GroupM CEO Brian Lesser outlines his plan for the agency giant’s future

CEO of GroupM Brian Lesser is “extremely eager” to move the agency’s business forward.

He returned to the helm of the global media buying giant in September, where he previously served as CEO for North America from 2015 to 2017. In his first public interview since joining last year , Lesser discussed his new role and priorities for GroupM with ADWEEK Editor-in-Chief Alison Weissbrot at ADWEEK House during THESE.

After his first tenure at GroupM, Lesser moved on to run an ambitious new advertising business at AT&T, then became CEO of data company InfoSum.

Given his recent experience in adtech, Lesser is looking to invest in technology. He also wants to invest in staff while simplifying agency processes and facilitating more collaboration between agencies.

“The vision for GroupM and the wider WPP is that we want to help our advertisers adapt to change,” he said. “The only constant in the media business is change, and we’re going to see more change in the next five years than in the last 25 years. »

What Omnicom’s acquisition of IPG means for GroupM

With Omnicom’s imminent acquisition of IPGLesser said this presents an advantage for GroupM, but its large-scale implications “remain to be seen.”

“When I look at the reasons for this deal, I hear a lot about data, but the data solution is a 20-year-old database that is based on CRM and traditional ID,” he said. he declared. “I [also] you hear a lot about scale, but not scale that matters to these clients,” he said.

Lesser said he also isn’t worried about being dethroned as the top media buyer, saying that could ease pressure and allow the agency to do more.

“We will see if we are number two and how long we will be number two,” Lesser added.

Invest in your platform and your employees

One of Lesser’s top priorities is investing in GroupM’s technology platform.

“There are some basic things we need to do at GroupM to be very competitive,” he said.

WPP has invested more than $300 million per year in its WPP Open platform over the past three years, Lesser shared. He said these investments would continue as GroupM looked to simplify the organization to better manage its customers.

“The vision is to continue to invest in these components, including data, technology and AI, so that we can advance our customers’ businesses,” he said.

Simplify your organization by rationalizing

Over the past 20 years, GroupM has created, merged and acquired companies like Mindshare, Wavemaker and EssenceMediacom to follow developments in the advertising industry.

Lesser said GroupM needs to move from “a collection of companies to one company” by streamlining its planning, activation and measurement methodologies with data and technology at its heart.

Rather than consolidate, GroupM is creating agencies to meet customer demand, he said.

The agency will need to reorganize and acquire assets to streamline its strategies, but not simply to achieve greater scale.

“Scale for the sake of scale isn’t really important to our customers anymore,” Lesser said. “He [has to] be at scale with the aim of learning more, learning more and better engaging consumers.

How the scale evolves

For years, advertisers have favored advertising agencies at this scale. But Lesser said the scale isn’t as big as it was 20 years ago. At the time, agencies pooled their scale as leverage to get better prices from members of the media.

While that remains important, scale is now more important for accessible data and markets as well as people within the organization, he said.

“Scale still matters, it’s just been redefined,” Lesser said. “It’s much more about our collective wisdom and intelligence.”

The future of media buying with AI

When it comes to AI, Lesser believes that in the next five years, “no human will touch a media plan.”

“AI won’t take anyone’s job; whoever understands AI will take people’s jobs,” he said.

The executive said companies must leverage emerging technologies and understand how they will affect the industry. GroupM plans to spend $30 million to educate and train its employees on the use of AI, saying 70% of the people it hires already have experience with the technology.