Manila, Philippines – Tier One Entertainment, Philippine-headquartered esports talent agency for SEA, has landed a major partnership with media investment company GroupM with an aim to make advertising more inclusive in the esports industry, specifically to open up esports and gaming content to more mainstream brands. 

GroupM owns some of the top agencies internationally, such as Mindshare, Mediacom, and Essence, and holds global FMCG brand accounts like P&G, Unilever, Nestle, and Colgate-Palmolive, and Pepsico. Through this partnership, both GroupM and Tier One look to lead the way in extending advertising opportunities to more brands, and not just those that are esports-dedicated. 

Despite its rise as a phenomenon, esports and gaming largely remain an endemic sponsor-dominated industry, especially in Southeast Asia. Tier One hopes that with GroupM’s considerable network and resources, they can work to change this and bring more eyes to the industry and their talents.

Tier One is the first and only esports and gaming company GroupM has partnered with in the Philippines, and with this, the company will be onboarded into GroupM’s content platform INCA which streamlines the selling and buying of Tier One’s commercial inventory.

When Tier One launched in the country, one of its core goals is to bridge the gap between gaming and mainstream. The company said that GroupM is the perfect partner to enable them to pursue that goal more actively than ever. 

“It’s been a long-term goal of Tier One Entertainment to partner with GroupM. We are glad to have reached a point wherein our backend team can experience working with the best and brightest in the advertising industry. We look forward to a productive and meaningful working relationship as we bring esports and gaming to the forefront of mainstream advertising,” said Joanne Llavore, CCO of Tier One Entertainment

Meanwhile, Laurent Goirand, head of digital at GroupM, commented, “Seeing the growing interest for e-sports in the Philippines, it is naturally becoming a new venue for our clients to reach out to new customers. With our partnership with Tier One, we are able to have access to premium content and a team of experts, which will be highly beneficial to our overall proposition. We are already starting to offer this new content to all our clients through INCA, our Content Performance solution.”

Tier One shared that the partnership comes at an opportune time, as it looks to expand to more countries in 2021 and in the future. GroupM is believed to be instrumental in mirroring the model of success that Tier One pioneered in the Philippines to other countries across the region, with the partnership expected to allow Tier One to scale up at an unprecedented rate.

Tier One’s CEO Tryke Gutierrez said, “While we have made great strides towards bringing gaming and esports to more mainstream audiences, the fact that a company like GroupM chose us as a partner is a real game-changer. This shows that the advertising industry is finally confident and believes in the power of esports in Southeast Asia.”

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Both the Malaysian arm of GroupM’s outcome media specialist Xaxis and its influencer marketing solution INCA are now under the same managing director, Aravind Menon, where he will lead Xaxis‘ and INCA Malaysia’s strategy and operations.

Menon will be responsible as well in spearheading future digital development as well as client transformational initiatives and mentoring new talent. In addition, he will leverage his experience at GroupM to further advance Xaxis’ innovative programmatic solutions, including digital out-of-home (DOOH) advertising and proprietary Artificial Intelligence technology.

He has previously held the position of head of supply and product development in GroupM’s Trading Team, where he led the group’s digital investment strategy across key partners and created high value supply and trading strategies for clients. He also became the secretary of the Malaysian Digital Association, a council representing Malaysian corporations including digital publishers, platforms, advertising agencies, creative agencies, and digital service providers, back in 2020.

Reflecting on his appointment, Aravind said, “I am excited to grow Xaxis and INCA’s business in Malaysia. The agencies have been producing some of the most exciting programmatic and influencer marketing solutions for years now and there is clearly phenomenal room for growth in the Malaysian market. I look forward to building and scaling the agencies to even greater heights and delivering exception value for our clients.”

He will be reporting into both Arshan Saha, CEO at Xaxis Asia-Pacific, as well as Chanchal Chakrabarty, CEO at GroupM Malaysia.

Saha commented that Menon has a track record of fostering, collaborating, and championing their integrated approach in transforming digital media into business outcomes, which is a timely opportunity for the companies he will be directing, as the industry has seen unprecedented change since last year.

“His deep expertise combined with our cutting-edge AI in programmatic and creativity will bring incredible value to our operations in Malaysia. I am thrilled to welcome him into his new role in leading Xaxis and INCA for Malaysia,” Saha stated.

