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Tag: Rob Norman

  • Madison Media appoints Rob Norman as advisor to accelerate digital transformation

    Madison Media appoints Rob Norman as advisor to accelerate digital transformation

    Mumbai: Madison Media is delighted to announce that it has appointed Rob Norman as an advisor to accelerate digital transformation at key clients.

    Rob has a wealth of experience in the Digital space – having been global head of Digital at GroupM. He has also been CEO of GroupM, North America. Currently, he is an independent Board member at Piano, MiQ, Simpli.fi, Nova and Hunch and is an advisor to a few other digital first companies.

    Norman will offer advisory services to Madison’s top clients, introduce the agency to new tools, concepts and workflows.

    Madison Media, India’s largest homegrown independent media agency, has recently been ranked as the world’s 4th largest independent media agency by RECMA. Madison Media has also topped RECMA’s qualitative ranking chart and has done so for last 4 consecutive years with a Dominant Score. Madison Media ranks No. 1 in Vitality (based on Comp pitches – new biz wins vs losses and Momentum – awards, agency seniors, industry share)

    Madison World chairman Sam Balsara said, “We are delighted to have Rob join us as a strategic advisor in the digital transformation space and am sure he will add a lot of value to our teams and our clients. The Advertising world has turned Digital. India with a Digital share of Adex at 40% tracks a little behind the Global average of 55% and we hope with Rob’s help to offer world beating thought leadership to our Clients.”

    Madison Media & OOH partner & group CEO Vikram Sakhuja said, “I have had the privilege of working with Rob for many years and his insights, clarity of thought and approach to Clients’ businesses has been inspiring. I’m thrilled to be able to partner with him again in helping build the business of Madison’s Clients.”

    Norman said, “I have known Sam, Vikram and Madison for many years. I am a great admirer of the business and its leadership. Independent, entrepreneurial organizations are well placed to innovate with speed and agility. I am excited to spend more time in India, it’s a country I love and a country rich in opportunity.”

  • Rob Norman quits GroupM

    Rob Norman quits GroupM

    MUMBAI: GroupM’s global chief digital officer Rob Norman has decided to retire from his full-time role effective January 2018. Hewill remain an advisor to GroupM and its clients, with a reduced workload that allows him more time to pursue personal interests.

    Norman decided to call it quits after giving over 31 years of his life to CIA, MEC and GroupM.

    GroupM global CEO Kelly Clark says, “Happily, this is not goodbye. We thank Rob for his loyal service and for continuing to share his passion and vision for this business as GroupM and the industry continue to evolve. Rob has been a fantastic partner to our clients, our people and our company, so I’m delighted that he will continue in an advisory capacity.”

    On his exit, Norman says, “GroupM, WPP and before that CIA, have been my work, my life and almost always my pleasure. My friends in the business know that I’ve become very attached to a rural life and understand that after 31 years, it’s time to do other things. It’s a curiosity of our business that few people get to step back, yet stay involved; I’m honoured that GroupM is allowing me to do exactly that.”

  • Digital ad investment will surpass TV in five more countries: GroupM’s Interaction 2017

    MUMBAI: GroupM has published Interaction 2017, a state of the union assessment of digital advertising worldwide with forecasts on technology developments, media marketplace trends and evolving consumer behaviors informed by experts from WPP’s worldwide network of communications, marketing and data companies. 

    The report offers in-depth insights underpinning digital advertising growth forecasts in 46 markets. Topics covered include ad fraud and marketplace integrity, fake news, privacy, ad blocking, artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality, video competition across platforms, live video, advanced television, streaming and on-demand audio, and much more.  In the report, GroupM’s global chief digital officer Rob Norman and Futures Director Adam Smith, also share views on media pricing, the consolidation of economic value in media among a small group of companies, and media consumption and ecommerce trends.

    As reported in its “This Year, Next Year,” worldwide media and marketing forecast, GroupM predicts that digital advertising will capture 77 cents of every new ad dollar in 2017; TV will capture 17 cents. Despite challenges around standards, measurement and supply chain integrity, digital advertising continues to grow rapidly as marketers follow consumers to the media destinations where they spend their time, and increasingly transact for goods and services. Digital investment has already surpassed TV in ten markets* and another five will cross this bar in 2017 (France, Germany, Ireland, Hong Kong and Taiwan), GroupM predicts.

