Reflecting growing demand from marketers for fully integrated capabilities, WPP Media replaces GroupM as the name for WPP’s global media company. WPP Media manages more than $60 billion in annual media investment and works with more than 75% of the world’s leading advertisers in over 80 markets. Mindshare, Wavemaker, and EssenceMediacom will continue to provide clients with dedicated teams as brands within WPP Media, leveraging common capabilities, technology and support functions.

WPP Media is seamlessly connected with WPP’s wider global agency networks and capabilities through WPP Open – WPP’s AI-enabled marketing system – creating the industry’s most advanced platform for scaled and integrated creative, production, data, commerce and personalized media delivery services. WPP Open is backed by £300m in investment each year and partnerships with the leading AI companies.

WPP Media’s fully integrated offering enables clients to unify media, data and production and holistically manage their owned, earned, shared and paid activities to deliver personalization at scale. The company’s services are further enhanced with best-in-class connected commerce and state-of-the-art measurement and analytics capabilities.

WPP Media is underpinned by a commitment to accelerate investments in learning and development initiatives that will provide career pathways to the jobs of the future, ensuring employees are empowered to lead marketing and media transformation in the AI era.

Today’s announcement comes as WPP launches a new cross-channel B2B campaign targeting business leaders and senior marketing decision-makers. The campaign showcases WPP’s AI credentials, its integrated proposition, and the advanced capabilities of WPP Open. For more, visit wpp.com/ai.

As reported in GroupM’s This Year Next Year Mid-Year forecast, retail media remains the fastest-growing segment in digital advertising and is expected to represent 15.1% of total global ad revenue in 2024 – up from less than 2% a decade ago. This growth has fueled both opportunity and complexity for brands, often leading to an increased number of data and technology providers that lack connectivity and the ability to capture the nuance of retail effectively. In response to these realities, the co-engineered solution emphasizes simplicity and connectivity to give media teams and brands a clearer picture of the business. 

 “Our focus is on how we use technology to answer our clients’ business problems, drive incrementality, and simplify operational complexity. Our work with Pacvue makes that possible across markets, giving our clients the leading edge in a space where innovation has to be a constant,” said Samantha Bukowski, GroupM’s Global Head of Commerce. 

“Solving EMEA’s fragmented commerce landscape requires sophisticated tech automation solutions, that seamlessly integrate retail intelligence and media strategies. Our collaboration with Pacvue will enable us to access deeper retail insights and use them as triggers for media decisions, whilst allowing our teams more time to focus on driving growth for our clients,” said Larisa Dumitru, Head of Ecommerce, GroupM EMEA.

 The joint solution boasts exclusive, unique features for all GroupM clients, utilizing Pacvue across three core areas:  

• Insights: Access to unified Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) Analytics via the direct integration of GroupM’s best-in-class diagnostics and visualizations. Based on GroupM’s AMC Maturity Framework, teams are able to leverage bespoke queries and visuals to derive more powerful business insights, make optimization decisions, and create/deploy custom audiences in Amazon DSP all in one seamless platform. The streamlining of these features and capabilities within our Integrated Commerce Measurement solution with Pacvue will increase our speed to market for planning and activation on behalf of our clients. 

• Media Management: Over ten custom GroupM rules and algorithms can be applied through one-click enablement in a streamlined user interface, improving performance and reducing campaign setup times. Exclusive data integrations powered by GroupM, and early access to newly integrated retailers and channels provided by Pacvue, give clients a significant performance advantage.

• Retail Operations: To meet the increasing demand for integrated management of retail operations and media, the solution merges both functions in one easy-to-use interface and reporting dashboard, enabling clients to holistically monitor media, 3P content hijacking, content syndication, and chargebacks. 

In the last year, the global partnership has helped to avoid over 230 tonnes of CO2e emissions, the equivalent of charging more than 15 million smartphones. Around 260 GroupM advertisers across 28 markets have benefitted from their access to the technology, whilst simultaneously driving the improved performance of their digital ads. By reducing data waste, where data is only transferred for creative assets that are visible, SeenThis technology helps to increase the attention of the user meaning fewer impressions are required to meet targets. It also minimizes CO2e emissions, as each part of the internet supply chain requires energy to operate. 

