Richard Thompson has been appointed ceo of the Kiwi Premium Advertising Exchange (KPEX), a local advertising exchange service established last year in joint partnership by Fairfax Media, MediaWorks, NZME and TVNZ.
Thompson will take the reins from consulting ceo Duncan Arthur in mid-April. Currently a partner at creative agency Contagion, Thompson has led relationships with Tourism New Zealand, including global partnerships with Facebook and Google.
With over 17 years at the forefront of digital media, he has held senior digital and media roles in London, Europe and New Zealand. These include leading the MSN, XBOX and Bacardi business across Europe as digital strategy director for Universal McCann and more recently as general manager digital for the VivaKi group in New Zealand.
KPEX board spokesperson, Robert Hutchinson says they are delighted to have access to Thompson’s “capable hands”. “Richard has a proven track record of digital innovation and building successful digital teams,” he said.
“KPEX has performed ahead of expectations in its first three months of operation. Buyers have responded positively to having a New Zealand-based, brand safe, highly liquid exchange for premium advertising inventory.”
Hutchinson says KPEX looks forward to bringing additional products and capabilities to buyers over the coming months, as it strengthens its offering in the New Zealand programmatic advertising market.
“I’m hugely excited at the opportunity for KPEX within the New Zealand media landscape,” he said. “Advertisers want to take advantage of the advanced targeting opportunities digital and data present but also want to do this in brand-safe environments. KPEX is brilliantly positioned to deliver to both of these requirements.”
KPEX was launched in November 2015. It offers media agencies and clients a programmatic option for purchasing online advertising inventory across New Zealand’s leading media businesses.
Kiwi-owned, Parnell-based Cloud advisory & managed services provider The Instillery has appointed three new team members, driven by “high demand and fast growth in New Zealand and the USA”.
The Instillery has offices in Auckland, Sydney and San Francisco.
Emma Krouglova joins in the newly created role of world-wide business development executive. She has six years of working in retail, tourism and SaaS, most recently in a four-year career with Kiwi-owned global SaaS business VEND. Krouglova will lead The Instillery’s worldwide sales team, working closely with Mike Jenkins, Brenna Townshend (marketing & PR manager), Michael Hoole (Cloud activations team leader) and the wider Instillery team across key accounts and new business prospects in both New Zealand and the USA.
Matt Hare has joined as principal Cloud & DevOps consultant, bolstering the consulting practice of the Kiwi-based Instillery team. He has previously worked with a large range of enterprises, digital agencies & SaaS providers, both here and in the UK, including Touchcast, Cornerstone & Smallworlds.
Bram Horton has been appointed Cloud services architect. He was most recently a DevOps engineer at Spark Digital and IB Boost (Europe).
The expansion of the NZ-based team has also necessitated a move in offices, says founder/ceo Mike Jenkins. “For the first time, The Instillery has its very own space at 12 Heather Street, Parnell.”
Marketing automation publisher software provider PubMatic has appointed Peter Barry as country Manager for Australia and New Zealand, responsible for developing new premium publisher relationships for the company with a particular focus on growing mobile and video inventory.
In addition, Barry is tasked with increasing spend with key agency trading desks and demand side platforms . He will be based in Sydney and report in to APAC v-p Jason Barnes.
Prior to joining PubMatic Barry spent three years at Ad2One, first heading up their operations in Ireland before becoming the commercial director in Australia.
PubMatic sees the programmatic market opportunity in the APAC)region is significant, with growth predicted to rise 250% by 2019.
“We are delighted that Peter has joined PubMatic to drive our business in Australia and New Zealand,” said Barnes. “The maturity of the programmatic market in the two countries demanded a seasoned leader with extensive expertise in digital publisher monetisation.”
PubMatic is headquartered in California – in our part of the world it’s based in Sydney. There is no NZ office.
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