GroupM CEO Brian Lesser Lays Out His Plan for the Company Large’s Future

GroupM chief government officer Brian Lesser is in a “huge hurry” to advance the company’s enterprise.

He returned to steer the worldwide media shopping for large in September, the place he’d beforehand served as its North America CEO from 2015-2017. In his first public interview since becoming a member of final 12 months, Lesser mentioned his new function and priorities for GroupM with ADWEEK government editor Alison Weissbrot at ADWEEK Home throughout CES.

After his first tenure at GroupM, Lesser pivoted to steer an formidable new advert enterprise at AT&T, then grew to become CEO on the information agency InfoSum. 

Given his current adtech background, Lesser is trying to put money into know-how. He additionally desires to put money into workers whereas simplifying the company’s processes and facilitating extra collaboration between companies.

“The imaginative and prescient for GroupM and the broader WPP is we need to assist our advertisers navigate change,” he mentioned. “The one fixed within the media enterprise is change, and we’re going to expertise extra change within the subsequent 5 years than now we have within the final 25 years.”

What Omnicom’s acquisition of IPG means for GroupM

With Omnicom’s impending acquisition of IPG, Lesser mentioned it presents a bonus for GroupM, nevertheless its scale implications “stay to be seen.”

“After I take a look at the explanations for doing that deal, I hear lots about information, however the information resolution is a 20-year-old database that’s CRM and conventional ID-driven,” he mentioned. “I [also] hear lots about scale however not scale that issues to these purchasers,” he mentioned.

Lesser mentioned he isn’t too involved with being dethroned as the highest media purchaser both, saying that it could alleviate strain and permit the company to do extra.

“We’ll see if we’re quantity two, and the way lengthy we’re quantity two,” Lesser added.

Investing in its platform and other people

Certainly one of Lesser’s foremost priorities is to put money into GroupM’s tech platform.