In April of last year, IAS partnered with Amino to ‘bridge the transparency gap in programmatic’ by delivering a solution to show advertisers the true cost of their qualified media. The solution, called Total Visibility, provides advertisers with impression-level financial insights and media quality verification.

As a result of the acquisition, Total Visibility is now solely an IAS brand and Amino Payments will be retired.

“Programmatic advertising continues to grow at a tremendous pace, and with this acquisition we’re bringing comprehensive transparency to the entire industry,” said Lisa Utzschneider, IAS CEO. “By welcoming Amino Payments to IAS, we will unleash the full potential of programmatic advertising for marketers who need their campaigns to be highly effective and cost-efficient.”

Amino Payments CEO Will Luttrell added, “As even more digital media is transacted programmatically, the need for transparency will continue to be critical for advertisers. The Amino Payments team is thrilled to join IAS, the market leader in verification, to pursue a joint vision to bring unprecedented transparency into programmatic advertising.”

The post Integral Ad Science buys digital advertising transparency provider Amino appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

Essence makes four EMEA leadership promotions
Ryan Storrar has been promoted to Chief Operating Officer, EMEA at GroupM’s data and measurement-driven agency Essence. Alongside that promotion, Clare Chapman has been named Executive Vice President, Head of Media; Anna Berry has become Senior Vice President, Head of Client Services; and Sherif Grundy elevated to Senior Vice President of Data Strategy.

Storrar will be responsible for business growth and further strengthening the network through innovative new processes and technology. He was previously SVP, Head of Activation, EMEA.

Chapman, who was previously SVP, Head of Media Planning, EMEA, will bring activation and planning closer together and expand the company’s best practices and products.

Berry will be responsible for continuing to increase client satisfaction and grow new business, while Guindy will focus on deepening the integration of Essence’s data and technology offering with all of Essence’s clients and teams.

“These promotions are much deserved recognition for the hard work and innovation these individuals and their teams continually bring to our clients and our business,” said Tim Irwin, CEO, EMEA at Esssence. “Over the past 15 months, Essence has experienced a period of exceptional growth, adding brands such as L’Oréal, Airbnb, Sainsbury’s, Argos, ITV and Zoopla to our roster – brands looking to drive genuine transformation within their businesses. These appointments will further the strong momentum we have as a business going into 2021 and underscore our commitment to creating the next generation of industry leaders by investing in training and promoting from within.”

UK leadership changes at Wavemaker
Media agency network Wavemaker has elevated Emma Slater to the role of UK Managing Director and Christiaan Lette to UK Chief Digital Officer.

Slater has been Managing Director of Wavemaker North since 2018. In total, she has been with the business for almost 25 years. During that time, she has worked with some of the UK leading brands, such as First Group, Jet2, Inspired Pet Nutrition (IPN), Morrisons, and Princes Foods.

“I’m delighted to be given the opportunity to lead the UK business,” said Slater. “Wavemaker’s Positive Provocation positioning and belief in the three speeds of growth really mark us as out as an agency that’s doing things differently. I think there’s a fabulous chance to cement Wavemaker as the growth agency for brand-owners and I’ll be doing everything I can to help make that happen.”

Lette joined the agency two years ago to spearhead the development of Wavemaker’s Precision offering and running several key clients in the agency. In his new role, he will lead excellence, innovation and set best practice across Wavemaker’s client portfolio.

“I’m thrilled to be able to accelerate Wavemaker as one of the leading digital businesses in the UK,” said Lette. “Our Precision offering is market-leading but we want to push further and challenge the status quo on what digital best practice means for our clients and, importantly, our people.”

IAS hires Sharma as CPO
Tom Sharma has joined Integral Ad Science (IAS), a digital ad verification company, as Chief Product Officer. Based in New York and reporting to CEO Lisa Utzschneider, he will accelerate IAS’s global product expansion.

Sharma brings more than 20 years of experience building digital media and advertising products to his role at IAS. Most recently, he was the Senior Vice President and Head of Product at Intersection, where he led product, user experience design, engineering and technical operations. Prior to that, Sharma founded Impact Digital Media. He has also held leadership roles at AOL, NBCUniversal, and Hulu.

“IAS is always looking ahead to design products that solve complex challenges for its customers, and I look forward to leading the product team as we build for the future,” said Sharma. “Developing products that improve media quality and make advertising more effective has always been a driving principle for me, and at IAS we will continue to push the envelope when it comes to product innovation, especially in CTV and programmatic.”

Paysen named Europe MD at Magnite
Magnite, an omnichannel sell-side advertising platform, has appointed Johannes Paysen as its Managing Director for Central Europe. He is tasked with managing the continued growth of the Central Europe region including Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, and other operating markets.

Paysen joins Magnite from GroundTruth, where he served as Head of Germany & MENA. Alongside his appointment, Stephen Wing has been promoted to Head of EMEA and James Brown to Head of International. Sylwia Sajewska and Anne-Cathrin Voltmer will lead the buyer and seller teams respectively for Central Europe, reporting into Paysen.

“It’s a really exciting time to be in the industry because we have to be constantly adapting and moving,” said Paysen. “I am thrilled to be joining the impressive Magnite team. Working alongside Stephen, James and the rest of the Central European team, I hope to uphold all of the great work they have accomplished in being at the global forefront of SSPs. We will strive towards ensuring that publishers can continue to sell advertising on their own terms across any channel or platform whilst maintaining transparency and effective collaboration.”

Lab’s Studio BLUP selects Lane as CMO
Laura Lane has been elevated to Chief Marketing Officer at Studio BLUP, part of the Lab Group agencies. She will be responsible for overseeing the marketing strategy across the agency, creating unique content and initiatives to stop the scroll, and will focus on formalising and launching Studio BLUPs in-house talent network.

Lane has spent just over a year and a half freelancing at the agency to help manage client projects for the likes of Nerf and Reebok whilst also running her own personalised gift and visual storytelling business My Icon Story. Prior to this, she worked for Wavemaker for over six years, moving her way up from graduate to Creative Lea, where she worked with clients including Netflix, EE, Paramount Pictures, Peroni, Evian, Nivea, B&Q, Comparethemarket, Johnson & Johnson, Ferrero, and TfL.

“This promotion could not have come at a more exciting time and I know Ill be able to make the greatest impact to Studio BLUP as a growing agency,” said Lane. “Although I am not a founder, I hand on heart see BLUP as my own business so being promoted to Chief Marketing Officer only reinforces the ambitious journey BLUP are on and I’m thrilled to be shaping the agency’s direction.

“To me, BLUP isn’t work. It’s a collaborative mission to disrupt and shape the future of the creative industries by providing meaningful opportunities to the young creative talent we support.”

Former Vodafone media head Evans joins Adgile as CEO
Paul Evans has taken up the role of Global Chief Executive Officer at TV data and effectiveness business Adgile Media. He joins to lead the company’s continued growth in Australia, and expansion into the key strategic markets of North America and Europe through a focus on product innovation, marketing, talent development and culture.

Evans, who served as a board advisor to Adgile over the last 12 months, has more than 20 years of experience in marketing and media. He has served in senior client-side leadership roles at Kimberly-Clark, Xbox, and Vodafone, as well as media agency roles in China and Dubai. As Global Head of Media at Vodafone, he led the company’s marketing operations strategy.