Using SeenThis technology – UOB, a leading bank in Asia, was able to reduce data consumption by 25% and increase the view-through rate by 245%, a testament to the effectiveness of precision targeting and performance optimization efforts.  

The proprietary technology has been seamlessly integrated into GroupM’s carbon calculator, allowing all GroupM advertisers to assess the optimization impact when using SeenThis in pre-campaign planning. This demonstrates GroupM’s ability to turn trials into repeatable successes and create scalable processes. Growing industry interest and the desire for a common measuring framework are also helping to drive this. The focus in the near term is to convert successful trials and tests into always-on components of campaigns, as this technology has proven to drive meaningful business outcomes whilst reducing carbon intensity.

 “In 2023 we set out in partnership with SeenThis to minimize emissions using data from our partners. One year on, we are achieving what we said we would do, building on our global framework for media decarbonization. The success of this partnership marks an important step in our commitment to decarbonize our media supply chain, and the more advertisers opt into SeenThis, the more they can drive positive results across both emissions and performance,” said Kieley Taylor, Global Head of Partnerships at GroupM. 

 “Our partnership is one of the first examples of a vendor providing an immediate turn-key solution to enable GroupM to deliver CO2e reductions while enhancing the user experience. We’re thrilled that GroupM is focused on the combination of minimizing emissions while maximizing performance, and is embracing the use of SeenThis data to share this insight

New business wins for the group include Wakemaker MENA’s win of L'Oréal Middle East, Mindshare MENA’s wins of Al Fardan Jewelry, Alat, Amala, Americana Foods, Diriyah Gate Development Authority – DGDA, du, Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Company – EVIC, Inma Bank, Mondelez, New Murabba and Roberto Coin, and EssenceMediacom’s wins of Qiddiya and L'Oréal in Egypt. In addition, EssenceMediacom MENA extends its partnership with Etisalat in Egypt and has retained Vodafone in Oman.

Alan Azar has joined GroupM as Regional MD of CX, Data and Technology, Haneen Aburrubb has been appointed as the group’s eCommerce Director to accelerate the commerce capabilities in response to clients’ growing demands, and Mario Soufia, Regional Managing Director to manage a range of future-proofing services for clients including business strategy, eGaming and the management of the content hub of the group including influencer marketing company, The Goat Agency.

Further appointments to the new leadership team under the appointment of Amer El Hajj as CEO at GroupM MENA in September 2023, include but are not limited to Abdallah Adra as Head of Buying, Darine ElKaissi as Managing Director at Mindshare KSA, Felicity Stokes as Head of Marketing and Communications, Laura Gleadhill as General Manager at Keyade Middle East, Patricia Abi Fadel as Head of Investment, Ragy Saad as Finance Director, Rana Zeidan as Business Director at L'Oréal Middle East – Wavemaker MENA, Samer Majzoub as Regional Managing Director at Mindshare MENA, Sarah ElMenzlawy as Head of Buying and Investments at GroupM Egypt.

In addition, GroupM MENA has introduced a new business development team, executed a comprehensive restructuring of its buying, finance, and operation departments, and created cost-efficiency hubs. This organizational structure is designed to elevate the proficiency of the group's specialists, products, and services, effectively catering to the collective needs of the business whilst delivering a transformative media strategy for clients.

Beyond leadership appointments and organizational transformations, the entire GroupM team and the agencies have played an integral role in the group’s recent successes. The team has collaboratively elevated media excellence, embodying a shared mission: to consistently deliver exceptional value and ROI to all clients.

Josh Krichefski, GroupM EMEA CEO commented, “The MENA region presents significant opportunities. GroupM’s Global This Year Next Year report highlights growth is expected to exceed the global rate in 2024, with $15.9 billion in advertising revenue predicted. I have confidence in the reinvigorated team who are already demonstrating noticeable achievements and business successes.”

