“We’re proud to attract this caliber of talented industry leaders with such diverse experiences to become guided advisors to the world’s top brands and marketers, helping them realize the full potential of location-based advertising.”
New York, NY (PRWEB) March 20, 2015
Following its announcement of 2014 milestones, which includes doubling revenue for the second straight year, xAd, the global location marketplace, continues its momentum, adding seasoned leaders with experience building some of the industry’s most successful and respected companies.
At Mobile World Congress in 2011, Sir Martin Sorrell, Chairman of WPP, declared that, “location targeting is the holy grail that we as advisers on behalf of our clients are looking for.” Four years later, the WPP chairman’s statement has become a reality: location is one of the fastest-growing segments in advertising, and is becoming a strategic imperative for marketers. eMarketer estimates that global mobile ad revenues will hit $65 billion this year, with $28 billion coming from the U.S. alone. By 2019, BIA Kelsey expects location targeted ads to make up 43% of all mobile ad spend in the U.S.
The only location company with a global offering, xAd has surpassed category growth and continues to see great demand from national advertisers and global marketers alike. To address the growing demand for location, xAd is bringing on four experienced leaders from some of the world’s top companies that have successfully grown new advertising categories and global partnerships.
Dipanshu “D” Sharma, CEO and founder of xAd, explained, “In today’s advertising landscape, Twitter is synonymous with real-time, Facebook is synonymous with social, and Google is synonymous with search. As location becomes a must-have for marketers, xAd is adding experienced leaders with unique backgrounds in growing new advertising categories in social, search, digital, out-of-home, and mobile to help build location as its own category and xAd as the leader.”
New global hires include:
Paul Gelb, VP, Global Brands and Agencies
Paul is a longtime leader in mobile at technology companies and agencies. Most recently, Paul was the head of programmatic and marketplace development at Twitter, joining through the acquisition of MoPub, the mobile ad network where he had served as Chief of Strategy. Before that, Paul was VP and founder of the mobile practice at Razorfish, which, according to Ad Age, grew to be the second-largest mobile agency practice during his tenure, winning numerous of the industry’s top accolades for his work and thought leadership.
Lissette Fernandez, VP, Global Account Management and Operations
Lissette has been an instrumental sales leader of some of the most successful companies in advertising. Prior to xAd, Lissette was a Director of Account Management for Global Marketing Solutions at Facebook. For over four years, Lissette managed a team of account and campaign managers that helped Fortune 500 marketers leverage Facebook’s platform. Before Facebook, Lissette led sales and account teams across the advertising landscape at media giants such as Razorfish and Univision.
Reagan Nunnally, VP, Global Brands and Agencies
Reagan is a sales and marketing strategist for global brands and agencies. Reagan joins from Google where she spent 11 years on the U.S. and Global Agency Sales team, building out creative, media, and performance strategies for Fortune 50 brands and agency holding companies, including Dentsu Aegis. Prior to Google, Reagan led digital sales teams at Viacom and CBS.
James Davies, Head of Channel, EMEA
James is a respected thought leader that has been vocal in evolving the media landscape for nearly two decades. James is currently Chief Strategy Officer at Posterscope, where he spent 18 years reinventing the ways in which Out-of-Home (OOH) media is approached across multiple markets. Throughout his tenure at Posterscope, he was renowned for his ability to identify new data opportunities in mobile and devise applications to influence campaign planning & optimization. As Channel Director, James will lead the platform business in EMEA, driving C-level relationships and business with channel partners in the traditional media space.
Paul and Reagan will report to Scott Zalaznik, Head of Global, who joined xAd in October 2014 from Sprint. James will report to Theo Theodorou, Head of EMEA, and Lissette will report to Sunil Kumar, Head of Monetization.
Dipanshu added, “We’re proud to attract this caliber of talented industry leaders with such diverse experiences to become guided advisors to the world’s top brands and marketers, helping them realize the full potential of location-based advertising.”
About xAd
xAd uses the context of location to create meaningful mobile advertising experiences. Our patented technology platform identifies where someone is or has been with precision and at scale, enabling marketers to use these insights to drive on and offline store traffic and sales. xAd’s global location marketplace allows nearly 1 million advertisers to reach 300 million unique devices in 300 billion mobile moments each month. Connect with xAd at http://www.xad.com.