“I wanted to join and help build a truly innovative and game-changing business,” said Evans. “Adgile’s visual recognition technology is exactly that, bringing unique real-time visibility and control to fuel the future of TV data and effectiveness. It’s a true privilege to be part of the amazing Adgile team at this time of accelerated growth, as we deliver better TV measurement for a modern marketing era.”

Adverty looks to Nymberg to direct on business development
Johanna Nymberg has been hired as Director of Business Development at Adverty, an in-game advertising platform. She will be responsible for driving publisher revenue globally on the back of the launch of new offices across Europe and APAC.

Nymberg was most recently Senior Publisher Growth Manager at AdColony, working from both London and Singapore.

“Adverty’s formats are a great advantage to brands and publishers. As it is still a new ad monetisation format, this makes the role even more exciting,” said Nymberg. “Adverty is genuinely setting a new standard for generating revenue and I will be driving new game integrations and expanding the use of the platform via high-value deals and strategic, long-term partnerships, further establishing Adverty as the leading in-game advertising company.”

Brooks and Jans added to Future Platforms leadership
Future Platforms, which develops digital products to help customer management, has welcomed Remy Brooks as Head of Strategy and Greet Jans as Head of Experience.

Brooks has joined the agency to lead its strategy services and provide a wealth of experience from a decade of working across a diverse range of industries. In his most recent role at Mubaloo, Brooks helped grow the agency by refining its proposition and offering, and supporting the development of a team of product owners and strategists.

Jans will lead the UX & UI team. She was most recently Creative Director of Experience at Publicis Sapient.

Kubient turns to Roberts as Interim CEO
Paul Roberts has been appointed Interim Chief Executive Officer at Kubient, a cloud-based digital advertising software platform.

Roberts, who is Chairman, Founder, and Chief Strategy Officer of Kubient, succeeds Peter Bordes, who will remain at the company in his current capacity as Director.

“On behalf of the entire organisation, we thank Pete for his leadership during such a critical stage of Kubients growth,” said Roberts. “We are appreciative of the instrumental role he played as CEO and the many accomplishments we realised during his tenure. We look forward to benefiting from his continued guidance as a shareholder and member of the board.”

Menko to strategise for Born Social
Social media agency Born Social has appointed Will Menko to the role of Strategist.

Before joining Born Social, Meno worked as a Planner at Digital Natives, where he led on familiar brands like Dermalogica, L’Oreal, and Gü, as well as helping the agency to a series of new account wins including Breville, Crockpot, and Yankee Candles. Prior to this, he was a Senior Account Manager at Adam&EveDDB, where he helped Volkswagen to rebuild trust among consumers following the emissions scandal in 2016.

“I’m really happy to be joining Born Social at this point in my career,” said Menko. “They have a reputation for blending traditional marketing principles with progressive, social-first thinking. It’s not only personally exciting to be a part of that, but it’s also where I feel brands can now be most commercially and culturally impactful. Plus, they couldn’t be a more lovely, ambitious and talented group of people. I’m extremely excited to see what we can do next.” 

Never.no opts for Macey to direct on sales
Harry Macey has been named as Sales Director at Never.no, an audience engagement specialist. He has been tasked with fine-tuning market development strategy and working closely with the global sales team to lead outreach and all sales-based activities.

Macey arrives at Never.no from Grabyo, where he spent four years, progressing from Junior Sales manager to Head of Sales for EMEA.

“Im absolutely thrilled to be joining Never.no and help drive the growth of the business at a time where audience engagement and participation is crucial for broadcasters and rights owners to continue innovating their output,” said Macey. “I can’t wait to work with the team and support clients in taking ownership with new forms of real-time and live video production workflows in the cloud, and develop their offerings on social media, mobile and online video to meet a variety of goals.”

Three additions made to exec team at Oxford Road
Performance audio agency Oxford Road has welcomed Steven Abraham as President, Kraig Kitchin as Strategic Advisor, and Jennifer Laine to lead marketing and key strategic initiatives.

Prior to joining Oxford Road, Abraham was a Managing Director of OMD USA. He has served other posts as Managing Director EVP of MediaCom LA, Global Client Director at Mediacom Global, VP of Media and Advertising Universal Pictures International, and is currently a strategic business development advisor to Orfium.

Kitchin is a Co-founder of Premiere Radio Networks, which he led for 10 years to become the US’s largest radio network. He acts as Co-President of Big Shoes Productions and is Co-President of talent management firm Sound Mind. Kitchin is also Chairman of the National Radio Hall of Fame.

Laine has formally joined Oxford Road to oversee strategic marketing and business development having been an ally to the company previously.

“By partnering with these three individuals of stunning reputation and talent, our company has never been positioned to reach even greater heights.” said Oxford Road Founder and CEO, Dan Granger. “Oxford Road launched in 2013 and quickly became one of the fastest-growing companies in America. In the last few years, we have focused on building a world class infrastructure and deepening our competitive advantage. We are now poised to win our category by enabling our clients to win theirs.”

The post Movers and Shakers: Essence, Wavemaker, Integral Ad Science, Magnite, and more appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

We spoke with Paul Nasse, managing director, Northern Europe, to find out more.

Q: We’re excited that IAS has launched their latest piece of research – what’s the aim of this report?
For our latest piece of research, the Industry Pulse Report 2020, we surveyed digital media professionals across Western Europe, including the United Kingdom, France and Germany. Our aim was to find out the key priorities, most troubling challenges and the exciting trends set to top the digital advertising agenda in 2020. This is an important piece of research for us, and our partners, to gauge what the industry is thinking as we enter the new year and, in this instance, a whole new decade.

Q: What were some of the most important findings for you in this year’s report?
Brand suitability is a big focus for us as a company this year. Our report found that the rest of the industry mirrors this sentiment, with 82 per cent placing contextual targeting as the biggest industry trend in 2020. It’s incredibly important that the industry transitions from the binary focus of brand safety, towards the more nuanced and customisable approach of brand suitability.

A second insight was how data privacy still remains top of mind for our industry, with 45 per cent perceiving data privacy as the top challenge in 2020. As the primary media challenge of 2020, it’s not surprising that an overwhelming majority of media professionals also foresee this greater importance of contextual advertising in 2020, ensuring ads are personally relevant to the target audience.

Finally, programmatic came out as an important point of discussion for respondents across Western Europe. Targeting relevant audiences was the top programmatic challenge for our respondents, whilst it was also considered to be the most vulnerable environment for ad fraud. It’s clear that the industry is now taking programmatic as a serious consideration for effective campaign targeting, however there are still some important challenges to overcome.

Q: So, unsurprisingly, as a publication we are specifically interested in mobile. What insights did you discover on this topic?
The report reveals mobile will be the dominant media force in 2020, cited by 87 per cent of respondents as their number one priority for 2020. This was closely followed by digital video at 86 per cent, signalling a shift in industry efforts to align with changing consumer habits and the growing appetite for on-the-go, short-form content.

The study findings, however, show an awareness that increased spending could also trigger a rise in ad fraud. 40 per cent of media professionals consider mobile in-app display and video formats among the most vulnerable to fraudulent activity. Effectively optimising mobile campaigns against malicious attacks will be very important in the year ahead.

Q: Let’s home in on programmatic – what is the latest on that hot topic?
When it comes to programmatic technology, emphasis seems to be moving from media quality assurance to advertising effectiveness. Over half (52 per cent) of respondents cite targeting the right audience as their top programmatic advertising challenge, with inability to reach desired performance goals coming in second (45 per cent). Concerns around viewability and brand safety were previously a top concern for automated advertising. However, this latest report shows concerns have now reduced, with these factors now listed as challenges by only one-third (34 per cent and 32 per cent respectively) of media professionals.