Meanwhile, Chakrabarty commented, “Xaxis represents the silver bullet in AI and programmatic, and the Malaysian market is ripe with opportunity to target audiences digitally. I have great confidence that Aravind’s leadership will further elevate our team towards our global goal of making advertising work better for people. His experience in developing and delivering innovative and scalable media partnerships will help us spearhead the advertising revolution and contribute to the overall growth and success of GroupM Malaysia.”

Mumbai, India – MediaCom, the media agency by media investment company GroupM, has appointed two new key senior talents to strengthen its core leadership team in India.

The new hires are Shekhar Sharma, the new North and East managing partner, and Averill Sequeira, the new chief product officer.

Sharma has previously worked as the vice president for digital platforms and services at GroupM, where he has been instrumental in spearheading a digital-first approach for brands varying from global to large Indian conglomerates and mid-sized businesses. He has also been an accomplished integrated marketing professional with experience in managing large media investments from global clients to large Indian conglomerates across different vertical

Sharma brings with him over 25 years of diversified experience in the media and marketing industry. His expertise ranges from crafting media strategies, bringing in an insights-based approach to sharpen the strategic planning and deliver ROI for clients. In his new role, Sharma will be responsible for the team’s offices, clients, and growth. 

Meanwhile, Sequeira was a GroupM alumnus, with over 18 years of experience across the media, communications, and consulting industry. She specializes in data, digital media, and strategy, as well as creativity. Her formative years were spent in developing audience insight tools and specializing in marketing ROI/ econometric modeling.

In her new role, Sequeira will be leading ‘Seeing the Bigger Picture’, a MediaCom Creative Systems wherein they use the power of data to bring together media and creativity, which was successfully soft-launched in the US and Australia, and is now ready to roll out to the rest of the world.

Commenting on the appointments, Navin Khemka, the chief executive officer of MediaCom South Asia, said that as the media landscape continues to accelerate and evolve, they want to build on the strong track record of helping brands build campaigns that deliver results.

“Today brands want to communicate quickly and effectively, and we believe that together with our new appointments, we will be able to deliver more powerful work for our clients. With having Shekhar and Averill as a part of our team, I am convinced that they’re uniquely positioned to successfully drive the company and are here to put their best foot forward towards offering the best solution to our clients and strengthening our portfolio,” added Khemka.

Singapore – Xaxis, the programmatic unit of media investment company GroupM, has announced a new partnership with Singapore-based proptech Really Singapore, as Xaxis extends its programmatic DOOH (Digital-Out-of-Home) network in Singapore, particularly among the prized audience segment of affluent consumers.

The Premium Audience Advertising Network features Really’s ‘eScreens,’ a network of digital notice boards installed in high-traffic locations across a growing number of condominiums throughout Singapore. As work-from-home (WFH) protocols become the new normal for many Singapore residents, Really’s ‘eScreens’ are presenting advertisers with new opportunities to engage the island’s high-income working professionals.

Joerg Zeugner, CEO at Really Singapore, said, “We are excited to collaborate with GroupM and Xaxis, two digital-forward entities owned by the world’s largest advertising company, WPP. This is where the best in PropTech meets the best in AdTech – a strategic alliance that opens up for brand owners the opportunity to effectively engage a valued audience segment living within premium, gated, and exclusive communities.”

Through the ‘eScreens’, property managers will now have the ability to distribute real-time updates for the benefit of their residents at any time, from anywhere. For brand owners and advertisers, these screens give access to a captive and recurring audience, with their content appearing alongside important updates, local news, and affairs of the estate. 

Felicia Poon, head of investment at GroupM Singapore, commented that as people continue to work from home, they see the partnership as a great opportunity to contextually and smartly engage them. 

“Really’s platform and technology will enable our agencies to enhance the value of our DOOH offering across condominiums in Singapore, cementing our position as the leading media company,” Poon stated.

Meanwhile, Josh Quek, managing director at Xaxis Singapore, said that the partnership roots from the past digital evolution of the past 12 months, which has introduced new ways of reaching audiences, in line with rapidly changing consumer behaviours. 

