AD Agencies
WPP’s Xaxis launches Light Reaction
MUMBAI: WPP’s programmatic media and technology platform Xaxis has formally launched Light Reaction, a new mobile-first performance advertising business with an innovative outcomes-based, pay-for-performance media model.
Light Reaction’s performance model is designed to combine scientific insight into how audiences perceive, relate and react to advertising with the data resources and scale of Xaxis to deliver highly accountable results for global brands. At launch, Light Reaction will be available in 20 markets across North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
Light Reaction’s response-oriented methodology and model is designed to maximize the volume of outcomes a brand is able to achieve. In an engagement with German retailer Walbusch, Light Reaction was tasked with the specific outcome of driving new customer sales. Utilizing real-time creative optimization, Light Reaction’s campaign increased new customer sales by 17 per cent, while decreasing new customer acquisition costs by eight per cent. Walbusch utilized Light Reaction’s pay-for-performance model and only paid for directly attributed new customer sales.
Light Reaction’s performance marketing platform leverages the mobile-first technology of recent Xaxis acquisition ActionX, a leader in mobile app and cross-screen advertising; the programmatic capabilities of the QuismaX performance products previously provided by GroupM’s QUISMA; and Turbine, Xaxis’ proprietary data management platform, which provides real-time audience segmentation and modelling capabilities. Advertisers will have the opportunity to pair Light Reaction outcome-focused media products alongside Xaxis audience products.
Xaxis executive vice president, general manager, performance marketing Paul Dolan will head Light Reaction as general manager.
“Light Reaction makes it easy for global advertisers to garner the outcomes they want with zero upfront risk and unparalleled capability to scale results across multiple channels. We’ve developed a model for performance marketing that allows brands to meet precise objectives of customer response while drawing a direct line between ads and results,” said Dolan.
In addition to leveraging robust audience data, high-performing media inventory and real-time programmatic technologies, Light Reaction is developing tools that tap the emerging field of perceptual science to help advertisers stand out amidst the crowded digital real-estate of consumers’ mobile devices. This understanding of the perceptual pathway by which audiences process and respond to dynamic creative will enhance Light Reaction’s ability to maximize desired outcomes under the broadest possible set of conditions. While Light Reaction’s mobile-first approach reflects the ever-increasing prominence of mobile, its products are channel agnostic. Advertisers can run coordinated campaigns across multiple channels to capture outcomes wherever they may be.
“Mobile is the only digital media channel that’s essentially always-on, making it a huge target for global advertisers. With Light Reaction we’re arming clients to cut the through the clutter of the space with a platform that takes performance marketing to a new level of customization and accountability, particularly in driving outcomes via mobile devices,” said Xaxis global CEO Brian Lesser.
AD Agencies
WPP Media elevates Dipti Gulati to vp, client growth for APMEA
Singapore-based executive to commercialise AI-powered solutions business across the region
SINGAPORE: WPP Media has promoted Dipti Gulati to vice president, client growth, handing her the mandate to lead the commercialisation of its solutions business across APMEA.
Based in Singapore, Gulati steps up after serving as senior director, client growth, where she drove expansion across APAC spanning programmatic, search, social, CTV, DOOH and cross-channel offerings. Now, she is tasked with translating advanced AI, data and technology ecosystems into scalable growth strategies for global brands across FMCG, luxury, F&B and financial services.
“I commercialise the future of media — at scale, across APMEA,” Gulati said, announcing her appointment. She added that she turns advanced data, AI and technology ecosystems into real commercial outcomes, shifting the conversation “from a pure media play to owning business outcomes”.
Her brief is unapologetically future-facing: addressable, accountable and AI-powered media. She will work with cross-market teams across APMEA, bringing together diverse perspectives and cultures to accelerate growth and build what she calls the “future of media”.
Gulati’s rise caps nearly two years at WPP Media and follows a six-month stint as regional director of growth, APAC, at Mindshare, where she led new business development and expanded capabilities for existing clients. Earlier, as global account director for integrated marketing communications on the Unilever business, she drove communications strategy for multi-million dollar beauty and wellbeing brands across Southeast Asia.
Before that, Gulati spent close to two years as associate director at Warner Bros. Discovery in Singapore. She also served as director, strategic partnerships and market development at TrustSphere, leading go-to-market and growth initiatives across Asia and evangelising relationship analytics to C-level executives. TrustSphere, credited by industry and Harvard Business School case studies as a pioneer in relationship analytics, became a springboard for her deeper engagement with data-driven growth.
Her board and evangelist roles at the Asia Cloud Computing Association and its Asia Analytics Alliance further sharpened her regional policy and analytics credentials. Earlier chapters include marketing consultancy at Blockchain Foundry and a seven-year run at Warner Bros. Discovery in India, where she led ad-sales and business development for HBO and WB across north and east India, delivering record billings. She began her career at Diligent Media Corporation Ltd and Bennett, Coleman and Co. Ltd..
From ad-sales floors in Delhi and Mumbai to boardrooms in Singapore, Gulati’s arc mirrors the industry’s own shift — from selling spots and slots to engineering outcomes through data and AI. At WPP Media, the brief is clear: scale smarter, move faster and turn algorithms into advantage.