Q: So, good news for programmatic! What about the issues of trust and transparency in social media?
It’s a positive conversation here, too. Despite continued conversations around transparency, social media remains a vital element of digital campaigns. While just 73 per cent of media professionals feel platforms could provide greater clarity around brand risk levels and 63 per cent want more openness into viewability measurement, this anxiety hasn’t reduced desire to invest in social media. In fact, concern has significantly fallen over the last year, with only 35 per cent of UK-specific respondents stating that a lack of transparency will negatively affect 2020 social media spend, in contrast to 70 per cent in the 2019 IAS Industry Pulse Report.

Q: We know there have been positive steps made with ad fraud, and yet it remains an issue. What’s the latest here?
Results from our report point to positive progress in the fight against online ad fraud. In comparison to the average global fraud rate for desktop display (11.7 per cent), 55 per cent of respondents believe their ad campaigns experience lower levels of fraud exposure.

Further analysis broken down in the full report, however, suggests this enthusiasm may be partly due to limited understanding. Although knowledge of common types of ad fraud such as bots, falsely represented sites, and malware is high, with over 70 per cent of respondents claiming familiarity, the wider ad fraud toolkit is less well recognised. In the year ahead, addressing low familiarity with risks such as invalid proxy traffic (54 per cent), hijacked ad tags (49 per cent), and cookie stuffing (49 per cent) will be essential.

Q: What’s a lasting piece of advice you’d give to our reader based on learnings from the data?
There is a significant opportunity in 2020 for positive change in the digital advertising industry. It is clear that 2019 was a year that stimulated growth, greater understanding and more trust in technology. Brand suitability will become the new gold standard for digital. The industry must adopt this approach to achieve reliable precision that lands content in an environment aligned to brand values, without compromising on scale or ROI. Secondly, ensure you have an effective line of communication with all your partners across the ecosystem, to improve transparency around data and information. This will be key if we are to continue moving forward as an industry.

The post “Brand suitability will become the new gold standard”: IAS discusses digital ads in 2020 appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

By bringing in ADmantX, IAS will look to enable publishers and advertisers to match ads with relevant online content at page level. The acquisition also gives IAS more deep relationships with brands and publishers and access to patented technology, as well as the expertise behind it.

“ADmantX shares our bold and disruptive vision to use science as the foundation of building innovative and effective solutions,” said IAS CEO Lisa Utzschneider. “Adding this sophisticated contextual technology to our global product suite unlocks unprecedented contextual classification at scale, enabling precise ad targeting for marketers.”

ADmantX, based in Italy, uses natural language processing technology and machine learning to read content and detect changes in context surrounding certain words, therefore making ads more contextually relevant within these environments. It combines this with an examination of the interests of consumers based on the media they’re consuming online.   

The pair already had an agreement in place that meant IAS was offering ADmantX’s services. Now, it will take on all of the company’s staff and fully absorb it, getting rid of the ADmantX name.

“The ADmantX team is thrilled to be joining IAS, an organisation that leads through data and science. The addition of our leading cognitive and linguistic intelligence technology to IAS will supply the industry with powerful and precise tools to drive ad adjacencies and increase customer engagement without limiting scale and optimize publisher content inventories,” said ADmantX CEO Giovanni Strocchi.

The post Integral Ad Science buys contextual ad firm ADmantX for €16m appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

The research found that a massive 91 per cent of UK consumers find ads being next to high-quality content to be important – leading 65 per cent of them to be more likely to engage with the ads. The figures are almost as high in France (90 per cent), the US (83 per cent), and Japan (82 per cent).

87 per cent of UK consumers also view ad relevance as being important, alongside 93 per cent of people in France and 80 per cent in the US.

On the other side of the coin, 88 per cent of UK consumers are annoyed when ads appear next to low-quality content and only 22 per cent are likely to engage in those instances. 92 per cent of French and 90 per cent of Indonesian consumers feel the same.

The impact of low-quality content surrounding ads goes further by leading to 55 per cent of UK consumers feeling less favourable about brands and 70 per cent stopping using brands altogether. 68 per cent of Brits hold brands accountable for their poor placements.

“The Ripple Effect study shows there is a clear link between contextual ad quality and consumer response,” said Nick Morley, EMEA MD at Integral Ad Science. “As a positive takeaway, there is an opportunity for brands to harness the dual power of tailored ads and high-quality placement to drive greater audience engagement. However, it’s also vital to acknowledge the counterpoint. Placing ads beside low-quality content has significant consequences: carrying a high risk of damage to brand perception and even revenue – which, over time, will also impact the publisher. To ensure online ads drive the right reaction, brand suitability must be a top ad placement priority.”

The post Consumers want to see ads next to high-quality content, and are more likely to engage appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

For more interviews from DMEXCO 2019, click here

The post Talking Mobile at DMEXCO 2019: Integral Ad Science appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

Uber selects Roylett as UK GM
Melinda Roylett has been appointed the general manager for the UK and Ireland at Uber – a role which covers the app’s Rides business in more than 40 towns and cities across England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland.

Roylett joins from Square, where she was most recently head of Europe and responsible for all business and operations in the region. Before joining Square, she spent almost 10 years at PayPal, where she managed the small and medium business segment and launched products across Europe, Middle East, and Africa.

“Having grown up in the suburbs, with limited transport options, I know how apps like Uber can make a genuine impact on the day to day,” said Roylett. “Getting from A to B should be easy, no matter where you’re going or what time it is. I am excited to be joining the company as we look to build out even more ways to get the UK moving, support licensed drivers and help make our cities cleaner.”

Mackaro joins AccuWeather to lead science
AccuWeather has hired Scott Mackaro as vice president of science, innovation and development. He will lead AccuWeather’s scientific development and research operations, serving as the senior advisor on innovation and overseeing the advancement of new products and solutions in meteorology and other scientific disciplines.

Mackaro arrives from Iteris ClearAg, a precision agriculture platform, where he served as product manager and, most recently, director of key accounts. Prior to that, he was product manager and research scientist in the applied meteorology group at Vaisala, and he also spent a year as a visiting assistant professor of meteorology at Metropolitan University in Denver before a post-doctoral position at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s research laboratory. He is a founding member of Precision Wind.

“Scott brings an impressive range of experience and an extensive breadth of skills to this critical role,” said Chris Patti, AccuWeathers chief technology officer. “His leadership and scientific knowledge base make him an ideal fit with AccuWeathers core leadership team, and will be essential in helping us develop new and better tools to help businesses in every industry more effectively manage the unique risks and opportunities created by weather events around the world.”

IAS makes Johnson revenue boss
Chance Johnson has been named as chief revenue officer at Integral Ad Science (IAS). Based out of New York and reporting directly to chief executive officer Lisa Utzschneider, he will lead the company’s global sales organisation, spearheading an accelerated growth plan and optimising its global sales approach and strategy.

Most recently, he served as senior vice president of sales at Amobee. Before that, he was global vice president of sales at Rubicon Project, joining the company via the acquisition of Chango, where he led the sales and client services functions.

“I am honoured to be joining IAS at this exciting juncture. IAS powers digital media quality and outcomes for the world’s largest set of brands, publishers and proprietary platforms and I am excited to grow these relationships even further,” said Johnson. “Marketers everywhere are looking to build more meaningful connections with their respective audiences, and I’m thrilled to be a part of the driving force in helping them deliver great impressions.”

