recognize that Hivestack is the pioneer and specialist in this area, capable of advanced solutions & features. We look forward to working with Hivestack and bringing these benefits to our GroupM clients.”

Meanwhile, Andrew Cawte, managing director at Havas Media Hong Kong, commented, “Thanks to our partnership with Hivestack, we at last have the opportunity in Hong Kong to buy premium programmatic DOOH inventory, at scale. This is game changing for advertisers here.”

Hivestack has seen significant growth in 2021 following several global expansions including China, Hong Kong and Taiwan earlier this year, most recently onboarding new premium supply side partnerships in Hong Kong.

Tammii Pang, head of PMX at Publicis Media Hong Kong, said, “This is an incredibly exciting time for the DOOH market in Hong Kong. We look forward to collaborating with our new partners at Hivestack to leverage their market leading programmatic technology and offer our clients a way to precisely engage audiences outside of the home.”

Meanwhile, Anna Chan, CEO of Media LoB, dentsu International Hong Kong, commented, “As an integrated solutions provider, we are glad to partner with Hivestack to offer a more seamless and innovative consumer journey for our clients, as DOOH is becoming an increasingly vital media touch point.”

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – GroupM’s outcome media company Xaxis in Malaysia has announced the promotion of its former Associate Director for Engagement Pamela Ooi to now become its new director of programmatic strategy and insights.

In her new role, Ooi shared in an exclusive interview with MARKETECH APAC, that she will be responsible for the strategic growth of programmatic teams’ development in Xaxis Malaysia, as well as playing an important role in the company’s new business and key client relationships.

She further shared with MARKETECH APAC, “The focus for Xaxis in 2022 will still be client-focused and crafting programmatic strategies to deliver against client’s business goals. There are several pillars that I will be working on (Client, Agency, Internal, Industry) which encompasses foundation building for clients’ own first party data, moving towards a cookie-less future and working across the GroupM agencies to provide strategic leadership across programmatic in delivering first class and innovative solutions.” 

She will remain based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and will be working with Xaxis Regional counterparts in Singapore on regional clients. She will be reporting to Aravind Menon, managing director at Xaxis Malaysia, who also holds the same position for GroupM’s influencer marketing arm INCA in Malaysia.

“I am excited to take on a newly created role in Xaxis Malaysia as director, programmatic strategy and insights to drive programmatic adoption across GroupM clients. I look forward to working closely with clients and agencies to scale programmatic to even greater heights and to deliver value for our clients,” Ooi stated regarding her appointment.

Speaking about her past experiences at Xaxis, she shared that a lot has changed since her official entry into the company back in 2017 as a senior manager for engagement, saying that in her continuing four years of journey, the company continues to roll out new features and solutions, be it new ways of working or new standards of brand asset valuator (BAV).

Ooi explains, “To be a leader in this company, I learnt that you always have to stick to your intuition and speak out if you have something to say. The culture here is so inclusive and I feel at home in Xaxis. Challenges are always bound to come about, so the most important trait to have is resilience to overcome. I have learned that being in the forefront of the industry is not an easy feat and Xaxis and GroupM are the ones paving the way in the industry setting an example for all to follow,” 

When asked about her insights regarding the challenges in the programmatic media industry, Ooi noted that while programmatic adoption has been on the rise since 2018, she notes that we are still in the emerging phase where there is so muchgrowth to uncover. 

She further added that not all brands or advertisers are fully on-board with programmatic, as the level of understanding of how it works correlates with the comfort level with the data, technology, and platforms that comes into the mix.

“Aside from the mental barrier, there are also physical barriers like onboarding technology and data platforms, digital talents as well as investments that [go] into running programmatic. What we do in Xaxis is to simplify clients’ life in running programmatic media by having an all inclusive model thus eliminating all the silos that you see in adtech. I am hopeful that programmatic will continue to grow as all digital will soon be programmatic,” said Ooi.

Australia – GroupM agency Wavemaker unveils Dru Nho as its new national head of digital. Nho is charged with the strategic direction and leadership of the agency’s digital offering.

Nho is an experienced and dedicated digital leader who most recently helmed the digital team of WoolworthsGroup@DAN at Dentsu Aegis Network. His experience also includes being part of Ikon Communications and Mindshare.

Wavemaker CEO Peter Vogel said, “I couldn’t be happier to welcome Dru to Wavemaker. He’s a passionate and highly respected digital leader whose expertise will be invaluable in supporting our clients’ digital transformation journeys – particularly as e-commerce and personalization become more critical – ensuring they can respond to today’s market demands with the most effective and innovative solutions.”

Nho will be based in Sydney for the new role and will lead Wavemaker’s national digital & performance team to deliver best-in-class strategy in digital, performance, data, tech, and analytics.

Nho commented, “I am excited at the opportunity to join Wavemaker’s world-class team and work across its diverse range of clients. I look forward to helping accelerate our capabilities and effectiveness for clients and their brands.”

Recent client wins for Wavemaker include L’Oréal Australia & New Zealand, DoorDash, Journey Beyond Group, and Bumble.