Amer El Hajj, CEO of GroupM MENA, remarked, "We've undergone a transformative journey, meticulously identifying our strengths and pinpointing areas for enhancement over the last few months, crafting a new organizational structure that seamlessly aligns with our global and local aspirations. The remarkable accomplishments achieved within a short time are a testament to the dedication of our MENA team, positioning us as formidable players poised to deliver accelerated growth for our clients. The great talent that has joined us is fueled by the excitement towards our vision in shaping the 'next era' of media. We are in the people industry and are steadfast in guiding our people to effectively support clients in achieving their business objectives and building their continuous growth."

GroupM has reached its most successful year yet in the MENA region with 40% growth in billings compared to 2022.

Krichefski will succeed Demet Ikiler, who is stepping down from her position as CEO for GroupM EMEA and WPP Country Manager for Turkey at the end of the month, and Karen Blackett OBE, who served as GroupM’s U.K. CEO until her elevation to a new role as president of WPP in the U.K. in September 2022.  

In this newly created role, Krichefski will be responsible for managing GroupM’s business strategy, operations, and growth across EMEA and the United Kingdom. GroupM represents $23 billion in advertising investment in the region and a 32% market share, employing more than 16,000 individuals across 42 markets in EMEA through its agencies Mindshare, Wavemaker, EssenceMediacom, and mSix&Partners, as well as its investment division, Motion Content Group, and GroupM Nexus, the world’s leading community of performance marketing experts.  

Christian Juhl, Global CEO of GroupM, said in a statement, “Josh has been helping lead our organization through change for over a decade. His success in driving operational excellence and business transformation has had a major impact on our clients’ businesses and the growth of MediaCom and GroupM as a whole. I couldn’t be more excited about the combination of client-centricity and people-first leadership he will bring to GroupM in this new role across so many important clients and dynamic markets. I would also like to thank Demet for her leadership and commitment to our success for more than two decades. As CEO for EMEA, she has helped take our business in the region to the next level. She has been a fearless champion for diversity, inclusion, and sustainability initiatives across GroupM, our agencies, and our work for clients. We wish her all the best for the future.”  

Krichefski, who is based in London, has been part of GroupM since 2011 when he first joined MediaCom as Chief Operating Officer for EMEA. Since that time, he has played a critical part in the agency’s growth, modernization, and day-to-day operations, most recently leading the integration of EssenceMediacom as Global COO.  

Krichefski is known across GroupM and the industry more broadly as a champion for cultural change and mental health awareness initiatives. He is a trustee of Transformation Trust, advancing career development opportunities for children from underprivileged backgrounds. He is a Founding Member of the World Wellbeing Movement and the MS Society Appeal Board.  In December 2022, he was nominated to serve as the next President of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), the trade body and professional institute for the advertising industry in the UK. He is also a Fellow of the Marketing Society. 

He said, “I am thrilled to have the opportunity to build on the terrific work Demet and Karen have done to grow our business and create momentum for GroupM in EMEA and the UK. There’s never been a more exciting time to work in the media industry than right now, and I look forward to partnering with our teams at all levels to help our clients find new pathways to growth.” 

From consumer trends (hint: people now want to enjoy life) to an advertising industry growth faster than expected and the latest tech developments, we review the most important developments to track this year and beyond.

Check it all out online here or grab a hard copy at your nearest bookstore.

GroupM identified major areas to consider at this point:

• Digital advertising: Likely growing by 30.5% by end 2021, up from June’s forecast of 26% growth.
  • Digital advertising accounted for 64.4% of all advertising in 2021, up from 60.5% in 2020.
  • Alphabet, Meta, and Amazon account for 80-90% of the global total.
• Television advertising: Forecasted to grow by 11.7% in 2021, up from June’s estimate of 9.3%. Given 2020’s decline of 13.7%, the industry is not expected to return to 2019 levels until 2023.
  • Subsequent years will be roughly flat – up 1-2% per year through 2026 – for television advertising in most major markets around the world, as the largest advertisers continue to incrementally shift spending.
  • Overall, connected TV+ will account for about 10% of total TV advertising in 2022 ($17 billion of a total of $171 billion) and is expected to double by 2026.
• Audio advertising: Expectations for audio are that it will grow 15.6% in 2021 and 6.4% in 2022. In subsequent years, we assume a reversion to historical trends: largely flat.
• OOH advertising: Outdoor advertising is expected to grow 17.1% in 2021 and 14.9% in 2022. In subsequent years, we assume a reversion to historical trends: mid-single-digit growth.