Koronaios to lead publisher relations at Bidstack
In-game advertising platform Bidstack Group has made John Koronaios its vice president of publisher relations. He will be responsible for building relationships with game developers and publishers are the company expands its presence in the US market.

Koronaios boasts more than two decades’ experience in business development, sales, wand working in the wider media and entertainment industry. He has previously worked with some of the biggest entertainment companies in the world, including Atari, Ubisoft, and Sony. Most recently, he was vice president of GlobalStep, which deals in risk management and mitigation in the development, production, and maintenance of video games.

“I’m delighted to join the growing Bidstack team and excited by the opportunity to work with such an innovative and dynamic company,” Koronaios said. “My focus will be to help increase knowledge of Bidstack in the US market and forge stronger links with games publishers and developers who I know are keen to work with such revolutionary technology.”

4C opts for Mogensen as finance boss
Lisa Mogensen has been appointed as chief financial officer at 4C Insights, a data science and martech firm. She will oversee the company’s financial planning and reporting, legal, accounting, tax, and treasury functions, replacing Brent Dobsch, who has been name chief financial officer and chief operating officer at Kinetiq.

Mogensen arrives at 4C with nearly three decades of experience in financial and operating management for public and private companies. She began her career in investment banking ultimately switching to media with companies including News Corp. and NBC. Mogensen was previously CFO of TheStreet and then CFO of Forbes Digital.

“Ive admired 4C for years and it’s evident to me that the company has an incredible value, engaged clients, and a strategic team with their eyes set on innovation. Im excited to join at this time of dramatic momentum behind the business,” said Mogensen. “Im looking forward to partnering with 4C’s leadership team to enhance the companys financial and operational standing, and build on its growth.”

Bink takes charge of customer success at 1plusX
1plusX, a predictive data management platform, has chosen Carolin Bink as its vice president of customer success, where she will report directly to chief executive officer and co-founder Dr. Ing. Jürgen Galler.

Bink was head of data products at Axel Springer following her role as had of data & performance at Axel Springer-owned Media Impact. At Axel Springer, she used 1plusX to develop and implement data strategies.

“As a data management platform, 1plusX offers the most extensive criteria for defining and building bespoke audiences. Rather than offering rigid, pre-segmented, broad audiences, campaign managers can get creative with 1plusX. They can define unique, targeted audiences for each individual ad campaign. 1plusX enables them to type-in specific keywords to target hyper-relevant consumers by their real-time interests – much like they would use a search engine. Campaign managers can generate completely unique mass audiences of hyper-targeted, statistically relevant consumers within just 24 hours and four clicks,” she said.  “This is because 1plusX is more than just a data management platform – it is a fast, easy-to-use and accurate profile data source. It creates profiles for pages of content as well as consumers. This is a significant data strategy, encouraging the industry towards cookie-less targeting.”

Cavai hires five alongside UK office launch
Five new faces have been added conversational advertising platform Cavai’s global team. Ed Preedy has been named global chief revenue officer, Fabian Bjørne-Larsen has been appointed head of creative, Dan Jones joins as commercial director, George Seed arrives as vice president of product, and Julia Smith becomes PR director.

Preedy will lead the commercial team, focusing on the UK market initially and then expanding into other markets. He has been tasked with introducing the concept of conversational advertising making ad spend more effective for marketers and the experience more compelling for consumers. Before Cavai, he had senior roles at InMobi, Exponential, Global and, most recently, GumGum, where he was managing director.

“I am excited to be joining Cavai and to once again be working with Dan and George who I had the pleasure of working with at Exponential and GumGum,” Preedy said. “We deliver a real point of difference for our clients in that our formats build logic is based on a decision-tree model, providing the advertiser with total control of the chatbot conversation, making it 100 per cent brand safe.”

Bjørne-Larsen will be working on every aspect of Cavai create campaign delivery and marketing. He has previously worked at We Are Live and McCann.

Jones will focus on working with media agencies and developing all partner opportunities, including UK publishers and rich media specialists. Most recently, he led programmatic platforms at Adform and, before that, headed-up the programmatic team at Venatus Media.

Seed will work with clients to deliver new products and solutions to the market. He previously worked as European lead solutions engineer at TripleLift and has held roles at GumGum, PHD, and Mindshare.

Smith will work with the Cavai management team directly to implement a high visibility PR and communications strategy to increase brand awareness. She has held commercial roles at Associated Newspapers, The Mirror Group Newspapers, Dennis Publishers, and IAB. She currently also provides consulting services for Impact, Appetite Creative, Channel Factory, and The 614 Group.

Hogan takes seat as Rippll chairwoman
Rippll, a location data firm, has selected Sarah Hogan to be its non-executive chairwoman. She will offer strategic advice on how to evolve the company’s new transaction-based attribution product for use by the FMCG market.

Hogan is currently global marketing director for Wall’s Ice Cream at Unilever. The hope is that she will provide ‘invaluable advice’ that will help the company unlock its new product level sales data to create a unique solution for FMCG brands.

“All marketers want access to data but its only useful to gather if you know what to do with it! Im delighted to have an opportunity to help shape how best to leverage the latest transaction intelligence technology Rippll have added to their portfolio of services,” she said. “This is a great tool to gather rich behavioural insights by tracking full consumer journeys from ad exposure through to purchase, while providing the right value exchanges for consumers along the way. Such rich data will enable marketers to make real time tweaks to customise content better to consumers while simultaneously optimizing ROI.”

Ericsson hands new role to Pharaon
Fadi Pharaon has been appointed senior vice president and head of market area Middle East & Africa and member of the executive team at Ericsson. He will succeed Rafiah Ibrahim on 1 September when she leaves the position and becomes advisor to chief executive officer Börje Ekholm.

Pharaon currently holds the position of vice president of networks & managed services within Ericsson’s market area Europe & Latin America. In his over 21 years at Ericsson, he has held several management positions with sales responsibilities in markets across Asia, Europe, Middle East, and Latin America.

“The mobile industry is transforming countries and industries and with 5G becoming a reality, we will see new business opportunities and innovations across our markets,” said Pharaon. “I really look forward to taking on this exciting new role in market area Middle East & Africa and work together with both the team in the market area as well as the executive team. Our abilities to work closely with our customers in our market areas are key to leveraging our technology leadership in 5G.”

Bartlett added Monetate to leadership team
eCommerce personalisation platform Monetate has recruited Jonathan Bartlett as its chief product officer. He is tasked with leading the creation of innovative products for customers and enhancing Monetate’s existing platform with new capabilities, while also leading technical partner development.

Boasting more than 20 years of experience managing product for marketing and advertising technology companies, he was previously vice president of product at Contently, where he delivered content marketing technology and services to Fortune 500 brands. Before that, he was vice president of product at Mimeo.

“Brands need to deliver deeply personal experiences to resonate with each customer, forging lasting relationships and higher lifetime value. This challenge can be difficult for many brands to accomplish alone, as they become more sophisticated with their requirements, and the traditional marketing stack is quickly collapsing as brands search for better capabilities. Monetate’s focus on our customers’ evolving needs informs an offering that delivers immediate and lasting lift,” said Bartlett. “I’ve spent my career working with customers facing challenges like these and am elated to work with Monetate’s stellar team and connect with our customers to bring differentiated personalisation offerings to market.”

