MAM
GroupM names Brian Lesser as CEO, North America
MUMBAI: WPP’s GroupM has appointed Brian Lesser as CEO for business in the US and Canada.
Lesser was previously Xaxis global CEO. He succeeds Kelly Clark, who will be transitioning to a new advisory role focused on strategic initiatives with clients and specialty businesses over the coming months.
With this, Brian Gleason will succeed Lesser as Xaxis global CEO.
In concert with these changes, GroupM global chief digital officer Rob Norman adds the position of chairman, North America to his responsibilities.
The new roles for the two executives reflect GroupM’s certainty that the future of media-driven marketing is inextricably tied to data and technology. Key investments and partnerships over the past several years that support this positioning include WPP’s investments in comScore and AppNexus; GroupM’s and Kantar Media’s partnership with Rentrak; more recent alliances with BuzzFeed and Networked Insights; introduction of the industry’s first data management platform and first programmatic audience platform; introduction of Modi Media, the first fully-formed advanced TV specialty business delivering addressable TV ads at scale; and numerous progressive positions on digital ad viewability and measurement that are focused on raising the bar for effectiveness and trading currency.
While driving advancement in North America, Lesser and Norman also each continue serving on GroupM’s global executive committee, led by GroupM global president Dominic Proctor and global chairman Irwin Gotlieb.
“Brian will be a huge part of our future and his appointment reflects our values and ambition, as well as WPP’s drive to achieve 40-45% of revenues from digital in five years. Our future is being built on tech, data, talent and scale. Brian absolutely gets that and is perfectly suited to help us shape that future to best serve advertisers. We’re very fortunate to have him leading our business in the world’s biggest market,” said Proctor.
“GroupM has continuously evolved with clients through major shifts in the media landscape and consumer behavior with data and technology having always been part of the value proposition. GroupM has challenged convention and forced dialogue on important issues to help clients be more successful. I’m humbled and grateful to have an opportunity to help continue this legacy at this time when complexity is more profound than ever,” added Lesser.
“This is an exciting time for our company. We have many successes to count and new marketplace challenges to conquer, but above all, we have the strength of our agency brands, our specialist enterprises and our increasing differentiation in the management and application of data that leave us exceptionally well-positioned for the future. I’m energized by the road ahead and excited to work with Brian and our colleagues on the executive committee for the next chapter,” said Norman.
MAM
GUEST COLUMN: Performance marketing is a discipline, not a shortcut
The case for structured, data-led growth over short-term gains
MUMBAI: Performance marketing is often seen as a quick route to scale, but Abhishek Punia, co-founder and CEO of ARM Worldwide, argues that it is not a shortcut, but a discipline that demands structure, financial clarity, and long-term thinking. Drawing on the evolution of digital acquisition and the lessons from brands that scaled too fast, he highlights how performance marketing can either build sustainable growth or expose fragile unit economics, depending on how it is governed.
In this piece, Punia explains how performance marketing has moved beyond simple funnel tactics to become a learning system and capital allocation engine. He explores the growing convergence of branding and accountability, and why organisations that balance data-driven performance with sustained brand investment are better positioned to create durable, profitable growth.
Over the past decade, performance marketing has powered some of India’s fastest-scaling consumer brands. Digital acquisition, precision targeting, and aggressive media investment enabled companies to unlock rapid revenue growth. For many organisations, dashboards replaced intuition and ROAS became the dominant measure of success.
Yet speed does not automatically create strength.
Brands that scaled rapidly through acquisition-led strategies often discovered that efficiency alone can produce fragile growth when retention weakens, margins compress, or media costs rise. Others that balanced accountable acquisition with sustained brand investment built more resilient economics. The contrast reveals a structural truth. Performance marketing can accelerate expansion, but it does not guarantee durability. The defining question is not whether it works, but how it is governed. Is it used as a tactical lever for rapid scale, or as a disciplined system for building long-term value?
To answer this, we must examine what performance marketing represents inside the business, not just inside the media plan.
Beyond funnel labels
Performance marketing is often reduced to a question of placement. Is it top-funnel or bottom-funnel? Is it awareness or conversion? These questions, however, miss the larger point. The real distinction lies not in where it operates, but in how it operates. At its core, performance marketing introduces accountability into the marketing ecosystem. Every investment is tied to a defined outcome. Every campaign is evaluated against measurable business impact. It shifts marketing from exposure-based thinking to result-based thinking.
Historically, ATL (above the line) built reach and mental availability at scale, while BTL (below the line) focused on direct response. The funnel model connected these efforts through a largely sequential journey from awareness to purchase. Those structural categories still exist, but digital ecosystems have blurred their boundaries. Measurement now travels across the entire journey. Performance marketing today functions as a continuous feedback mechanism. Audience behaviour generates data. Data informs optimisation. Optimisation improves efficiency. This loop repeats, creating an evolving system rather than a one-time campaign push.