Communicate sat with Brian Wieser, Global President, Business Intelligence at GroupM to dig into these findings.

What does the faster-than-anticipated growth rate that you are forecasting tell you?

It is surprising how fast the advertising market globally is growing, how pretty uniform that expansion is, and [how] the acceleration relative to expectations has continued.

Expectations for economic activity are improving generally around the world; that helps. Inflation expectations are rising too, which also helps. If you have a consumer price inflation of 5% versus zero, ceteris paribus [all other things being equal], you would expect more advertising. As long as inflation doesn’t cause friction in the market – European-level or American-level inflation – it’s doesn’t make much difference other than cause more advertising because of the way that marketers tend to budget.

I use a super simple example in the United States. A great bakery near where I live no longer makes bread on Mondays because they can’t find labor, because they’re not willing to pay enough. But there are other places where I can get bread. Even if I’m used to a baguette at $3 and someone else is selling a good baguette for $4, I’m happy to pay more. So, my money will just get spent somewhere else. The baker who decides that they can’t pay their staff 20% more and charge $4 loses. If every baker decided that consumers won’t pay $4 for a baguette, you’d have fewer purchases of baguettes and, if there were an advertising industry centered around baguettes, there would be less advertising of baguettes; but that’s not the situation we’re in.

That, and the supply chain issues, are the most common issues that come up in conversations around the advertising market. Supply chain challenges mean, in part, there are fewer goods to advertise. But what I think a lot of people are missing is that, when we hear individual companies complaining about not getting access to goods, it’s because their competitor bought the good instead. And so, the advertising is coming from someone else. Supply chain constraints have not proven to be negative at this stage.

The growth is mostly concentrated in three main markets, China, the US, and the UK. What drives this dominance?

The US has always punched above weight in the sense of how important advertising is relative to the market. It’s always been amusing to me how investors in particular, and other observers always look at the American advertising intensity and say, “Well, if advertising is X% of GDP in the US, surely everywhere else will catch up.” No! Who says it will?

If you look at what drives advertising, economic activity is a proxy, but it’s not the driver. The driver is the composition of the economy. If advertising is a choice that a company makes because it’s better than the alternative, you need a catalyst. Imagine you had an economy completely composed of monopolies that had fast-growing GDP, would you see a lot of advertising? No, you’d see very little. Some level of competition is necessary.

You can also have too much competition. Imagine an economy with nothing but small businesses – no large ones operating at a large scale. It doesn’t matter what total economic growth is happening, GDP or otherwise; you wouldn’t necessarily see a lot of advertising. If you have a lot of categories that are large enough, oligopolistic but not monopolistic, you probably have the conditions for a lot of advertising.

The United States has all these characteristics. And the UK is growing into this kind of advertising intensity, and also benefiting from American companies looking to the UK as their second market after the US.

The three things that China, the UK, and the US have in common are massive pools of venture capital and other sources of cheap capital that are driving huge levels of investment into companies operating at a very large scale in emerging fields. There’s some activity like that, say, in Germany, but just not anywhere near as much.

What about the MENA region?

In MENA, the total estimate for this year is $5.3 billion with a growth rate of 15%, and 17% next year. Last year, we didn’t record much of a decline, but the ups and downs that we see in the region are idiosyncratic. They’re different than any other market. If the government coffers are really strong in KSA, that’s going to drive a lot of advertising. If not, you won’t see as much.

Do the trends that you identified apply to the region as well?

It’s somewhat unique; really different factors drive the advertising market compared to other markets. But a lot of what we say is applicable [in MENA].

TV ad spending has been growing. Is this related to the pandemic?

No, that’s more because of the decline last year. In most markets, television goes back to 2019 levels by either next year or, for some, this year.

People might have watched more television during the worst parts of the pandemic but that didn’t necessarily impact advertising budgets. Consumption and advertising spending don’t relate to each other.