LocatorX presents place on board to Watjen
Thomas Watjen has appointed to the board of directors at location tracking company LocatorX. He will provide strategic guidance in the areas of corporate growth, responsibility, risk management, and governance.

Watjen brings almost 40 years of executive-level insurance, asset management, and financial services to LocatorX. Prior to retiring in 2015, he spent 12 years as president and chief executive officer at Unum Group. He joined Provident Companies in 1994 as executive vice president and chief financial officer, and was later named as vice chairman and a director of Provident, Inc. Following a merger in 1999, Watjen became executive vice president, finance and risk management, for successor company, UnumProvident Corporation. In 2002, he was elevated to vice chairman and chief operating officer of what would become Unum Group in 2007.

He currently serves as a non-executive member of Prudential’s board of directors. Between 2010 and this year, he was a non-executive member of the board at SunTrust Banks.

“LocatorX is already breaking the mold when it comes to refining real-time tracking capabilities,” Watjen said. “Im pleased to offer my guidance as the technology sets a global standard for the future of IoT.”

Robins picked as PM technology head
PM Connect, a mobile payment solutions provider, has hired Andrew Robins as chief technology officer. He will lead the specialist development team in designing, creating and maintaining mobile subscription services for global brands – opening up new revenue streams by making lifestyle and sport content, tickets, videos and news articles available to purchase through customers’ phone bills.

Robins will join in September, along with his 16 years of industry experience, from sports gaming business Inspired Entertainment.

“It’s exciting to be joining PM Connect at such a crucial point in the company’s upward trajectory, as it establishes itself as an industry-leader – both in the UK and internationally. I’m driven to further enhance our tech output – with solutions grounded in security, scalability and reliability, particularly as the mobile payments industry grows and inevitably becomes more regulated,” said Robins.

“The role also offers me the chance to focus on development and mentorship, working with one of the brightest and most dynamic workforces currently operating in the sector – something I find extremely rewarding.”

R2i welcomes Horowitz and Turner
Aaron Horowitz has been chosen to be vice president of business development in the Great Lakes Midwest region and Justin Turner chosen to be vice president of business development in the Central US and Rockies at data-driven performance marketing agency R2i.

Prior to joining the R2i team, Horowitz successfully led client development and growth for a number of agencies, including 50,000feet, Acquity Group (now Accenture), iCrossing, imc2, and Razorfish. In past positions, he worked with many well- brands, including BCBS NC, Chicago Board of Trade, Coca-Cola, Discover Financial, FedEx, Global Hyatt, Highmark, NYSE, Procter & Gamble, Sears, United Airlines, USG, and Voya.

Turner joins after leading business development at Epsilon. Before that, he held key positions with Alterian and Yes Marketing, where he focused on cross-channel platforms and services. He has previously engaged with brands including Albertsons/Safeway, GNC, Kellogg, Party City, Patagonia, and Verizon.

“The pace of change in business, society and technology is accelerating and world-class digital tools and committed support is an essential component to win,” said Kelly Kennedy, R2i CSO. “Thats why R2i is expanding our team and developing new opportunities to help clients thrive and flourish. Were excited to welcome executives of Aarons and Justins calibre to the team and look forward to working with them to fuel client success.”

Three executive additions made at Raken
Construction app software firm Raken has named Mike Bates as vice president of strategy, David Nuffer as vice president of product, and Matthew York as vice president of engineering.

Bates has more than 25 years of experience delivering solutions for Fortune 100 and high-growth organisations, most recently as senior vice president of strategy and partner solutions at AvidXchange and payment solutions leader at Intuit. Nuffer has worked at GoodData, Liftopia and, most recently, Shipt, where he was head of product. Yorks previous experience includes Kratos Defense and Security Solutions, Pathway Genomics Corporation and most recently PayLease, where he served as director of engineering.

“Building a world-class executive team has been one of our top priorities in 2019, and were thrilled to welcome Mike, David and Matthew to the team,” said Kyle Slager, Rakens founder and CEO. “All are making an immediate impact in furthering our mission to deliver the most powerful solutions to the construction field.”

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Salesforce appoints a Dame to lead its UKI business
Dame Jayne-Anne Gadhia will join Salesforce as its UK and Ireland chief executive officer on 1 October to lead the business through its next stage of growth.

Gadhia is founder of the startup, Snoop. Previously she was the CEO of Virgin Money from 2007 to 2018. As a chartered accountant, she spent six years at Norwich Union (now Aviva) before becoming one of the founders of Virgin Direct in 1995. Three years later, she set up the Virgin One account, which was acquired by The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) in 2001. She subsequently spent five years at RBS before returning to Virgin as CEO of Virgin Money. She became a Dame in the 2019 New year Honours list for her contribution to financial services and women in the finance industry.

“I’ve admired Salesforce from afar for a long time,” said Gadhia. “This is a different kind of business, with deeply held values and a true focus on transforming the experience of every customer through cutting edge technology. I’m looking forward to working with the team as we continue to invest and support Salesforce’s growing customer base in UKI.”

Bhasin joins Shutterstock’s board
Shutterstock has added Rachna Bhasin to its board of directors, where she will serve on the compensation committee.

Bhasin, founder and CEO of EQ Partners and co-founder of Pacifica Investments, previously served as chief business officer at Magic Leap for over three years. Here, she helped grow the team and led business development, M&A, and strategic partnerships. Since departing in January, she has continued to work with Magic Leap as a senior advisor to the CEO.

Before Magic Leap, she held the role of senior vice president of corporate strategy and business development at SiriusXM Radio, and has previously held senior positions at Dell and EMI Music North America. Bhasin currently serves on the board for Ryman Hospitality Properties and is a current member of the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

“I am honoured to join Shutterstocks board of directors and to draw from my knowledge and experience to help guide Shutterstock in its mission to deliver increased value to its customers, contributors and stockholders,” said Bhasin. “In a time where the demand for content is at an all-time high, Shutterstock is well-positioned to serve the needs of marketers, creatives and businesses around the world, providing them with the content, tools and services they need to grow and thrive.”

Twitch brings in Cowan as advertising marketing director
Fran Cowan has been hired by Amazon-owned live streaming platform Twitch as its first director of advertiser marketing. Starting on 12 August, she will be charged with raising the profile of the Twitch sales proposition.

Cowan joins Twitch after seven years at InSkin Media, where she started as the company’s first marketing executive and progressed to the role of chief marketing officer. She is also VP of marketing at the International Advertising Association (IAA) UK.

Smith takes up head business role at Location Sciences
Location Sciences, a location verification provider, has appointed Jason Smith as its US chief business officer. Reporting to CEO Mark Slade, he will work to establish and build relationships with key customers in the US and develop marketing strategies to raise awareness of inaccurate location fraud and its impact on campaign performance.

Smith joins with over 16 years experience in the out-of-home and digital advertising space. He was a former senior partner and MD of Mindshare, where he led the business and performance strategy for clients including Geico and Capital One. Prior to Mindshare, he spent 10 years at Horizon Media. In his most recent role as VP of digital investments, he headed up trading and partnership developments.

“With location data transparency, integrity and privacy compliance under increasing scrutiny, I felt the opportunity to lead the US team at Location Sciences was too good to turn down,” said Smith. “I look forward to being part of the team that helps marketers drive exponential performance results within the $160 billion digital advertising marketplace.”