“Through this partnership with Really, we are pleased to be able to offer brands the opportunity to reach residents within the grounds of their condo. Delivering DOOH campaigns programmatically allows us to address concerns brands may have regarding measurability, proving that DOOH advertising truly is the future,” Quek stated.

California, USA – Adtech PubMatic has been selected by media investment company GroupM to be its global sell-side platform (SSP) partner.

Entailed within the partnership is GroupM gaining programmatic advantages, as it has been given more efficient access to globally scaled, brand-safe inventory across OTT/CTV, mobile app, mobile web, and desktop environments for video and display advertising. 

At the same time, PubMatic’s publisher partners will gain access to unique, quality ad spend at scale from GroupM’s broad portfolio of global advertisers.

Part of the announced partnership comes from the stance of marketers who are prioritizing transparency as these brands build out their omnichannel advertising capabilities with a more streamlined set of strategic supply-side partnerships. PubMatic has long prioritized transparency, helping advertisers maximize their control and understanding of their campaign performance and providing tools to drive increased advertiser ROI.

“GroupM’s partnership with PubMatic brings our clients media transparency and an efficient path to premium inventory. As a global preferred partner, PubMatic gives brands access to their strong publisher footprint across the U.S., Europe, and Asia, particularly in the growing mobile app market, and provides leadership and innovation around programmatic CTV, identity, and audience addressability,” said Andrew Meaden, global head of investment at GroupM.

Furthermore, the partnership also allows advertisers to enhance their ID-based targeting to ensure addressability across channels without relying on third-party cookies or mobile identifiers like Apple’s Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA). PubMatic’s suite of addressability solutions, including Identity Hub and Audience Encore, provides various approaches that enable advertisers to increase scale across the Open Internet.

“We are thrilled that GroupM has selected PubMatic as a preferred global SSP partner to give their advertisers transparent inventory access and increased ROI through fewer, more strategic supply partnerships. As consolidation continues across the industry, this will also help to ensure that we provide our publisher customers access to unique demand from GroupM’s leading global brands,” said Jeff Hirsch, chief commercial Officer at PubMatic.

Auckland, New Zealand – The New Zealand arm of media investment company GroupM has announced that it is now launching INCA, GroupM’s influencer marketing platform, in the country as part of INCA’s ongoing expansion in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.

INCA works as a brand-safe influencer marketing network that gives advertisers access to a data-driven brand engagement tool that connects them with trustworthy and relevant influencers at scale.

Through the expansion, New Zealand advertisers can now leverage INCA’s artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled technology to partner with a vast network of relevant and authentic creators to plan, execute, and measure content-driven campaigns that bring their brand stories to life and deliver results. 

Furthermore, the launch solidifies the company’s efforts to uphold brand safety in the industry as more brands are allocating budgets to influencer marketing to drive brand engagement across social platforms. 

“New Zealand is such an exceptional market for creators. We feel very privileged to be able to connect our brands with the best creators through this new platform. Our people, technology, and partnerships put us in a unique position to sit across the intersection of creativity, media, data, and commerce and we’re excited to bring this value to our brands and strengthen the influencer eco-system in New Zealand,” said Nick Henderson, head of product and solutions at GroupM New Zealand.

INCA also deploys other features in the platform, including INCAtech, which provides unique creator and audience insights, workflow tools, content amplification, and detailed campaign reporting dashboards; and Genuity Score, which enables brands to check the proportion of real versus fake audience on a creators profile, which drives authenticity and effectiveness.

“Advertisers are faced with the challenge of connecting more deeply with consumers in social media platforms. INCA allows us to access thousands of authentic and relevant content creators in a highly cost effective way. This technology has simply changed the game in terms of how we can now plan, implement and measure our influencer content campaigns for clients,” said Chris Riley, chief executive officer at GroupM New Zealand.

INCA in New Zealand will be available to clients from all GroupM agencies which include media agency Mindshare, marketing and advertising company MediaCom, media company Wavemaker, and others.

Hong Kong – Media investment company GroupM is continuing its expansion in the Asia-Pacific region, this time launching INCA, an influencer marketing company, to the Hong Kong market.

With this regional expansion, INCA will then allow brand-influencer partnerships to leverage content-driven campaigns. Furthermore, as more brands are reallocating their influencer marketing budget to social media brand engagement, INCA upholds brand safety across using AI technology leverages.

