Brian Lesser

Last updated
Brian D. Lesser
Born1975
Nationality American
EducationBA Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania (1996)
MBA from Columbia Business School (2004)
Occupationbusinessman
Title Xandr (CEO)
GroupM (CEO, 2015)
Xaxis (Founder, 2011)
24/7 Media (Vice President, 2006)
Parent
  • Michael S. "Mike" Lesser (father)
AwardsExecutive of the Year (AdWeek, 2018)
Advertising Age “40 Under 40” list (2014)

Brian D. Lesser is an American businessman who is the former CEO of Xandr and the incoming global CEO of GroupM, a WPP company.

Contents

Family and education

Born about 1975, [1] Lesser was introduced to the advertising industry at an early age by his father, Michael S. "Mike" Lesser, who was chairman and CEO of Lowe Marschalk (later Lowe & Partners Inc.), [2] then president of Ogilvy & Mather New York. [3] [4] [5] Mike Lesser was also general manager of The November Group, the advertising arm of the Committee for the Re-Election of the President, formed solely to create an ad campaign for the 1972 United States presidential election; [6] he was the inaugural lecturer, in September 2012, of Fairleigh Dickinson University's Politics on the Public Mind program. [7]

Lesser received a BA in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania in 1996, then earned an MBA from Columbia Business School in 2004.[ citation needed ] He resides in New Jersey with his wife and three children. [8]

Career

In 2006, Lesser was vice president of 24/7 Media, then senior vice president of the Media Innovation Group, LLC (known as “The MIG”). In 2011, he founded Xaxis as a subsidiary of GroupM; he then became CEO of GroupM in November 2015, [9] overseeing six media agencies. [10]

In October 2017, Lesser was recruited by former GroupM client AT&T [11] as CEO of Advertising and Analytics. [9] In September 2018, Advertising and Analytics was renamed Xandr, and Lesser was appointed CEO. [12]

In 2014, Lesser was named to the Ad Age's “40 Under 40” list [1] and, in 2018, was recognized by AdWeek as "Executive of the Year". [13]

See also

Related Research Articles

Omnicom Group Inc. is an American global media, marketing and corporate communications holding company, headquartered in New York City.

WPP plc is a British multinational communications, advertising, public relations, technology, and commerce holding company headquartered in London, England. It is the world's largest advertising company, as of 2023. WPP plc owns many companies, which include advertising, public relations, media, and market research networks such as AKQA, BCW, CMI Media Group, Essence Global, Finsbury, Grey, Hill & Knowlton, Mindshare, Ogilvy, Wavemaker, and VML. It is one of the "Big Four" agency companies, alongside Publicis, The Interpublic Group of Companies, and Omnicom Group. WPP has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange, and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ogilvy (agency)</span> Advertising agency

Ogilvy is a New York City-based British advertising, marketing, and public relations agency. It was founded in 1850 by Edmund Mather as a London-based agency. In 1964, the firm became known as Ogilvy & Mather after merging with a New York City agency that was founded in 1948 by David Ogilvy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Havas Creative</span>

Havas Creative, formerly known as Havas Worldwide and Euro RSCG, is a French advertising agency. It is one of the largest integrated marketing communications agencies in the world, made up of 316 offices located in 75 countries. The firm provides advertising, marketing, and corporate communications services.

The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is a global event for those working in creative communications, advertising, and related fields. It is considered the largest gathering of the advertising and creative communications industry.

Grey Group is a global advertising and marketing agency with headquarters in New York City, and 432 offices in 96 countries, operating in 154 cities. It is organized into four geographical units: North America; Europe, Middle East and Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MullenLowe U.S.</span> Boston-based advertising and marketing communications agency

MullenLowe U.S. is a Boston, Massachusetts-based advertising and marketing communications agency, a part of MullenLowe Group owned by multinational advertising network Interpublic Group of Companies (IPG). It has regional offices in Los Angeles, New York City and Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The agency provides creative, media, brand planning, direct-marketing, interactive, design, and public relations.

Campbell Ewald is an advertising and marketing communications agency headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, with offices in Los Angeles and New York. Campbell Ewald is part of advertising company Interpublic Group of Companies (IPG).

Kantar Group Ltd. is an international market research company based in London, England. It was founded in 1992, and has approximately 30,000 employees across over 90 countries working in various research disciplines, including brand guidance, brand strategy, social media monitoring, advertising effectiveness, consumer and shopper behaviour, and public opinion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eric Litman</span> American entrepreneur and angel investor (born 1973)

Eric Austin Litman is an American entrepreneur and angel investor, and currently serves as CEO of the robotics health technology company, Aescape, inc. Litman co-founded Proxicom, built Viaduct from a one-man shop through a merger with the Wolf Group, and was the founder and CEO of Medialets, a mobile ad serving and advertising analytics company acquired by WPP plc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wunderman Thompson</span> American marketing communications agency

Wunderman Thompson was a New York–based global marketing communications agency with 200 offices in 90 markets. It was part of international advertising group WPP Group. Wunderman Thompson was formed in 2018, when parent WPP merged agencies J. Walter Thompson and Wunderman. On 17th October 2023, WPP announced the merger of Wunderman Thompson and VMLY&R into a new agency VML. On January 01, 2024, Wunderman Thompson ceased to exist.