UM looks to Smalls-Landau to lead marketing
Deidre Smalls-Landau has been named as US chief marketing officer at IPG Mediabrands’ marketing and media agency network, UM. Reporting to US CEO Lynn Lewis, she will oversee UMs strategic branding, platforms and initiatives, carrying over her previous responsibilities as global head of culture, to ensure a broader impact for the diversity-based cultural framework she spearheaded at the agency.

Under Smalls-Landaus leadership, UM launched Remix Culture, the first culturally-focused iteration of its annual Wave X study that tracks social and digital media usage and motivations globally. She also spearheaded the launch of UMs Unity 20/40 diversity initiative, which aims to increase diverse representation within the agency by mirroring the projected US ethnic population of the 2040, by 2020.

Smalls-Landau is the IPG representative for the Times Up/Advertising Steering Committee and a member of the 4As Media Leadership Council.

“I strongly believe that having diversity as a filter for everything we do is a catalyst for cultural transformation and business growth, and an imperative for creating meaningful impact within all levels of an organization,” said Smalls-Landau. “Im excited for the opportunity to play a greater role in applying cultural perspective in how we go to market as we think about audience behaviours and trends.”

Boler to manage Scibids sales outside London
AI-powered ad tech firm Scibids has appointed One Link Digital, headed up by Peter Boler, to bolster its presence outside of London. Boler, acting as regional sales director, has been tasked with partnering with agencies and brands across Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds and Scotland who are interested in discovering how powerful the creation and deployment of custom algorithms can be on their campaigns.

Boler brings with him over 20 years of experience within digital advertising and has held senior sales roles at companies including, Yahoo, MEN Media, The Exchange Lab and most recently, Weve (O2).

“In today’s complex environment, marketers and agencies want and need the benefits of domain specific AI capabilities, yet are hesitant because of the resource and investment it incurs,” said Boler. “Scibids is a fascinating business that’s transparent and flexible and I’m sure its AI as a Service business model will be a game-changer for the industry.”

Centro adds Gensler in senior client development role
David Gensler has joined Centro, a digital marketing solutions provider, as senior vice president of client development. He will work with both agencies and clients to implement the company’s ‘Basis’ platform and integrate programmatic advertising with media planning, buying, operations, campaign analytics, business intelligence, and billing reconciliation.

Prior to joining Centro, Gensler operated his own firm, GSD Consulting, to strengthen the marketing capabilities of organisations in the data science and technology sectors. He was also senior vice president of the food beverage spirits category for Time, Inc., overseeing the group’s advertising sales. Before that, he was EVP and head of ad sales for LiveIntent. Gensler has also led and scaled sales teams for Millennial Media and AOL. 

“Considering the pressures that media agencies face from clients and stakeholders, we believe that Basis profoundly affects their ability to drive performance and profitability through automation,” said Gensler. “Centro has the opportunity to transform the way marketers work because of our game-changing technology, national sales coverage and principled reputation.”

Knights takes spot in WorkMobile’s software dev team
Mobile data capture specialist WorkMobile has appointed Che Knights as a software developer. As a C# developer, he will help to develop the company’s systems in line with industry best practice.

Knights has more than 20 years of software development experience. He has held a variety of programmer and developer positions at Pets at Home, Pregis and, most recently, Kaonix.

“Manchester is home to a burgeoning number of forward-thinking technology companies, and, as a leading provider of cloud-based digital solutions, WorkMobile is no exception,” said Knights. “I’m delighted to be joining the business during this period of growth, and helping to ensure its software systems remain at the cutting edge and the WorkMobile app is the best it can be.”

DoubleVerify opts for Bukhari as MD
Tanzil Bukhari has taken up the position of EMEA managing director at digital media measurement software firm DoubleVerify. Based in London, he is charged with leading the company’s expansion efforts across Europe with an added focus on Russia and the Nordics, while strengthening the company’s business relationships with brands, agencies and media platforms.

A 20-year media industry veteran, Bukhari previously worked at Google as EMEA head of agency development. Previously, he was head of DoubleClick Ad Exchange in Northern and Central Europe, where he launched DoubleClick AdX in EMEA.

“Global brands continue to address the issues of fraud, brand safety and viewability within their campaigns, and how they impact marketing effectiveness and business outcomes,” said Bukhari. “I’m excited to leverage my deep experience in programmatic and digital media to help accelerate DV’s growth across Europe.”

McCurry named chief of strategy at IAS
Integral Ad Science (IAS) has chosen Kevin McCurry as its chief strategy officer. Reporting directly to CEO Lisa Utzschneider, he will lead the organisation in identifying and evaluating large-scale strategic opportunities for the company with a focus on mergers and acquisitions.

McCurry boasts over 25 years of experience in strategy and corporate development. Prior to joining IAS, he was an executive in residence at Partners Healthcare, where he supported major data strategy, billing operations, and machine learning initiatives. Before that, he was senior vice president of corporate development and strategy at SunGard. McCurry has also been chief strategy officer for Thomson Reuters’ healthcare and science data and information businesses.

“Marketplaces — whether in financial services, healthcare, or advertising — benefit when buyers and sellers can access trusted and meaningful data supported by a highly-technical data science team. Digital advertising is at a particularly exciting and critical juncture with its rapid growth, increasing technological complexity, and heightened needs, especially in areas such as brand safety and fraud prevention,” said McCurry. “With its long track record of innovation, IAS has attained a truly unique position, delivering trusted data, measurement, and global insight to the digital advertising industry. I am thrilled to be joining the team as we set the path forward to deliver new capabilities and insights that our customers require.”

Media Chain gives Edwards lead sales role
Jon Edwards has been hired as head of sales at Media Chain, Social Chain’s social-first publishing arm. Based in London, he will hold responsibility of all Media Chain brand partnership sales across the UK, initially focusing on growing the social media publishing business and will work to deliver highly engaging and effective campaigns.

Edwards previously held the role of brand partnerships account director at LadBible Group and is also formerly of Hearst and Trinity Mirror, where he has worked with the likes of PepsiCo, Amazon, Sony Columbia, Ladbrokes Coral, and Warner Bros.

“I’m very honoured to be joining Media Chain and to work on developing their commercial offering across their vast and progressive portfolio of brands,” said Edwards. “To have the opportunity to work on fantastic brands like SPORF, Student Problems and GameByte among many others, alongside some of the best entrepreneurial thought leaders in the social space at a time of ambitious growth, excites me. I look forward to seeing what the future of Media Chain holds.”

Doucette elevated to creative head at Leo Burnett
Leo Burnett Chicago has promoted Jordan Doucette to the role of chief creative officer. Reporting jointly to president and chief strategy officer of Leo Burnett Chicago Emma Montgomery and chierf creative officer of Leo Burnett Worldwide, she will oversee the creative and production departments at Leo Burnett Chicago.

Doucette, who’s been as the agency since January 2018, most recently served as executive vice president/executive creative director. In her new role, she will continue to lead the creative for clients including The Kellogg Company and Miller-Coors.

Previously, she was chief creative officer of Taxi in Toronto, where she led work for clients including Pfizer (Centrum, Advil and Robax), Canadian Tire, Marks, Fido Telecommunications, Mini Cooper, Vancouver Aquarium, and BC Hydro.

“What attracted me to Leo Burnett is that its a creative solutions company that is continually transforming how we work to bring the best, most effective ideas to the table,” said Doucette. “Im most excited that this role will help me get closer to our clients and our teams to help shape not only the work, but how we work.”

