GroupM hires Flywheel executive to bolster retail media credentials
WPP’s media-buying division GroupM has appointed a retail media expert to join its global commerce executive team in a newly created role.
Sandy Welsch will start on 23 July as GroupM’s executive director, global partnerships and enablement.
Welsch will lead GroupM’s global commerce partnerships strategy, working with retailer, technology and platform partners to accelerate advantages for the company’s clients to position them at the leading edge of commerce.
He was most recently vice-president, omnichannel platforms, at Flywheel, the digital commerce platform operator bought by WPP rival Omnicom in January. Welsch spent six years at that company, where he is credited with building its first programmatic media team and leading it through the retail media boom.
Analysis: Building retail media credentials
Welsch’s appointment is significant for two reasons.
First, WPP is very keen to continue building its retail media credentials, having seen its share price performance pale in comparison to its now much bigger rival Publicis Groupe in the post-pandemic period. Publicis has appeared to tell a better story around broadening its services beyond traditional advertising and media.
Retail media is a big opportunity. Using automation to understand what channels (off site) are resulting in the highest sales (in store) was unheard of just a few years ago, the CEO of Zitcha, an Australian retail media platform, reminded The Media Leader readers recently.
The big opportunity for advertisers, Troy Townsend explained, lies in measuring the effectiveness of campaigns and then using those insights to inform media planning.
“Technology and useful clean data, combined with advancements within AI, now mean retailers are able to understand their customers better and help marketers know what is and isn’t working from a media spend perspective,” he wrote.
Hence last month’s announcement in the UK that GroupM has agreed a long-term relationship with the insight platform of Tesco, the UK’s biggest grocer. GroupM agency Wavemaker had agreed a similar deal with Amazon in late 2021 to help clients understand the relationships between a brand’s audience and other audiences on Amazon.
GroupM has recently also announced strategic partnerships with Shalion and Incremental — both of which, the company said, help to place retail data and technology at the heart of its approach to media and marketing.
GroupM to supercharge retail media capabilities with Tesco Media tie-up
GroupM continues to centralise
Second, GroupM is continuing to build a centralised global team for its key functions, which now include “big bets” like commerce, led by Samantha Bukowski.
GroupM CEO Christian Juhl has sought to simplify and centralise the business, having merged media agencies Essence and MediaCom in 2022, and last year he consolidated digital divisions Xaxis and Finecast into GroupM Nexus.
Commenting on Welsch’s appointment, GroupM said he will “partner closely” with the commerce product team at Choreograph, the global data company GroupM acquired in 2021. Given the pressure to consolidate, merging Choreograph into Nexus could be the next step.
Innovating in ‘rapidly evolving field’
Welsch said: “The commerce landscape is moving so fast that unless you’re executing now against a sound vision for the future, you’re falling behind.
“We have all the pieces to not just help brands and manufacturers win in commerce today, but to innovate and lead in a way that disproportionately outpaces the market for our clients well into the future. Everything I’ve seen from the team is tremendously impressive and undoubtedly the blueprint for the future of commerce. I’m thrilled to join the team and put my expertise to work to take us to the next level.”
Bukowski added: “Sandy is a commerce expert through and through, and brings a tremendous amount of technical proficiency, experience and strategic thinking to our team.
“His vision for leading brands into the next era of commerce is deeply aligned with our own and his relationships with key partners will facilitate a new level of innovation that will drive our clients’ growth in this rapidly evolving field.”
