Hasta La Creative!

WPP media investment group GroupM appointed John Montgomery to the newly-created position of global executive vice president of brand safety.

In the role Montgomery will work with GroupM’s community of digital advertising and media trading experts at GroupM agencies including MindShare, MEC, MediaCom and Maxus to create a coherent set of global standards operationalizing safety standards for GroupM clients in all advertising markets and ensuring compliance with anti-fraud regulations. He will report to global chief digital officer Rob Norman.

“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,” Norman said in a statement. “And importantly, they deserve to get what they’re paying for — the engagement of their targeted audiences with their brand messages, accountably and safely. 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.”

Montgomery joined GroupM as North American chairman of GroupM Connect in January of 2015. Before that he served as he served as COO of GroupM Interaction for North America , leading the digital data strategy, innovation and policy for the group. He served as CEO of Ogilvy Group Netherlands back in 2001, before relocating to New York to lead the Interactive media practice for MindShare and Ogilvy. He was then appointed as Global CEO of MindShare Interaction in 2006.

“John Montgomery understands that brands, agencies, publishers, and technology companies share equal responsibility for maintaining the integrity of the digital advertising supply chain, so that we can inspire the trust of consumers and guarantee them the best possible experiences with interactive media and the advertisers that support it,” said IAB president and CEO Randall Rothenberg.

Montgomery himself said, “GroupM’s advocacy for higher quality standards in digital in the U.S. continues to be challenging, but rewarding, and I believe the entire industry has benefited. Going global with these efforts promises to be an even bigger lift given the differences among players and platforms, as well as vendor and marketplace readiness in different countries.”

We’ve been told that this was purely coincidental seeing as they served in fairly different roles, but a spokesperson for Mindshare has confirmed that both Scott Sorokin and Michael Epstein have resigned from the agency. Sorokin joined the WPP/GroupM agency four years ago in the newly created role of global digital leader, which initially called for him to handle all things digital for Unilever.

Along with his work for the corporate giant, though, Sorokin (pictured) was responsible for Mindshare’s digital strategy, digital staff, organic/new biz growth and tech development. No word yet on where he’s headed to next, but prior to Mindshare, Sorokin spent a couple of years as president of Aegis Media/Carat and has also worked as global account director on Intel while at McCann/MRM. From what the agency tells us, there are plans to replace Sorokin, but in the meantime, his responsibilities will be handled by GroupM Interaction USA COO John Montgomery as well as Mindshare’s London-based global digital leader, Norm Johnston.

As for Epstein, the exec most recently served as president/strategic resource & client services at Mindshare, where he spent well over 12 years in various planning roles. We’ve been told that both execs parted ways amicably.

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