FCB brings Ordóñez onboard as head of creative
Andrés Ordóñez has been hired as chief creative officer at FCB Chicago. He will work closely with global chief creative officer Susan Credle and join the agency’s Global Creative Council.

Ordóñez has spent the last five years at Energy BBDO, working with clients including Wrigley, Bayer, MillerCoors, SC Johnson, American Egg Board, Avocados From Mexico, National Safety Council, Ocean Spray, and Luxottica. Prior to Energy BBDO, he launched Ford Sync.

“I am very happy to have the chance to work with Susan. I have always thought I was destined to work with her. Even before I ever met her, it felt like I was in her orbit because of the places we both worked and the kinds of ideas we have created for brands. I know we will do great things together,” said Ordóñez.

“From the moment I walked into FCB Chicago, I couldnt stop thinking about it. I wanted to be a part of it and work with the people there to set new heights. It is the place – and the people – where I will be able to put my heart and the passion for what I do, where Ill be able to create some of the best work of my career.”

Pokkt selects Kumar as head of technology
Dinesh Kailash Kumar has been appointed as chief technology officer at Pokkt, a mobile in-game advertising platform. Based in Bangalore and reporting to co-founder and CEO Rohit Sharma, he will lead the company’s technology function.

Kumar has worked at organisations including Amazon, InMobi, Microsoft, and Yahoo. At Amazon, he led a 50-member international tech division in Bangalore, where his teams built software solutions for the automotive category and vendor management solutions.

Before Amazon, he was at InMobi as their VP of engineering. In this role, he led the brand and programmatic engineering initiatives managing engineering activities spanning across Bangalore and San Francisco.

“Pokkt’s growth in the past few years has been commendable and to be a part of the team that takes good quality in-game advertising to the next level is very exciting for me,” said Kumar. “I look forward to building best in class advertising products that will power the next phase of POKKT’s growth.”

Matta installed to lead ICX Media
Video analytics startup ICX Media has handed Serge Matta the role of president and chief executive officer. Michael Avon, the founder of the company, will remain actively involved as executive chairman.

Matta joins ICX Media from GroundTruth, where he served as president. During his tenure, he managed GroundTruth’s global sales and marketing teams. He was instrumental in GroundTruth’s acquisition of WeatherBug and securing Dentsu Japan as a strategic partner.

“I had been following ICX Media’s progression, and when I was approached to lead the company in its next stage of growth, I joined without hesitation,” said Matta. “I know that media and entertainment companies, brands and agencies must have access to the tools, data, and insights necessary to power their video strategies. Built with machine learning and data analytics at its core, ICX Media’s market approach, powered by best-in-class tools and audience data for video content creation, distribution, marketing and monetization truly sets the company apart.”

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Morley becomes CDRO at ESI
ESI Media, the media owner behind the Evening Standard and The Independent, has appointed Andy Morley as chief digital revenue officer. In his role, he will continue to build international revenues for ESI Media, across The Independent and Evening Standard digital portfolio. 

Morley brings over twenty years of expertise across digital audiences, agency sales, programmatic buying and selling, tech delivery and data. He has held senior roles at Emap and The Telegraph, as well as technology companies Grapeshot and Telaria. He joins from ad tech company Amobee, where he was vice president of sales in EMEA.

Starting on 1 May, Morley will report to Zach Leonard, MD of digital at ESI Media, and Jon O’Donnell, MD of ESI Commercial.

“After 10 years in ad tech working for some amazing businesses, it was going to take a special type of organisation to make me change direction in my career,” he said. “The Independent and Evening Standard digital brands are growing rapidly, and are well set for exponential growth in the near future. The management and editorial teams have genuine global ambition for both brands, so it is a privilege to join the team at this exciting time.” 

Social Chain promotes Bowker to business director
Charlotte Bowker has become business director at social-first marketing agency Social Chain. She will take on a broader remit across the Social Chain client base – ensuring strategic and operational best practice is delivered throughout the business. This remit extends across the development of existing client relationships and the on-boarding of new clients into the agency.

Bowker joined Social Chain in 2016 as account manager and has been instrumental in securing contracts from the likes of ASOS x Nike and Amazon, while managing and growing accounts including Nokia, Superdry, Thomas Cook and Revolution Bars Group. She has steadily climbed up the company from account manager to senior account manager, associate director and finally business director.

Bowker succeeds Oliver Yonchev, who was recently promoted to US managing director to assist with Social Chain’s growth across New York, LA and San Francisco.

“Since 2016, I’ve lived the Social Chain story so I’m excited to share our experiences and learnings with clients, partners and the wider industry,” she said.

Marlow joins IAS to lead marketing
Integral Ad Science (IAS) has appointed Tony Marlow as chief marketing officer, effective 29 April. Reporting to IAS CEO Lisa Utzschneider, he will spearhead market growth initiatives and drive both marketing and communication strategy globally for the verification technology company.

Marlow joins IAS from big data company Infogroup where he currently serves as CMO. Prior to Infogroup, he was the global head and vice president of B2B Marketing for Yahoo, overseeing B2B marketing, product marketing, sales learning, and sales insights. Before joining Yahoo, he was with Nielsen’s online division in an APAC-focused role where he invented a class-leading technology for measuring brand impact in online environments. In this role, he worked directly with many global clients including Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Facebook.

“Im beyond excited to join IAS as its chief marketer at such a critical and exciting juncture for our industry. Now more than ever, it is imperative for brands to make authentic connections with real people in safe environments,” said Marlow. “IAS is poised to be the independent super-conduit that powers the highest standards of effectiveness and helps marketers everywhere exceed their goals. I couldn’t be happier to be working with Lisa and the world class team at IAS to achieve all of this and more.”

Equifax invests in Banks
Consumer and business insights firm Equifax has appointed Tony Banks as vice president of operations for the UK and Ireland.

Reporting directly to Patricio Remón, president for Europe, he will be responsible for overseeing all operational activities at Equifax sites including London, Wexford, Leeds and Nottingham. He will work closely with senior managers across the business to ensure the company’s activities and working practices are carried out with maximum efficiency and aligned to positive customer outcomes.

Banks joins from RBS, where he held numerous senior roles including head of commercial customer service and head of operational service for corporate and institutional banking. During his time at RBS, he was heavily involved in major change projects within the business, including the integration of NatWest Bank.

“Tony brings a wealth of experience, knowledge and expertise to Equifax,” said Remón. “He’s a proven operations and transformation executive, who has delivered numerous initiatives benefiting end customers. We have a continuous focus on evolving and improving our operational procedures, which is of paramount importance to deliver excellent services for our clients. Tony’s appointment will be integral to this process.”

Barokas joins Platform161 board
Ben Barokas, founder of Admeld and SourcePoint, has joined the board of Platform161, a programmatic buying platform.

Barokas sold Admeld to Google in 2011, going on to run Google’s Global Marketplace Development team for three years. Following that, he founded SourcePoint, a content compensation platform for publishers, where he is currently CEO. He previously ran advertising at JumpTV, and also spent six years at AOL running ad product development and operations.

“I am a great believer in Platform161’s technology, and its modular approach. Platform161 is giving brands and agencies not just greater flexibility, but greater diversity of choice in forming their media buying strategies,” said Barokas. “And the ability to develop more distinct approaches – to apply ad tech more creatively, is just what the market needs.”

Dare gets new MD as part of leadership restructure
Atem Mbeboh has been appointed managing director at Dare, a subsidiary of the Inside Ideas Group (IIG), which was acquired by You & Mr Jones (Y&MJ) earlier this year. He will report to IIG’s UK group CEO Sharon Whale.