    As the competition for consumer attention and advertiser investment escalates, people worldwide are spending more time with media. On a population-weighted average, the overall time spent with media (the ‘media day’) grew by nine minutes to eight hours in 2016, but time spent with online media grew by 14 minutes. This is attributable to the greater access to media that mobile technologies provide. Mobile similarly contributed to the growth of adult internet users to 2.34B in 2016.

    However, GroupM’s data shows that for now, TV is still king with advertisers when global data is aggregated. TV’s share of advertising investment was largely stable at 42% in 2016; GroupM predicts a share decline to 41% in 2017. TV rode a five-year peak share at 44% from 2010-2014, with only minimal share shedding since then.

    Still, linear TV demographics continued shifting in 2016, with the loss of the 16-24 year-old demographic remaining one of its biggest challenges. Though the global population of 16-24 year-olds only decreased 1% 2014-2016, the average “tonnage” of the 16-24 linear TV audience shrank 16%, with some markets reaching numbers closer to 30%. GroupM clarifies that some of this loss is exacerbated by TV’s other big challenge – the inadequate measurement of TV’s total audience across platforms. GroupM continues to advocate measurement improvements to better evaluate television across all devices in markets across the globe. The absence of close substitutes means that for now, those advertisers seeking this young adult TV audience can be willing to bear price inflation in proportion to its rising scarcity.

    In the report, GroupM also examines the coalescing of economic value among six global companies who hold the lion’s share of digital ad spending, with Google and Facebook at the forefront. GroupM notes that these companies have very different business models than the owners of linear TV, and they also attract different advertisers. Advertisers accounting for 90% of TV advertising revenue represent between 30% and 40% of the revenue earned by the digital giants. The other 70% of their revenue comes from a combination of small and local businesses, often ones that trade in digital products or services. This bifurcation among classes of advertisers is subject to change as television becomes more data-fueled and targeted (more like digital) and as video content on digital platforms continues to be enhanced with greater quality (more like TV).

    “Google and Facebook attracted the vast majority of incremental digital ad investment growth in 2016,” said Smith. “In 2017, the industry will be watching closely to see how Snapchat or Amazon may creep into Facebook’s and Google’s value chain, and if the stronghold that ‘BAT’ (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent) has in China can expand to international markets.”

    Interaction 2017 also looks at consumer purchase behaviors. In 2016, ecommerce totaled USD 1.874 trillion, globally, fully 20% more than the USD 1.558 trillion logged in 2015. GroupM forecasts 18% growth for ecommerce in 2017, surpassing the two-trillion mark to USD 2.205 trillion.  On average, online shopping per user is projected at USD 869 in 2017. The U.K. remains home to the most active online shoppers, predicted to average USD 4,000 per user in 2017. Combined, Amazon and Alibaba represent more than half of all e-commerce (excluding the travel category).

    “Last year, we were cautious in our estimation of the rate of change, but this year we are less so in the face developments in hardware and software technologies that are advancing us from the information age to the intelligence age,” said Norman. “To help shape our thinking and speculation in this year’s Interaction, we invited more than 20 partners** to discuss AI, augmented and virtual reality, video competition, advanced and data-driven TV, streaming and on-demand audio, the Google/Facebook digital duopoly, live video, ecommerce, marketplace integrity and fake news. The result is both one of the most comprehensive pieces on the state of digital we’ve ever written and also a springboard for marketers to think long and hard about their future. We invite debate that will undoubtedly ensue.”

    (* Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom.)

    {** Amazon, AppNexus, comScore, DoubleClick, eMarketer, ESPN, Facebook, Google, Hulu, IAB, IBM, LinkedIn, NBCU, Pandora, Pinterest, The New York Times, Snapchat, Turner, Twitter, Vox Media, YouTube.}

    public://global-002.jpg

  • GroupM names Brian Lesser as CEO, North America

    GroupM names Brian Lesser as CEO, North America

    MUMBAI: WPP’s GroupM has appointed Brian Lesser as CEO for business in the US and Canada.

     

    Lesser was previously Xaxis global CEO. He succeeds Kelly Clark, who will be transitioning to a new advisory role focused on strategic initiatives with clients and specialty businesses over the coming months.

     

    With this, Brian Gleason will succeed Lesser as Xaxis global CEO.

     

    In concert with these changes, GroupM global chief digital officer Rob Norman adds the position of chairman, North America to his responsibilities.

