After years of leading efforts in the U.S. to improve standards for viewability and third-party audience verification, as well as taking the lead on movements to combat piracy, GroupM’s John Montgomery has been promoted to a new role, EVP, Brand Safety, GroupM Global.
With a remit to expand adoption of viewability, verification and anti-piracy best practices in international markets, Montgomery will work with GroupM’s community of digital advertising and media trading experts at Mindshare, MEC, MediaCom, Maxus, Essence, Xaxis and scores of regional companies. He will create a set of global standards that maximize brand safety for GroupM’s clients worldwide.
Montgomery will report to Rob Norman, global chief digital officer.
“Clients want to know their brands are safe and that the digital components of their media plans are effective in every region in which they operate” stated Norman. “John is one of the world’s foremost authorities on digital brand safety.He holds the respect of clients, media partners, and regulators for his innovative thinking and practical approaches to making digital advertising respectful of consumers, more effective for advertisers and consequently a viable business for publishers.”
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Since January 2015, Montgomery has served as North American Chairman of GroupM Connect, a role in which he helped pioneer initiatives GroupM is now globalizing, while also supporting the expansion of the Group’s programmatic capabilities. He is Chair of the 4As Media Leadership Council; has served on the Internet Steering Committee of the World Economic Forum (WEF), and co-chairs the anti-piracy initiative for the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG). He frequently represents the advertising industry to the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee.
Montgomery’s career with WPP began in 1989 when he joined Ogilvy in South Africa as media director and later launched Mindshare in the region.
Following a tour of duty with Ogilvy Group Netherlands as Group CEO, Montgomery relocated to New York to lead the interactive media practice for Mindshare and Ogilvy. He was subsequently named global CEO of Mindshare Interaction.
He later was promoted to COO of GroupM Interaction in North America where he led digital data strategy, innovation and policy.