Xandr, formerly known as AppNexus, is an American multinational technology company operating a cloud-based software platform that enables and optimizes programmatic online advertising. Headquartered in the Flatiron District of New York City, the company has 23 offices in North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia and Australia.

24/7 Media, formerly 24/7 Real Media is a technology company headquartered in New York City and 20 offices in 12 countries, specializing in Digital Marketing. It provides for publishers, advertisers and agencies globally. It was formerly listed as "TFSM" on the NASDAQ stock exchange. The company was purchased by WPP plc in 2007 for $649 million. David J. Moore is the chairman, founder and CEO. He also served as chairman of the Interactive Advertising Bureau. In December, 2013, 24/7 Media announced it would merge with GroupM subsidiary, Xaxis.

Maxus was a global media agency, with services including communications strategy, media planning and buying, digital marketing, search engine marketing (SEM) through search advertising and search engine optimisation (SEO), direct response media, data analytics, and marketing ROI evaluation. In December 2011, Maxus became Campaign magazine's Global Media Network of the Year.

VMLY&R, now part of VML, after the merger of VMLY&R and Wunderman Thompson in October of 2023, was an American marketing and communications company specializing in advertising, digital and social media, sales promotion, direct marketing and brand identity consulting, formed from the merger of VML, founded in 1992, and Y&R , founded in 1923. It was a subsidiary of WPP plc multinational advertising and public relations holding company.

Essence was a global data and measurement-driven full service agency that merged with Mediacom in January 2023 to form Essence Mediacom,. Prior to the merger, Essence had 20 offices in 12 countries and a staff of approximately 2,000. Essence managed over $4B in annualized media spend globally, with clients such as Google, The Financial Times, Target, NBCUniversal, BP, FrieslandCampina, L’Oreal and Tesco Mobile. In 2015 Essence became majority owned by WPP, and a part of GroupM, the WPP media investment management operation.

Xandr, Inc. is the advertising and analytics subsidiary of Microsoft, which operates an online platform, Community, for buying and selling consumer-centric digital advertising.

Mediahub, formerly known as MullenLowe Mediahub, is a global media planning and buying agency. It is part of the IPG Mediabrands advertising network, itself a component of multinational advertising and marketing company Interpublic Group of Companies (IPG). Launched in 2005 as part of MullenLowe Group's predecessor Mullen, Mediahub has offices in 15 cities worldwide as of 2021.

Wunderman was a New York City-based global digital agency. It was part of Young & Rubicam Brands and a member of international advertising group WPP Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GroupM</span> American company

GroupM is a U.S. based media investment group of the multinational Holding company WPP plc. GroupM is the world's largest media buying agency, as of 2023.

References

  1. 1 2 "Meet Ad Age's 40 Under 40". Ad Age. Advertising Age. 2014-01-20. Archived from the original on 2017-07-04.
  2. ↑ McDonough, John; Egolf, Karen (2002). The Advertising Age Encyclopedia of Advertising. Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers. p. 1930. ISBN   1579581722.
  3. ↑ Poggi, Jeanine (2018-09-10). "A HIGHER CALLING". Ad Age. Advertising Age. Retrieved 2019-08-08.
  4. ↑ Quenqua, Douglas (2015-06-11). "Q&A: New CEO Brian Lesser on GroupM's digital reinvention". CampaignLive. Haymarket Media Group Ltd. Retrieved 2019-08-08.
  5. ↑ "Xaxis' Lesser Followed The Paternal Path To Change Advertising". Beet.tv. Beet Media LLC. 2015-08-28. Retrieved 2019-08-08.
  6. ↑ Dougherty, Philip H. (1972-03-27). "Advertising". The New York Times. Retrieved 2019-08-08.
  7. ↑ Reba, Samantha (2012-10-04). "An FDU Mad Man Goes to Washington: Stories from the Nixon Re-Election Campaign". The Piller. Fairleigh Dickinson University. Retrieved 2019-08-08.
  8. ↑ "ExchangeWire Live in New York". Exchange Wire. 2017-03-22. Retrieved 2019-08-08.
  9. 1 2 "Brian D Lesser". Bloomberg. Retrieved August 8, 2019.
  10. ↑ Oxfeld, Jesse (September 22, 2016). "Q+A: GroupM's Brian Lesser". Traffic. Retrieved August 8, 2019.
  11. ↑ Poggi, Jeanine (June 15, 2018). "AT&T'S BRIAN LESSER LAYS OUT HIS GRAND AD PLAN FOLLOWING THE TIME WARNER DEAL". Ad Age. Advertising Age. Retrieved August 8, 2019.
  12. ↑ "AT&T combines AppNexus with its own ad businesses to form Xandr". Ad News. September 26, 2018. Retrieved August 8, 2019.
  13. ↑ "2018's Digital Hot List: The Movers and Innovators That Got Us Excited This Year". Ad Age. Advertising Age. October 14, 2018. Retrieved August 8, 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.