GROUPM SRI LANKA

GroupM, the world’s largest media investment agency (powered by parent company WPP, the biggest communications holding company), has built a future focussed global media agency. GroupM Sri Lanka is a wholly owned, fully integrated subsidiary providing key solutions such as media investment and trading, SOX compliant financial management, media discipline subject matter expertise, and processes and technology to power proprietary operating systems of its media agencies Mindshare and Wavemaker. It marks 10 years as the only 100 percent multinational media agency in Sri Lanka, offering unique and cutting-edge products.

Q: What will GroupM’s edge be for the next 10 years?
A: GroupM began a five year transformation plan in 2020 with its goals being to simplify business operations, accelerate innovation with scaled global structures, and connect talent and digital solutions to define the next era of technology enabled media.

Choreograph, which is WPP’s data and technology company, provides the data layer that powers all our proprietary tools. It’s a dataset that covers demographic factors, which shape and define modern lifestyles.

This unique and proprietary dataset powers Wavemaker OS, a proprietary media planning and management system used across the global Wavemaker network, and Mindshare’s suite of app-based media planning and management tools collectively known as the ‘Adaptive Planning Framework.’

Q: How should corporates balance the ‘triple bottom line’ in today’s biz environment?
A: Bound by a belief – that an ad, which cannot be seen, has no value – GroupM is the agency leader in brand safety. We’re also a founding member of the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM).

At Mindshare, we define our responsibility to ensure that media positively impacts people. Our belief system is known simply as ‘Good Growth.’ It creates enduring connections by driving trust in brands, helps sustain a vibrant media ecosystem, balances long and short-term needs, and does no harm to the planet.

We do this by understanding consumers through the data footprint they leave and values that drive them, using media with intention.

At Wavemaker, the ethos is ‘Positive Provocation.’ Wavemaker has built a new global operating system. Its suite of tools, known collectively as ‘Provocative Planning,’ is an industry first, AI powered suite that takes a modular rather than sequential approach to ethical and effective media planning.

There are three modules that are focussed on: unlocking new growth opportunities today; maximising ongoing growth through smarter technology; and finding future growth through human intervention and innovation.

Q: What are the main attributes of your biz image?
A: As the industry’s leading team of media performance experts in traditional and digital channels and platforms; and in search, social, programmatic, AI, cross channel optimisation, and data driven technologies and software, our teams are collectively responsible for the activation of more than two million campaigns managed by GroupM each year.

A ‘channel neutral, outcome first’ approach with clearly defined and mutually agreed on goals is a standard and staple in all the client campaigns we manage, which adds up to a third of all the ads in the world.

GroupM represents 30 percent of all media billings worldwide; and in Sri Lanka too, we represent 30 percent of the same. We’re also Sri Lanka’s most awarded media agency.

Q: How does corporate reputation gives businesses a competitive edge?
A: We are agency partners to half of ‘top 100’ global brands, representing more than US$ 60 billion in media spend globally, according to independent international research buruea COMvergence.

As the largest ad spenders on Amazon, Meta and Google among others, our media and technology relationships result in first and premier innovations for clients. In Sri Lanka, our clients include the country’s top two media spenders, Unilever Sri Lanka and Dialog Axiata Group.

A strong reputation allows organisations to attract and retain the best talent in mutually fulfilling careers.

At GroupM, people have opportunities to apply to any of our global offices after having completed only two years at the local office.

QUICK-FIRE ROUND

Three recommendations to revive Sri Lanka’s economy
Invest in innovation and creativity. History has shown us that the best innovations to have changed the world emerged during challenging times.
Create a robust national framework to accelerate professional services exports – IT, digital marketing, legal and creative, accounting and BPO.
Open data – sharing data to grow industries collectively is a common practice in the developed world and it’s long overdue in Sri Lanka.

Three most admired global business leaders
Mark Read – Chief Executive Officer, WPP
Christian Juhl – Global CEO, GroupM
Reed Hastings – CEO, Netflix

Given the ‘platform era’ that we live in now, global digital platforms are the new ‘countries’ where many people live theirlives. These are also the new engines of growth. Therefore,enabling customers to capture and generate demand – whileconsidering the larger impact on the world – is vital.

Telephone 7174600  |  Email sabry.haniz@groupm.com  |  Website www.groupm.com