     

    The new roles for the two executives reflect GroupM’s certainty that the future of media-driven marketing is inextricably tied to data and technology. Key investments and partnerships over the past several years that support this positioning include WPP’s investments in comScore and AppNexus; GroupM’s and Kantar Media’s partnership with Rentrak; more recent alliances with BuzzFeed and Networked Insights; introduction of the industry’s first data management platform and first programmatic audience platform; introduction of Modi Media, the first fully-formed advanced TV specialty business delivering addressable TV ads at scale; and numerous progressive positions on digital ad viewability and measurement that are focused on raising the bar for effectiveness and trading currency.

     

    While driving advancement in North America, Lesser and Norman also each continue serving on GroupM’s global executive committee, led by GroupM global president Dominic Proctor and global chairman Irwin Gotlieb.

     

    “Brian will be a huge part of our future and his appointment reflects our values and ambition, as well as WPP’s drive to achieve 40-45% of revenues from digital in five years. Our future is being built on tech, data, talent and scale.  Brian absolutely gets that and is perfectly suited to help us shape that future to best serve advertisers.  We’re very fortunate to have him leading our business in the world’s biggest market,” said Proctor.

     

    “GroupM has continuously evolved with clients through major shifts in the media landscape and consumer behavior with data and technology having always been part of the value proposition. GroupM has challenged convention and forced dialogue on important issues to help clients be more successful. I’m humbled and grateful to have an opportunity to help continue this legacy at this time when complexity is more profound than ever,” added Lesser.

     

    “This is an exciting time for our company. We have many successes to count and new marketplace challenges to conquer, but above all, we have the strength of our agency brands, our specialist enterprises and our increasing differentiation in the management and application of data that leave us exceptionally well-positioned for the future. I’m energized by the road ahead and excited to work with Brian and our colleagues on the executive committee for the next chapter,” said Norman.

  • Buzzfeed and GroupM ink global advertising deal

    Buzzfeed and GroupM ink global advertising deal

    MUMBAI: Technology driven media company BuzzFeed and WPP’s GroupM have inked a global partnership to provide GroupM’s and WPP’s agencies and clients with unprecedented access to BuzzFeed’s creative and data assets.

     

    Led by GroupM, WPP agencies will benefit from: 

     

    • The first beta partnership with Pound, BuzzFeed’s proprietary data technology that offers insights and analytics around how content shares across the social web;

    • A dedicated creative group at BuzzFeed Motion Pictures to produce branded video content for WPP clients;

    • A creative residency allowing WPP creative teams access to BuzzFeed’s expertise producing social content for all platforms; and

    • Preferential media pricing for clients of GroupM agencies.

     

    GroupM chief digital officer Rob Norman said, “The future of advertising lies at the intersection of creativity, data, media and technology; that’s where BuzzFeed has built its business and proved its value to brands. This is a terrific opportunity for our clients to move swiftly and succeed in the fastest growing media platforms. We have appointed partnership leaders from each GroupM agency, and other WPP agencies will do the same.”

     

    GroupM president Dominic Proctor added, “WPP’s investments in content demonstrate its commitment to creating socially and culturally resonant content for millennials. GroupM’s partnership with BuzzFeed adds a new dimension to this capability and amplifies our other partnerships.”

     

    BuzzFeed president Greg Coleman said, “This is an exciting time for our company. Our audience is growing on and off platform. Our Motion Pictures studio is booming and now reaches 1.5 billion video views a month – from shorter than short form on Snapchat, to original scripted series. We’re excited to take our unique approach and voice in branded content, data and iterative learning in a big way with GroupM and their clients.”

     

    The arrangement involves no investment or equity exchange between the companies.

  • $99 bn spent on internet ads globally in 2012: GroupM

    MUMBAI: Global internet advertising at $99 billion has amounted to 19.5 per cent of the total ad investment for 2012, according to GroupM‘s This Year, Next Year: Interaction 2013 report. This justifies GroupM‘s prediction in last year’s report that said internet ad spends that year will surpass $98 billion.

    Global internet advertising, according to GroupM, posted a 16.2 per cent growth over the year-ago period.

    Geographically speaking, North America led the list with internet spends to the tune of $38.3 billion (38.69 per cent of global internet ad spends) followed by the Asia Pacific region at $30.6 billion (30.91 per cent) and Western Europe in third place with spends of $ 24.1 billion (24.34 per cent).

    In 2011, the spends on internet advertising stood at $84.8 billion. Back then, it made up 17 per cent of the total global advertising investment. In 2011 too, North America led the pack in terms of overall digital ad spending with an estimated $34.5 billion; Asia-Pacific came in second with $24.8 billion followed by Western Europe with $21 billion.

