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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
Omnicom Advertising names Ellie Brocklehurst chief growth and marketing officer for Asia
The former TBWA Asia marketing chief returns from maternity leave with an ambitious mandate to make Omnicom the most sought-after network in the region.
NEW YORK: Ellie Brocklehurst is back, and she is not easing herself in gently. Omnicom Advertising has appointed Brocklehurst as chief growth and marketing officer for Asia, a role that puts her in charge of growth and marketing initiatives across the network’s three flagship agencies: BBDO, McCann and TBWA. Her brief is to sharpen existing capabilities while identifying new avenues for expansion across the region.
Brocklehurst brings a career that has moved steadily upward through some of the industry’s most recognisable names. She began at Source Music before moving through Exposure Public Relations and Marketing, Taurus Marketing and LEWIS Global Communications. She then joined BBDO Worldwide as communications manager for the Asia group, rising to regional communications director for Asia. At Wunderman Thompson, she served as head of marketing and PR for APAC before being elevated to APAC growth marketing lead, where she worked closely with local management teams on client expansion strategies, new business acquisition and brand building. Most recently, she served as chief marketing officer at TBWA\Asia.
Brocklehurst, who is returning from maternity leave, was characteristically direct about what she intends to do with the opportunity. “Transitioning back from my final maternity leave is a significant personal milestone,” she said. “While it’s the end of one era at home, it marks the beginning of an ambitious new one professionally.” She left little doubt about the scale of her ambition. “I’m stepping into this role with a clear mission: to make Omnicom Advertising the most awarded, revered, and sought-after agency network in Asia.”
In a region where agency networks are jostling hard for creative dominance and client loyalty, that is a target worth watching. Brocklehurst has spent two decades learning exactly how this game is played. Now she gets to set the rules.
