WPP Group has launched a Canadian division of its 10-month-old audience buying company Xaxis.
Rodney Perry, a digital veteran whose career has included stints with MEC Interaction and OMD Digital, has been named managing director of the Toronto-based company. Perry was most recently vice-president of Canadian Operations for the CCAB.
In a release, Xaxis CEO Brian Lesser praised Perry’s “phenomenal track record of delivering outsized returns” for some of the biggest global advertisers. “We believe he is the right person to lead our Canadian operations,” he said.
Xaxis uses what it claims is the “world’s largest” collection of unique anonymous audience portraits – built with demographic, financial and geographic information, among other kinds – garnered through consumers’ web activities and their brick-and-mortar transactions.
The service will enable advertisers to reach both English and French audiences across what it described as the “universe of digital media endpoints” – display, mobile, social and online video – with targeted, relevant advertising.
Xaxis is currently working with more than 30 Canadian clients. The company works with more than 700 advertisers globally, delivering more than 300 billion impressions per year.
According to a 2011 report in The Wall Street Journal, Xaxis boasts more than 500 million unique profiles, reaching virtually 100% of the population in the markets in which it operates. Ads delivered by the system are identified by a privacy icon that is expected to debut in Canada later this year.
Tuesday’s announcement followed the news that Xaxis is also launching in nine markets in the South Asian region over the next six months. The South Asian operation will be headquartered in Singapore with offices in India, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam, Indonesia and Hong Kong.
The company expects to be operating in more than 25 countries by the end of the year.
