Former long-serving chief strategy officer at Dentsu Aegis Network, Matt Crook, is set to join independent digital and media and agency Admatic.
Crook, who had been at Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN) since 2005, left the network in February in what seemed to be an ongoing strategic review which also saw experienced adland execs such as Vizeum and Mitchells ANZ CEO Kenny Stewart; Vizeum MD Nick Behr and former MD of Posterscope Joe Copley exit.
Crook, who was also CEO of performance and data at DAN, will join Admatic in July, just months after the Sydney-headquartered shop won the digital and programmatic media planning and buying account for Kia. The business previously sat with Initiative. Havas won the above the line media.
Crook will be based in Melbourne, tasked with relaunching Admatic's Melbourne operations, supporting its current clients as well as a new accounts “to be announced shortly.”
Michael Ungerboeck, CEO and one of three founders of Admatic, tells AdNews that as a services business, founded nearly three years ago, transparency has been its core mantra since day one and given the current transparency furore in adland, it's reaping the benefits.
“We are fully transparent and have always been about having very honest conversations upfront,” Ungerboeck tells AdNews.
“Clients expect full transparency at every possible level and while 'transparency' may be an overused term at the moment, it's something we have been focused on from the very beginning.”
The 30-strong agency, which also recently won Racing Queensland, has its own trading desk, focuses on digital media strategy, media buying and search performance.
Ungerboeck says it's picking up clients who may have left the large holding groups because of concerns regarding transparency practices and take it take in-house, who then soon realise they can't manage the process in-house as well as they had hoped.
Admatic was created by Ungerboeck, Steve Jones and Matea Adamec, in the belief that programmatic marketing was not being offered in the Australian market with “the respect that it deserved”. Ungerboeck says as the explosion of trading desks flooded the market, the trio saw many in market executing line items on a media plan with no controls over budgets and no transparency in the trading desk offerings.
Crook says the “absolute focus on both legal and ethical transparency” was a big pull.
“I've had the luxury of four months off to meet many people from every corner of communications. I truly liked everything about Admatic from day one, and even more so after numerous meetings and discussions over the past two months,” he says.
Crook will also be involved in Admatic's launch of new products and services, as it attempts to deepen and expand its vision of a data and creative lead future in programmatic media.
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