GroupM Introduces New Innovation Center: GroupM Next

New Unit Will Deliver Actionable, Forward-looking Insights Across Digital Channels

groupmGroupM today introduced GroupM Next, an innovation unit to support the ongoing efforts of its four agencies; Maxus, MEC, MediaCom and Mindshare.

GroupM Next will focus on providing insights, in context, on the developments at both our core partners and emerging players in online, mobile, social and addressable. Together with our agencies and clients, GroupM Next will assist in the creation and management of partnership opportunities, integration into our technology and data systems and education to deliver best practices. The new unit also will build on our body of original research focusing on consumer use of new platforms and devices and the impact of that usage on brand marketing.

“GroupM Next is dedicated to creating, capturing and ensuring the implementation of the best thinking and new insights from our community in the digital, social, mobile and addressable media markets,” said GroupM North America CEO Rob Norman in making the announcement. “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.”

Norman added that Chris Copeland, CEO of GroupM Search, has been named Chief Executive Officer of GroupM Next and Cary Tilds, currently NA Leader of Digital Media Operations at GroupM agency Mindshare, has been named Chief Innovation Officer.

In his new role, Copeland will leverage his multi-year experience with emerging media companies to steward the GroupM Next program in partnership with our agency leadership. The focus will be participating with those companies leading changes that most impact consumer media consumption, brand favorability and purchase behavior.

Copeland has been with the organization since 2000, and led the development and integration of the global search marketing offering for GroupM agencies. He has provided digital strategy counsel for clients and has ideated groundbreaking research initiatives that deepen the understanding of consumer behavior and channel engagement.

As Chief Innovation Officer, Tilds is tasked with identifying and implementing specific technology and platform opportunities into existing proprietary systems and workflows to ensure that GroupM agencies and their clients can participate with speed and relevance. She joined Mindshare in 2007 to lead Digital Media Operations for Team Detroit, where she managed a team of digital media strategists for multiple clients including Ford, and later worked on evolving digital strategies and visions for clients including Unilever North America.

“There are a number of companies that are transforming media and the way consumers and brands behave. These changes are of paramount importance to GroupM and its clients” said Copeland. “It’s our job to provide unmatched competitive advantage for our clients with these partners. It’s the job of GroupM Next to assist our agencies and their clients in realizing this opportunity.”

Perspective and work from GroupM Next can be accessed online at groupm.com

About GroupM
GroupM is the leading global media investment management operation. It serves as the parent company to WPP media agencies including Maxus, MEC, MediaCom and Mindshare. Our primary purpose is to maximize the performance of WPP’s media communications agencies on behalf of our clients, our stakeholders and our people by operating as a parent and collaborator in performance-enhancing activities such as trading, content creation, sports, digital, finance, proprietary tool development and other business-critical capabilities. The agencies that comprise GroupM are all global operations in their own right with leading market positions. The focus of GroupM is the intelligent application of physical and intellectual scale to benefit trading, innovation, and new communication services, to bring competitive advantage to our clients and our companies.

Primary Contact:
Cindy Kerber Spellman
GroupM Next
(314) 682-2055
(347) 891-1587
[email protected]

Secondary Contact:
John Wolfe
GroupM
(212) 297-7160
(914) 659-8663
[email protected]