Mbeboh steps up from his role as Dare’s business director, a position he has held since 2018. He was previously deputy managing director at 4media Group. All delivery, creativity and tech at Dare will report directly to him, with no changes to these departments in terms of structure. He will lead a team that consists of Janey MacRae as client services director, creative director Ben Long and director of experience Roz Thomas.

“Dare’s digital offering is second-to-none, and having been business director previously, I can attest to the pedigree of work that’s being done here,” said Mbeboh. “As managing director, I can’t wait to start this exciting next phase for Dare and Inside Ideas Group.”

Rachel Hatton, chief strategy officer at Oliver and previously strategy partner at Dare, will head up planning in line with the IIG group function that sits within the group’s London office. Data, content strategy and EP all fall under this function, strengthening the group’s strategic capability as it begins to roll out services to Y&MJ.

This core team will be further supported at group level by Rob Kavanagh, Oliver ECD, and Amina Folarin, head of HR.

Dropp adds pair to lead brand partnerships
Jose Rodriguez and Willie Escobar Montanez of Escobar and Sons have been hired by Dropp, a shoppable media company, to manage brand partnership strategy.

Montanez will focus on taking over as head Of brand partnerships and utilise the current roster of brands within their portfolio, including Coogi, Jaclar, Lotto Sport Global, Fubu, Lo Life Brand, Patrick Kelly, Puma, Twinzz, and more. Rodriguez is appointed to help creators who are part of the Dropp Creator Network (DCN) with designing merch and clothing lines to help monetise their brands.

Montanez is well known for his own brand ‘Willie Esco’, a highly successful urban street wear brand and has worked with globally known brands, including Samsung, Barneys, Coogi, Daymond John, Fubu, Kith, Etonic, Tupac Shakur, Rag & Bone, 424, and Patta. He has secured licenses for brand development ranging from Tupac Shakur to MGM film/movie licenses that have been instrumental in generating more than $400m in worldwide sales to date.

“The opportunity to be involved with a company that is redefining the way brands and creators interact with consumers allows us to be at the cutting edge of innovation in the music and fashion industry,” said Montanez.

Rodriguez has more than 15 years of experience developing brands such as Platinum Fubu, Rocawear, Sean John and others. His design portfolio has generated more than $200m in sales. Focusing especially on brand image, he maintains personal and professional relationships with high profile luminaries and organisations, such as 50 Cent and G-Unit Records, Shady Records, StarPower Global (Fabolous), Roc Nation, Def Jam, the Country of Bermuda, and others.

Farbman joins Dashlane board
Password manager app Dashlane has added Seth Farbman, former CMO for Spotify and Gap, to its board of directors. Alongside the appointment, it has closed a $30m debt financing round to bring is total funding to over $100m to date. The round from Hercules Capital comes in addition to previous funding from FirstMark Capital, Rho Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, TransUnion and Silicon Valley Bank.

Farbman was instrumental to the global growth of Spotify, taking the company to more than 200m monthly active users during his tenure. He joins Dashlane at a key moment, as the company enters a new phase of growth: having surpassed the milestone of over 10m users worldwide in June 2018.

“I am excited to join the board of Dashlane, a company with the right vision for the internet at the right time,” said Farbman. “I see many of the same attributes in Dashlane, as I did in Spotify, when I first joined—a best-in-class product that its customers love, a diverse and capable team focused on growth and innovation and powerful macro trends that put the wind at the company’s back. Technology is meant to empower people and make their lives easier, and that is at the very core of what Dashlane does.”

Lilium gets its first CFO
German air taxi startup Lilium has appointed its first chief financial officer in the form of Christopher Delbrück. Currently chief financial officer at Uniper SE, Delbrück will join Lilium later this year.

At Uniper, Delbrück played an instrumental role in the listing of the company in 2016 as well as in the subsequent tripling of its share price. Prior to this he spent 14 years in various strategy, business development and top financial roles at E.ON, the German DAX-listed energy company, as well as spending four years with the Boston Consulting Group.

“Opportunities to revolutionise an industry only come by once in every generation and I’m thrilled to be joining Lilium at this point in their journey,” said Delbrück.

“The urban air mobility market will see tremendous growth over the next decade and I believe Lilium has both the team and the technology to capitalise on this growth and become one of the world’s leading technology companies.

“By taking their highly-innovative technology and scaling the business that supports it, we can help make travel better for people across the world, while making genuine progress towards a more sustainable future.”

Berkowitz joins Dash Two
Lauren Berokowitz has been hired by boutique digital and out-of-home (OOH) agency Dash Two as national director of sales at its LA office.

Berkowitz has experience in publisher ad sales and selling OOH in 280 airports at Clear Channel. She has also held positions at Motor Trend Group, American Media, Inc., Adknowledge, Brite Media, & Rouge Media, where she managed sales and the team responsible for the non-traditional OOH media company’s Campus Network.

“I’ve always had a passion for solving problems, for creativity. A client comes to me with a need and I get to come up with a solution,” she said. “This is a unique opportunity to marry all my worlds into one.

“My approach can be very recommendation oriented, not just about sales or media buys. I get to work with digital and print and billboards, everything. In my past positions, I was always having to go find the answer if I didn’t know it. I love that, and it allows me to provide outstanding advice to our customers.”

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UK desktop display ads meeting the minimum viewability standards rose 8.2 per cent from H1 2018 to 69.1 per cent in H2 2018. Meanwhile, 62.4 per cent of UK mobile web display impressions now meet minimum viewability standards, increasing 16.6 per cent year-on-year from H2 2017 to H2 2018, according to Integral Ad Science (IAS).

In comparison, publisher direct ads saw a rise of just 3.9 per cent, growing from 65.1 per cent to 67.7 per cent.

IAS found that video campaign impressions surpassed both display and mobile web in terms of total length of time an ad was in view. Video achieved 13.4 seconds versus 10.7 seconds for display and 7.9 seconds for mobile web in H2 2018.

“Findings from the H2 2018 Media Quality Report demonstrate the major shift towards programmatic trading, with the term ‘programmatic’ no longer associated with lower quality inventory,” said Nick Morley, EMEA MD at Integral Ad Science. “This is likely due in part to an increase in publishers utilising programmatic to sell valuable inventory, via private marketplaces (PMPs). Another noticeable shift is that seen in video engagement, with content consumption patterns reflected in the time-in-view data.”

The report also showed a continued decline in brand risk. The volume of desktop display ads served in ‘inappropriate environments’ fell 28.9 per cent from H1 2018, coming down from 4.5 per cent to 3.2 per cent in H2 2018.

However, ad fraud is on the rise. One per cent of optimised UK desktop display impressions were wasted in H2 2018 – a rise of 40.3 per cent from the 0.7 per cent in H1 2018. IAS partly attributes this to fraudsters capitalising on the holiday shopping period in Q4 2018.

“Thanks to increasing budget flowing to digital, advertisers are demanding greater quality and maximised impact from their entire media plan,” said Morley. “According to the IAB UK, £2.3bn was spent on display advertising in H1 2018 – as fraud hovers around the one per cent mark we can estimate that roughly £23m of that UK spend was wasted by being intercepted by fraudsters. With this insight into the performance of media, advertisers can plan accordingly to improve their ad effectiveness.”

*This article has been updated to reflect the correct amount of spend that was wasted by interception, changing from £230m to £23m. 

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