Think Global, Act Programmatic: GroupM's Xaxis Unveils Market Domination Plan
- by David Goetzl @dgoetzl, June 7, 2013
Global
expansion continues at GroupM unit Xaxis as it moves into Latin America en route to growing from 22 markets to 30 by the end of the year. The business, which operates a trading desk and other
functions, is launching with five offices in Latin America. “We expect that to be a very fast growing market for us,” said CEO Brian Lesser at a WPP digital investor day.
Xaxis plans to launch in the Mideast and North Africa region in the fourth quarter. It has opened multiple offices in Asia-Pacific over the last year, including in China in late 2012.
“Everywhere WPP is developing, Xaxis will be in that market as well,” Lesser said.
With billings at close to $400 million, the entity has some 50 traders and 60 analysts among its 300 employees. Lesser said it has over 1,000 clients and billings have grown at a clip well above 50%. It recently launched functionality to buy out-of-home and radio inventory.
Working with publishers like CNN and the Financial Times, Lesser said: “Our ambition on behalf of our clients is to buy zero impressions at auction because we want to leverage our clients’ buying power. GroupM’s buying power is to pay publishers a fair price for inventory, but not buy it at auction in competition with others.”
Moving forward, he added: “The trading aspect of our business is very important because what we see is over time, advertisers are not going to be satisfied using a DSP (demand-side platform) to buy ad exchanges. In fact, they're going to want to have trading relationships with large media owners (with Xaxis) not through a third-party technology provider.”