As a study from data company Nielsen shows that economic and social uncertainties have affected brand advertising by means of audience impact, brands have since then ventured out into strategies that are efficient and will have return of investment in no time. Hence, INCA in Hong Kong aims to provide influencer marketing to the local brands by allowing them to collaborate with genuine influencers in spreading the brand, benefiting Hong Kong-based brands from the leveraging strategies from INCA.

“We are committed to helping brands in Hong Kong create the best possible outcomes through our data-driven and brand-safe approach to influencer marketing. Our AI-powered solutions and thorough influencer and content approval processes ensure their investments in influencer marketing inspire their customers, protect their brands, and achieve results that are directly tied to business results,” said Michael Woo (right of banner picture), associate director for Product & Operations at INCA Hong Kong.

INCA is also allowing brands to check the authenticity of their influential marketing strategies through INCATech, a platform that allows brands to check unique creator and audience insights, workflow tools, content amplification, and detailed campaign reporting dashboards which includes Genuity Score.

Screengrab of INCATech Platform
A screen grab featuring the dashboard of INCA’S INCATech platform that monitors partner influencers (Photo Courtesy of INCA)

“Advertisers are faced with the challenge of finding authentic and relevant content creators while ensuring cost-efficiency in their marketing campaigns. Our technology will help equip advertisers, not only in Hong Kong but globally, with data-driven tools that will connect them to genuine influencers and leading publishers in order to achieve their marketing objectives,” said Andy Chung (left of banner picture), head of programmatic at GroupM

Singapore – In a bid to push for more visibility of APAC brands and advertisers into the programmatic supply chain, media investment firm Group M has launched a project to optimize the supply path on digital advertising.

The project is the firm’s answer to advertisers’ growing concerns over transparency. It refers to a study by the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers (ISBA) which revealed that about 15% of the amount spent on advertising in the UK was unaccounted for, raising the industry’s question as to how revenue is earned. 

Over a period of six months, Group M gathered a significant amount of data into a single visualization tool which includes loading log level data from more than 400 demand side platform (DSP) seats.

Still in line with improving transparency, GroupM has also enlisted a set of guiding principles for all markets within the tool. The number of seller-side platform (SSP) included has been limited to those who:

  • agree to a code of conduct
  • only have direct integrations with publishers
  • never send inventory as unknown or obfuscated domains
  • Need to provide log-level campaign data to be matched against DSP data

Prathab Kunasakaran, head of the supply strategy for APAC at Xaxis said, “By bringing all of our global buyer accounts onto the supply path optimization dashboard, we gained a clear view of the good and bad actors in the buying process and identified valuable partners to move forward [with] careful due diligence.”

GroupM also aims to become 100 percent ads/apps.txt compliant and support Open Measurement SDK as well as VAST 4.1 and higher. 

In addition, it also eyes to fully comply with ads/apps.txt and support Open Measurement SDK. The firm also shared that it is working with SSP partners PubMatic, SpotX, and local publishers in the APAC region to integrate header bidding into their programmatic setup.

Singapore – Pizza Hut Delivery (PHD) Indonesia has designated GroupM-owned companies, global media network MediaCom, and programmatic business Xaxis to handle all of its future programmatic campaigns.

According to a press release by Xaxis, PHD Indonesia pivoted to run more programmatic campaigns to ensure that its marketing efforts reached only the most relevant audiences.

Xaxis said that one of the weak links it targeted to fix for PHD is its disconnected online and offline customer data, which makes for a lack of visibility into the overlap and differences between its in-store and digital customers.

With such pain point, Mediacom will be taking over to consolidate audience insights with the use of Xaxis’ audience analysis solution Beyond.

Alfitrahmat Saputro, brand digital manager of PHD shared that unlike traditional panel-based market research, Beyond provided them with an audience analysis based entirely on the real-world behavior of their actual customers on both the website and physical stores.

Meanwhile, Yunnita Avreda, country head for Xaxis Indonesia said, “We were excited to work with a client so open to trying new innovations. With customers who can interact with the brand online through their delivery website, in-store, or through pick-up and take-out, Pizza Hut Delivery Indonesia was a perfect fit for Beyond and its capability to bridge online and offline consumer data.”

Xaxis Beyond will be made available across the APAC region.