You also mention the inevitable deceleration of digital. What makes you predict that?

Well, unless you believe that the advertising market is going to be completely disconnected from economic activity, unless our whole economy is going to become advertising, it has to decelerate. It’s a math exercise as much as anything.

So, it’s not due to changes in behaviors, for example.

Consumer behaviors matter more when we look at shifts in spending within like-for-like media. That truth has been misapplied to all advertising.

That’s interesting because we keep being told that advertisers need to follow eyeballs.

Next time someone says that, I’ll simply show you the math on it. People say, “Oh, the consumers are in control” and I say, “How do you quantify that? Are you saying they didn’t have control 50 years ago? They couldn’t just walk away? Why is it different now?” “Advertising follows eyeballs” is another truism. Show me the money! Show me where this goes. Whenever anyone says something that sounds like a fact, ask them, “Why do you believe that’s true?”

I took the job on March 1, 2020, and on March 16, we went into lockdown; I was not able to travel at all. I first started to travel in September, and I went first to Germany and London; this second trip is to Dubai. We have more than 30 markets in our region, so it tells you something about priority.

My objective is to visit markets as much as I can because, without real physical contact, you can’t understand each market’s business. I’m fascinated by the diversity that I’m exposed to. The markets within my region, from South Africa to the Middle East to Russia to Denmark, cover an incredible spectrum for me to understand and to discover the synergies, the similarities, so that we built the business on a more regional basis.

I also believe this business is a local business. Being a global company makes us stronger, more sustainable, more competitive, and we’re able to provide better and more relevant services for our clients; but at the end of the day, the most important part of this structure is the people on the ground. The consumer insights, the media ownership structure, the habits, the ambitions in the market… There are a lot of things that we take into consideration and how you package and position yourself will be different because the needs will be different. One service will never fit all. Even if we have a common strategy, implementation will have to be tailored market by market.

In addition, there is a very interesting dynamism in this region. What is happening in Saudi Arabia, the really fast and deep changes, the momentum, the growth… We know that, as a group, we can contribute a lot. We have big markets in Western Europe, but the growth rates in this part of the world are really amazing and you see the recovery from COVID much more quickly. The positivity and the appetite for innovation, that’s all very exciting.

How did you manage the transition to this new role during a pandemic?

Because I’m from Turkey, doing a local job for many years in a smaller market, I was really aware of how big of a change it was for me to move to a regional role in our biggest and most diverse region. So I was, of course, super excited but also a little bit worried. But then again, when COVID happened, our priorities changed. The security of our people came first, and then the delivery for our clients. So, rather than me coming up with big changes or transformational actions, we focused on fixing the basics and being resilient. I then realized that this is what I had experienced throughout my almost three decades career in Turkey – being resilient. It had been like a big roller coaster, with natural disasters, coups, political instability, financial crisis… I felt like my ability to survive, to lead under ambiguity, uncertainty, and crisis, helped me to do the job, maybe in a better way.

What changes are you aiming to drive that come from your previous role?

We need to guide and inspire our markets, but we need to also let them run their own business. Rather than controlling, we move to a more empowering mindset.

Secondly, to be able to run a big, complex structure like GroupM, you need to get all the key stakeholders around one table and involve them in the decision-making process in a collaborative, open, transparent manner. This helps us to make decisions in a much faster way.

And thirdly, we launched new clusters so that we create synergies and opportunities based on common denominators. For example, we launched the CEE cluster, the sub-Sahara cluster, etc.

We found ways of running the complexity, first bringing all key decision-makers together, empowering the local markets, and then coming up with a new structure that will help us to coordinate and manage the region.

What do you think comes from you being a woman as well?

I believe we need to fight discrimination because women, especially, start the race from much behind and it’s not fair. In markets like Turkey or here, due to hundreds of years of conditioning, women are expected to be in a certain type of role and to deliver a certain way, and they act accordingly. That needs to change. We need to create role models, to actively promote and endorse women, and also to create circumstances for them to thrive and shine. And we need to do it in a more structured way, in terms of recruitment, of people development training, of promotion decision-making. We have to be corporately committed to making this happen, and this is what we do at GroupM. All the policies that we put in place as a group are a good demonstration of how we have endorsed diversity.

