GroupM sharpens digital focus

Chief executive Kevin Clarke will become GroupM chairman for Thailand and Myanmar. Clarke will focus on cross-agency initiatives to support the company’s rapid move into digital-media management and expand the business in Myanmar.
Supporting Clarke’s elevation, two of the company’s most senior digital strategy figures have been named as chief executive officers. Siwat Chawareewong and Niklas Stalberg serve at mInteraction, the digital business unit of GroupM. Siwat is chief executive of the unit and Stalberg is its chief operating officer.
The appointments of the three executives take effect in April.
The new structure reflects GroupM’s belief that the future of media-driven marketing is tied to data and technology.
Key investments and partnerships over the past years that support this positioning include WPP’s investments in Triad Media, comScore and AppNexus, the company said. 
GroupM recently announced the global launch of [m]PLATFORM, a suite of flexible media-planning applications, data analytics and digital services. 
The company says the platform will improve advertisers’ ability to “use audience-defining insights from hundreds of data sources to find and communicate” with their consumers across all media.
“Kevin, Siwat and Niklas will play a big part in our future, and their appointments reflect our direction, values and ambition,” said Puneet Arora, GroupM CEO for Singapore, the Philippines and Thailand. 
“Our future is built on tech, data, talent and scale. Siwat and Niklas have done a great job building our digital capabilities and supporting our clients in Thailand who now spend an average of 20 per cent of their [advertising] budgets on digital media, a number that will only increase,” he said. 
Clarke said this was an important initiative to build on GroupM’s position as industry leader and “deliver against our key goals as one GroupM” in providing an edge to clients.
“Consumers do not draw lines or think in terms of which [medium] is traditional or digital. The changes we are making reflect our commitment to staying ahead and ensuring all our staff have bright futures delivering against our clients’ needs which are increasingly tied to data and new technologies,” he said.
Siwat said: “These rapid changes come with many challenges, but we have the strengths of our agencies and the largest pool of digital and communication experts that leaves us exceptionally well positioned for the future. It’s our honour to bring all these advantages to our clients.”