When practised with rigour, performance marketing strengthens capital allocation. It ensures that expansion does not outpace profitability. When used only as a scaling lever, it can create the illusion of momentum while masking fragile unit economics. In this sense, discipline means three things: clarity on financial metrics, structured experimentation across channels, and alignment between marketing, finance, and product. Without these elements, performance becomes activity. With them, it becomes strategy.
The new growth approach
What began as a measurable acquisition tool has evolved into a structured approach to growth. Today, its value lies not only in driving conversions, but in shaping how organisations learn from data and how they scale with financial discipline.
Performance as a learning system
The true competitive edge in performance marketing lies in learning velocity. Access to media platforms and targeting tools is widely available. Differentiation no longer comes from access. It comes from interpretation and iteration.
Data functions as a strategic asset rather than a reporting output. Each click, purchase, abandonment, and repeat transaction reveals insight into intent, price sensitivity, creative resonance, and channel productivity. High-performing teams convert these signals into structured testing frameworks. Creative variables, audience definitions, landing experiences, offer structures, and bidding logic are continuously evaluated and recalibrated.
Over time, competitive strength compounds not because of isolated optimisations, but because the organisation institutionalises learning as an operating capability.
Targeting has evolved accordingly. Behaviour-led personas, powered by first-party data and predictive modelling, increasingly replace broad demographic buckets. Industry research consistently suggests that AI-driven personalisation can increase conversion rates by 20 to 30 percent compared to generic campaigns, underscoring how relevance has become a measurable criterion. Growth is no longer driven by isolated campaign wins. It is driven by the robustness of the learning system behind them.
Performance as a scalable engine
The real evolution in performance marketing is not about faster optimisation. It is about smarter allocation of capital.
Success is increasingly evaluated through lifetime value, cohort durability, retention strength, and payback timelines rather than immediate ROAS alone. The rise of retail media ecosystems such as Flipkart and Amazon reflects this shift, where commerce data, search intent, and sponsored placements converge to create accountable growth environments.
As intent data concentrates within closed platforms, competitive pressure within auction systems intensifies, shifting bargaining power toward platforms and increasing the importance of margin discipline and differentiation for brands.
Automation platforms such as Google Performance Max and Meta Advantage plus further embed machine-led bidding and creative optimisation into this system. However, as optimisation becomes increasingly algorithmic, tactical advantages compress, and strategic clarity becomes the primary differentiator. First-party data strategies allow brands to prioritise higher-value customers over one-time conversions, aligning acquisition with long-term profitability. Even creative strategy is increasingly evaluated for its contribution to engagement depth and repeat behaviour.
In this context, performance marketing operates not as tactical media buying, but as a structured engine for scalable and financially sound growth.
The convergence of branding and accountability
If performance marketing determines how efficiently capital is deployed, branding determines the quality and readiness of the demand that capital seeks to convert. Optimisation can sharpen targeting, refine bids, and improve creative delivery, but it operates within the boundaries of existing perception. It can capture intent, but it cannot independently build sustained preference.
Branding builds mental availability well before the purchase moment. Through consistent messaging, experience design, and cultural presence, it shapes how consumers evaluate value. When familiarity and trust are already established, performance channels require fewer touchpoints and less persuasion to convert. This is why high-salience brands often demonstrate stronger and more stable acquisition economics. Global players such as Nike and Indian platforms such as Zomato and Blinkit, invest continuously in brand experience and ecosystem depth. Their performance activity does not compensate for weak perception. It amplifies equity that has already been built. Conversion is supported by recognition, perceived value, and repeat behaviour rather than short-term incentives alone.
The relationship is structural. Branding shapes predisposition over time. Performance converts that predisposition into measurable revenue. An endurance race offers a useful parallel. The pace visible on race day reflects months of preparation and conditioning. Speed may attract attention, but endurance determines sustainability. In the same way, performance tactics can generate immediate spikes, but sustained branding investment supports output across cycles of competition and rising media costs.
When branding and performance operate in convergence, growth becomes less reactive and more compounding. Performance delivers acceleration. Branding ensures that acceleration remains sustainable.
What endures in the end
The real distinction is not between speed and patience, but between execution and governance. At its most mature, performance marketing is not a campaign tactic but a framework for decision-making. It enforces clarity in capital allocation, aligns marketing with finance and product, and exposes weak unit economics early. Shortcuts optimise for immediate outcomes. Discipline builds operating systems that sustain value creation across cycles.
Performance marketing does not manufacture durability. It magnifies whatever discipline already exists within the organisation. That is why it is not a shortcut. It is a structured path to growth that can endure.