Also, as a woman, I really like to enjoy what I do, to work with big teams, and to make people feel that they belong. For example, as soon as we had to lock down, I invited all the country leads to a ‘purpose call,’ asking what we could do to help with Coronavirus relief within individual markets. Almost two years later, the purpose calls continue.

Where do you find the fuel for all of this?

It feels like I need to give back because I’ve been so lucky. I’m an ambassador, an activist, a mentor, and now I also have the power. So, I need to do more, to do better, to contribute more. I can use the power of the work, of our relationships, of our ecosystem to do better. And also, because I’ve been through this incredible journey, I want more people to experience the same.

Where do you see yourself in five years?

I’d like to do this job for another five years, for sure. But I’m 51 years old – I’m not hiding my age. I feel like at the age of 55 or 56, I would be ready for a global role. I’d like to take another step to do a wider job and contribute to our purpose on a much wider scale.

I love that you are not afraid of showing that you’re ambitious, which is something that is often criticized in women.

Ambition has always been associated in a positive way with a man, but a woman… ugh. But there’s nothing to be ashamed of! Ambition is a great asset because it helps you to do better, to do more, and it also helps your ecosystem to go with you. I’m ambitious about sustainability, about diversity, about the world. Of course, as women, we are nurturing, embracing, and I’m not talking about letting those qualities go. But the synthesis of both makes us who we are, and that’s why we are precious the way we are.

The hottest buzzword of 2018 is quite certainly ‘influencers’. It doesn’t matter if they actually influence their millions of followers; they certainly carry the title in their Instagram bios and increasingly well-designed media kits.

Influencer marketing is big business too. Advertisers globally are positioning themselves to invest more and more of their marketing budgets on these digital celebrities.

While influencers have been called many things such as key opinion leaders, social celebrities, social storytellers, content creators and of course the buzz-wordy title above, they traverse the fine line between a publisher and an individual. In the traditional sense, an influencer is a single person behaving like a publisher that creates written and visual narratives on a periodic basis. Except, they also star in their own productions. For this reason alone, I prefer to call them content creator-publishers.

As a paid-for content creator and publisher, it should come as no surprise that both marketers and influencers themselves should follow the same barometers of the digital advertising industry. This will help ensure that there is both transparency and parity in this space. After all, if you’re going to command marketing investments designed to generate certain outcomes and benchmarks, it seems only prudent that you be measured in the same stead.

Here are the five steps that you as an influencer – especially if you’re based in the Middle East – need to get started:

1. Get a business account

Almost all social platforms offer business accounts to influencers these days. What this offers you is the ability to get deeper analytics, launch partnerships and easily create branded content that your followers are aware of.

2. Analyze your accounts

Having a business account will give you access to a lot of rich data about your profiles and followers. If you are a serious content creator, you would have already spent time understanding the kind of content that performs well and the kind that doesn’t.

After all, this is your livelihood.

And so, skimming through the deltas on followers and engagement is not enough. It’s crucial to focus on the more granular metrics and study them in different contexts such as type of content (photo, video, GIF, LIVE), timing (day, hour, event, occasion), location, duration, etc.

