• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, September 9, 2013

BlueKai wants to grow worldwide market share. On Monday the company announced expansion plans into the United Kingdom, appointing Zuzanna Gierlinska to managing director, running sales and account management.

The company focuses on data activation and management.

The region's headquarters will reside in London, but Pieter De Temmerman -- SVP, exchange and global business at BlueKai -- said offices in France, Germany, and Spain will follow, along with several Asian countries in 2014.  

De Temmerman said Gierlinska will be heading London from a local office, which allows BlueKai to expand internationally much faster, compared with trying to build out region-specific data services remotely. "As markets mature, it will become easier to expand," he said.

The offices will support local, country-specific companies, along with U.S. multinational companies wanting to reach consumers worldwide from the states. Each will focus on services that support multiple languages, currencies and time zones, per De Temmerman.

"The multinational companies we work with want to leverage the same solution elsewhere that they do in the U.S.," he said. "They start with their largest markets, which often includes the United Kingdom."

About 137 BlueKai employees support daily operations, up from 100 in January. That number will expand as the company throws a wider net globally. The company grew overall business by more than 9,000% during the past four years.

Data has become the driver. BlueKai released a report issued earlier this year showing 227% growth in brands that spent more than one-fifth of their budgets on data-driven marketing during the past six months.

Gierlinska brings 14 years of digital media experience to BlueKai -- most recently from Microsoft, where she served as global agency director supporting the global media and enterprise strategy, relationship and business with agency partners.