M/Six Appoints New Global Leadership Team

m/SIX has announced a new global leadership line-up, bringing in two new senior hires and making a series of internal promotions to bring together data, strategy and technology experts in a future-facing “new breed of media leadership team”. 

 

The global media planning and buying network – which has significantly expanded this year, launching across 17 new European markets as well as doubling its North America billings – has brought in Anna Foster from TMW Unlimited as its new Global Chief Data & Customer Officer and Adrian Parris from MEC EMEA as its Global Chief Finance Officer.

 

Foster – previously a Board Member at TMW and head of the agency’s data function –  will be responsible for helping m/SIX clients globally refocus their use of audience data throughout their businesses and at every marketing touchpoint, as well as helping European clients prepare for the enforcement of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulations in May 2018. She was listed in 2015 and 2016 as one of DataIQ’s Big Data 100 and in 2015 was shortlisted for The Drum’s Woman of the Year Award.

 

Parris, who was previously responsible for managing MEC EMEA’s performance across 40 markets, will work closely with Chief Executive Jess Burley and with GroupM and The&Partnership – which joined forces in 2007 to found m/SIX – to oversee m/SIX’s commercial performance, managing and maintaining the network’s growth across all markets.

 

Foster and Parris will join a new global leadership line-up including Global Chief Executive Jess Burley, Global Chief Technology Officer Ross Barnes, Global Chief Strategy Officer Dan Whitmarsh and Global Client Lead Ben Brown. Collectively, this team will be tasked with overseeing the implementation of a new way of working across all markets, agencies and clients globally in 2018 and beyond.

 

This new way of working will see intelligent data systems fused with smart tech and a new, more agile strategic approach – aiming to future-proof m/SIX’s business model and refocus clients’ marketing strategies around the way consumers now seamlessly ‘flow’ across fragmented media.

 

Global Chief Strategy Officer Dan Whitmarsh said: “We are a whole generation on from the creation of the worldwide web. Today, people have completely mastered seamlessly navigating the fragmented world of channels, apps & screens. They are in complete control of what information they access and what brand messages they interact with. And yet too much of modern marketing still behaves like it holds all the cards, sticking to product-led structures and calendars, and using terms like “laydowns” and “journeys”, implying predictable paths from A to B.

 

“m/SIX’s new way of working will be structured around the way consumers ‘flow’ across the digital landscape. We will help our clients engage with data in new ways to create responsive media strategies that adapt as audience flow changes, developing one continuous brand conversation across multiple channels.”

 

Global Chief Executive Officer Jess Burley said: “As a majority independent network backed by the scale of GroupM, m/SIX’s success and expansion over the past year has been underpinned by our progressive understanding of smart data analytics, agile programmatic planning and the constantly evolving digital landscape. Having successfully piloted a new way of working with major new clients like Toyota, Lexus, TalkTalk and JUST EAT in 2017, we’re proud to now formalise this progressive new media model and roll it out across the m/SIX network worldwide. 

 

“Anna and Adrian, together with Ross, Dan and Ben – who have had such a transformative impact already on our way of working here at m/SIX – are the perfect team to help us continue to challenge our clients and ourselves to break new ground in digital media planning and marketing in 2018 and for many years to come.”

 

Dan Whitmarsh joined m/SIX in May as Global Chief Strategy Officer, to help oversee the creation of The&Partnership and m/SIX’s new pan-European agency network for Toyota across 17 markets.

 

Ross Barnes joined m/SIX in 2011 as Director of Digital and has since been through a series of promotions, from Managing Director to Group Chief Technology Officer to Global Chief Technology Officer. He has also played a pivotal role in the development of m/SIX’s new way of working for Toyota and Lexus.

 

Ben Brown joined m/SIX in January as International Media Lead on Toyota and Lexus.