    The study is part of GroupM‘s media and marketing forecasting series drawn from data supplied by parent company WPP‘s worldwide resources in advertising, public relations, market research, and specialist communications. The study has expanded its scope since last year, adding six new countries to its research bringing the total to 26 countries.

    The study predicts that in 2013 digital advertising spending will reach $113.5 billion globally, a spike of 14.6 per cent from 2012. This is estimated to be 21 per cent of all measured advertising investment in the year. North America will continue to be the region with the highest internet ad spends with an estimated $42.8 billion; Asia-Pacific is predicted to follow with $36.8 billion and Western Europe is estimated to see ad spends in the range of $26.6 billion.

    In the U.S., digital ad spends reached $35.4 billion in 2012, a 23 per cent share of the overall domestic market and a 10 per cent increase over the previous year, according to the study. This year those figures are expected to reach $39.7 billion for a 25.4 per cent share and a 12 per cent increase over 2011.

    GroupM global chief digital officer Rob Norman said, “The internet no longer belongs to the old world and eastern Asia, nor does it depend upon evolution of infrastructure conceived a generation or more ago, but instead reaches every continent and economically active individual. Ken Olsen, founder and CEO of Digital Equipment said in 1977, ‘There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home.’ It turns out that he may, inadvertently, have been right. Why have a computer in your home when you can have computing anywhere you like?”

    Norman also touched upon the issue of the rise and impact of online video. “Tablets created an entirely new and original mechanism of media consumption in less than three years. Tablets combine the display quality of HDTV, the interactivity of the PC and the location awareness, touch interface and app ecosystem of the mobile phone. Media is being re-imagined for the tablet and is increasingly seen as the future home of what we have always described as the print industry, the decline of which is precipitous with ever-fewer exceptions,” he sated.

    According to the report, e-commerce per user will stand at $859 in 2013, a 64 per cent increase since 2007. International e-commerce total adds up to $917 billion for 2012 with a run-rate growth of 18 per cent to a predicted $1.1 trillion in 2013. This volume of e-commerce generates an estimated 40 per cent of online paid-media ad investment today.

    The study also reveals that the average percentage of consumers’ “media time” spent online has risen from 21 per cent in 2007 to a predicted 30 per cent in 2013. In 2011, it was 19 per cent.

    Additionally, it was also found that investment in print media continued to lose share while digital media investment continued to gain. While print accounted for 14 per cent of the media time spent in a day, it attracted about 24 per cent of investment, down from 48 per cent. The decline of print advertising reflects falling circulations in the old world, but its share of the world‘s media day has been surprisingly stable, and even increased in 2011, thanks to China.

    % shares of the media day (26 countries)
     
    2007
    2008
    2009
    2010
    2011
    2012
    2013f
    Online
    21
    22
    25
    26
    27
    29
    30
    TV
    42
    42
    42
    41
    39
    38
    38
    Print
    15
    16
    15
    14
    16
    14
    14
    Radio
    16
    19
    19
    18
    18
    18
    18
    Total
    100
    100
    100
    100
    100
    100
    100

    These figures thrown up by the GroupM report substantiate the media communications conglomerate‘s confidence in the medium. The year 2012 saw media communications networks focus on digital capabilities with the big guns going on a shopping spree around the world.

    UK-based WPP, led by media honcho Sir Martin Sorrell, made as many as 18 digital buys across the globe with America’s AKQA being the crowning jewel in its acquisition trophy. The company made some strategic investments in the Indian subcontinent as well with the acquisition of Indian digital services agency Hungama Digital and Pakistani digital agency Converge Technologies.

    France based Publicis Groupe was also aggressive in its digital aspirations and made 13 acquisitions in the digital ad agency space, three of which were in India. Other media agency networks like Havas Media, Dentsu and the Interpblic Group have also taken the acquisition route to strengthen their digital capacities. Havas underwent a restructuring that made way for an exclusive Digital Umbrella in order to better integrate its digital arm with its creative and media businesses.

    The advertisers too seemed to be gung-ho about the medium with almost every major brand making sure it gets its share of limelight in the digital space. Brands like Nike, Coca-Cola, Mercedes and McDonald‘s made use of tools like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter apart from display ads to influence and engage the audiences.