3. Understand and provide metrics important to advertisers
   1. Number of followers does NOT equal Reach. Beyond the creative, ideological and engagement fit, many clients today want to know and understand how far your voice really echoes. Your total number of followers is NOT your ‘reach’ in all countries. If a client wants to know your reach in a particular country, then pull up the number of followers in that country and compare it in relation to the overall reach as a percentage of your total number of followers. This number will change from good days to bad ones and vary based on the type of content, targeting, etc. But, provide this clarity to advertisers. As an agency, I find it extremely frustrating when a creator says they are based in Dubai but 70% of their audience is based in Egypt. That basically means that 70% of your audience is not my target audience; this is false advertising and grounds for loss of faith.
      It’s also an excellent diagnostic starting point for where you can acquire or retain the audience you seek.
   2. Not all metrics are the same. Engagements aren’t created equal. From views, likes and hearts to comments and replies, and shares; there are varying degrees of how users engage with your published content. It’s a great looking number when bundled together but not a helpful one. Advertisers may not ask you for these details as they track, monitor, and measure themselves, but it helps you to know that they will go that far. If you generate more views than likes and comments, they may assume that releasing their own content through your channels is more beneficial. This changes the entire way in which you position yourself to potential advertisers.
   3. The Jack of all affinities. If you’re a YouTuber, I hope you’ve spent plenty of hours poring over the interest affinities of your subscriber and viewer base. There are third-party platforms too that can help with this by showing you the categories your followers are in and where your content resonates the most. If you pay a close eye to these, you’ll notice how this changes month on month. Why is this important? It helps you offer more empirical evidence about why you really are a ‘travel’ or ‘fashion’ specialist rather than the thousand others all claiming to be similar to you.

4. Beyond the post, track outcomes

I still find it strange that so many people are unaware that adding a simple ‘+’ to the end of a bit.ly link gives you the traffic that link passed through – and for free, if you have an account. Why is tracking links in your bio so important? To prove your ‘influence’ you have to achieve certain measurable outcomes – beyond reach and engagement because that’s not what influence is.

Real influence is better measured by your ability to, for instance, drive your followers to an e-commerce platform where they bought the featured product; or to sign up for an event (and actually show up). If not, change your title from ‘influencer’ to simply ‘content creator-publisher’.

5. Make it stick

Losing your captive audience as you experiment with content can be a painful experience. However, other than the retention of followers and subscribers, you need to apply experimentation to the frames of the video content that you publish. Advertisers pour hundreds of millions of dollars in research and learning about the right lengths of video, when to introduce their brands, how often to do it for and for how long before their viewers lose interest. They look at influencers’ captive audience and wonder what they can do to get the same reaction. As brands get more and more savvy with their metrics, they will come around to ask you for the View-Through-Rate (VTR) and percentage retention. These numbers are not only important for you to know, but also a key way for advertisers to calculate their ROI.

The above are simple and quick steps to get started on analytics for your profiles. There’s a lot more that you can do but most importantly, have fun and experiment with numbers. These unique data points will become your USP and position yourself better in front of advertisers.

In 2014, Mars consolidated media planning with MediaCom but its media buying business was handled by different agencies in different markets. In the Middle East, Starcom MediaVest – which also handled the media planning business in 2014 – continued to manage its media buying.

[Tweet “Congrats MediaCom on the Mars win! Here’s to a sweet win”]

Now, the entire global business – which is worth £1.4 billion globally, according to data from Recma – will be consolidated into MediaCom, including buying for the US and China.

READ: Ramadan and radio: a lift for traditional media?

To deliver on the assignment, MediaCom will work as part of GroupMW, a GroupM solution, tapping into the resources of GroupM and WPP agencies.

MediaCom had previously managed media planning globally for the client and buying in over 20 markets, including Mexico, Canada, Australia, and the Netherlands.

This move is part of Mars’ larger transformation, which has been driving with its marketing and media agenda – looking to build competitive advantage through insights, investment, and innovation. With an ever-changing marketing and retail landscape, Mars have been putting an increased focus on driving value from fast approaches to data, new creative and content models, and ways to incubate innovation.

READ: Why is Indra Nooyi leaving PepsiCo and why now?

“This partnership will be a crucial accelerator in our ambition to be quicker, bolder and even more innovative when it comes to meeting our consumer needs. It brings thought leadership and actionable use of data and insights to meet our media needs,” says Andrew Clarke, chief marketing and customer officer at Mars, in a statement.

“It was impressive to see some of the fresh, challenging approaches from all three of the agencies. It’s helped evolve our thinking throughout the pitch and inspired us to be even bolder in our ambition. GroupM created a custom operating model for us which enables us to put data at the heart of our decision making, drive speed at a global, local and campaign level, and use our resources efficiently,” adds Rob Rakowitz, global media director at Mars.

The full assignment will go into effect on 1 January 2019 and the transition period will run from August until December 2018.