GroupM Next is a new innovation unit that GroupM has launched to help the digital efforts of its agencies and provide them with actionable insights.
WPP’s GroupM media agencies MediaCom, Mindshare, Maxus and MEC will be supported by GroupM Next, which is focused on sharing insights on mobile, social and addressable media and online developments among its core partners as well as at newer groups in those fields.
“Our goal is to create an active partnership across GroupM and our clients to develop actionable insight and a clear path to action on the platforms that are changing our industry,” said GroupM North America CEO Rob Norman in a release.
The unit will work with its agencies and clients to help create partnership opportunities, deliver best practices, and integrate into its data systems and technology.
GroupM Search CEO Chris Copeland has been appointed CEO of GroupM Next. He has been with GroupM since 2000 and will now be participating with companies that are, as he said, “transforming media and the way consumers and brands behave… It’s our job to provide unmatched competitive advantage for our clients with these partners,” said Copeland.
He told Marketing on Tuesday that the unit will put marketplace and consumer changes in context to GroupM clients’ advertising business. He said it will also help educate internal staff at GroupM agencies as well as brand advertisers about the new verticals and companies coming up with new ideas. GroupM Next will also help on the technology front. “It’s really important to us that whether it’s an established company like Google or Facebook or an emerging company like FourSquare and Pinterest that when we form relationships, it’s a relationship that’s not just a commercial trading relationship, but it also has meaningful integration into the technology and data strategy,” said Copeland.
Stepping into the role of chief innovation officer at GroupM Next is Cary Tilds, who is currently Mindshare’s North American leader of digital media operations. She started at Mindshare in 2007.
GroupM Next will also conduct research on how consumers use new devices and platforms and what that means for brand marketing. Copeland said hires will be made in the near future in the research department. “That will be an opportunity for the Canadian market to experience our ability to help quantify these consumer shifts and I think that will help a lot of brands better rationalize some of these strategic investments they need to be making in digital that they may not have fully made in the past,” he said.
The unit has been “dark room incubating” since last fall, said Copeland. “When you’ve got four agencies you can have a bit of redundancy… you can form different types of relationships in the marketplace when you bring your perspective together more than when you work separately.”
That said, he added that all of GroupM’s agencies will continue to have their own perspective and business objectives, “but there’s an amplification of this base foundation we can give centrally and that’s what this unit is designed to do.”
