GroupM Malaysia hires head of Connect

GroupM Malaysia has hired digital strategist Robin Bach Kolling to the role of head of Connect.Bach Kolling has moved into the new role from the Netherlands where he has been in the digital industry for the past 15 years. As head of Connect, he will be responsible for overseeing all of GroupM’s paid digital media services, including  search, performance, paid social and the agency’s rapidly growing programmatic.In the Netherlands, Bach Kolling has worked in digital fields covering areas such as content, social media, mobile, e-commerce, performance marketing and programmatic buying. He is an experienced digital strategist and has headed several digital units in previous roles. His last position before moving to GroupM was head of digital at strategic media agency M2Media, where he also was responsible for building the new programmatic specialist unit.GroupM Malaysia CEO Girish Menon said, “Our shared digital services were earlier hubbed under the brand name Interaction. We restructured and grouped all paid digital media capabilities under the newly created umbrella of Connect. As the digital marketing space becomes increasingly complex, we recognise the need to build deep specialisations, but also synergise across these verticals to provide clients with as seamless a digital journey as possible. This is Bach Kolling's key responsibility.”Bach Kolling said: “By having all biddable digital media consolidated in Connect we can provide synergy for our clients to fully adapt to the demands and opportunities of the fast emerging real-time media era. We can guide our clients in the opportunities that data-driven marketing can bring by combining our extensive shared digital experience with innovative tech solutions to reach our client’s business objectives.Connect will continue to focus on securing a ‘brand safe’ environment in the programmatic landscape by building Trusted Marketplaces with quality inventory from premium publishers. With the resources of GroupM and the capabilities of Connect and Xaxis, it aims to hold the market leader position in Malaysia by adapting inventory to the highest viewability standards and by pro-actively preventing ad fraud, which will clearly stay a fast growing industry challenge.