  • Vikram Sakhuja is Maxus global CEO

    Vikram Sakhuja is Maxus global CEO

    MUMBAI: Vikram Sakhuja, CEO of GroupM for India and South Asia, has been appointed as global CEO of Maxus at a time when it has pocketed a string of new accounts including the prized NBC Universal and SC Johnson.

    Interestingly, this will be the first time that the CEO of Maxus will be based out of India.

    Sakhuja will succeed Kelly Clark who will now be in charge of the Group‘s operations in North America.

    Continuing to be based in Mumbai, Sakhuja will take over the new responsibility after the agency finds his replacement at GroupM.

    GroupM, WPP’s media agency, has carried out a number of changes including GroupM North America CEO Rob Norman who has been named as the chief digital officer of the agency in a newly created position.

    Sakhuja, Clark and Norman will report to GroupM global president Dominic Proctor. Each will begin his new role later this year.

    “Vikram is the perfect candidate to take on the Maxus role from Kelly. Maxus has a great management team and a lot of momentum. I have no doubt that Vikram will continue to build a great agency,” Proctor said.

    He added that Sakhuja will remain in his current role until his successor is announced.

    Sakhuja told Indiantelevision.com, “It is a very exciting opportunity to be leading Maxus which is a young and energetic brand. Being named as global CEO is very humbling.”

    Sakhuja has over 28 years of experience in the industry. He had joined GroupM in 2002 as MD Fulcrum. He was later promoted as MD of Mindshare South Asia and then to CEO for GroupM South Asia. Prior to joining GroupM, he has also worked with Star TV as EVP-marketing, Coca-Cola India as marketing manager brands and Procter & Gamble.

  • Internet ad spend up 16% to $84.8 bn in 2011: GroupM study

    Internet ad spend up 16% to $84.8 bn in 2011: GroupM study

    MUMBAI: According to GroupM study, Internet advertising has seen a 16 per cent rise over the previous year reaching to $84.8 billion in 2011 and accounting for over 17 per cent of all global measured advertising expenditures.

    With maximum digital ad spend of $34.5 billion, North America leads the chart. Asia-Pacific with $24.8 billion and Western Europe with $21 billion are next in the list.

    The study titled ‘This Year, Next Year: Interaction 2012’ is GroupM‘s media and marketing forecasting series drawn from data supplied by parent company WPP‘s worldwide resources in advertising, public relations, market research, and specialist communications.

    GroupM forecasts digital ad spend to touch $98.2 billion globally this year. The figure represents almost 19 per cent of all measured advertising investment.

    In 2011, digital advertising spending hit $32.2 billion in the U.S. This represents a 22 per cent share of the overall domestic market and a 12 per cent increase over the previous year. This year those figures are expected to reach $35.4 billion for a 23 per cent share and a 10 per cent increase over 2011.

    New York-based GroupM Interaction global CEO Rob Norman said, “At the risk of an ‘oh really?‘ response, it‘s possible to argue that for the first time since these reports began that the last year has been one of evolution rather than revolution. It seems that less is brand new and that a combination of scale of usage of an increasingly social and mobile web, the penetration of devices supported by it, and the continued atomization of audiences and content, in both their creation and distribution combine to tell the story of the year.”

    Norman added, “In 2007 we speculated about a world that would be truly social, searchable, mobile, addressable and interactive and illuminated by data that could be collected and applied across all marketing functions; in 2012 that is no longer a matter for conjecture.”

    The 20-country report also details ad investment in paid search and Internet display as well as providing data on broadband penetration, media time spent online and e-commerce per user data.

    Digital advertising‘s share of total ad investment rose from 4.4 per cent worldwide in 2004 to a projected 18.8 per cent in 2012. The average percentage of consumers‘ ‘media time’ spent online increased from 11 per cent in 2006 to 19 per cent in 2011. The absolute number of broadband homes worldwide has nearly tripled in this period to reach 500 million, and the typical country has seen broadband penetration grow by half. Aside from general monetary inflation, ad investment growth has two main vectors: aggregate audience hours, and advertising intensity per individual. Average online advertising investment per online user doubled between 2006 and 2011. For 2011, Norway had the highest per-capita online ad investment in the study‘s sample – $200.

    Additionally, e-commerce accounts for about 5 per cent of global retail sales today, with instant-on devices, secure and simple payment, vouchering, and the optimisation of retail for mobile serving as catalysts for growth. Consumer tablet penetration reached double digits in only three of the survey‘s countries in 2011: the US, Finland and South Korea. However, take-up is expected to be rapid and nine countries should reach double digit penetration in 2012.