GroupM launches Xaxis APAC operations, sets up India unit

GroupM's audience-buying arm, Xaxis, has announced the launch of its Asia-Pacific headquarters in Singapore. Following which, Xaxis has chalked up roll out plans in nine countries in the APAC region, including India, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam, Indonesia and Hong Kong.

Tushar Vyas, managing partner, GroupM South Asia, revealed that the Indian setup would comprise of a team of four members led by Siddharth Sethi, national director, GroupM. "Siddharth would be heading Xaxis as a separate operation to check the accuracy and effectiveness of the offering so that it could be made a part of a client's media plan," Vyas explained.

Elaborating on how audience-buying is distinguished from media buying, he said, "Audience-buying is slightly different from media buying in that it has got to do with trading operations, picking up inventory, and analytics." It can be called as a subset of media buying but is not a replacement for the latter, he clarified.

Vyas pointed out that it was too early to talk about investment figures, but added that more money is set to move in the direction of audience-buying in the near future. "This offering has better potential of identifying target audience," he underlined.

While the team is in an experimenting phase at the moment, Vyas outlined areas where audience-buying could prove to be useful. "Real-time bidding, dynamic pricing, use of audience data in different streams, would be some such areas," he said.

Currently there are three products available under Xaxis, exclusive to GroupM clients. Vyas claims that the objective is to give better value to existing clients through the offering.

For details on the APAC launch of Xaxis, click here.