GroupM launches audience-buying company Xaxis in Hong Kong, led by Andy Chung

Xaxis will bring its audience-buying platform to in-market advertisers looking to connect with consumers in Hong Kong, the company said in a statement. Marketers will be able to implement coordinated audience-buying campaigns on multiple digital media channels via Xaxis' proprietary data-management platform.

In addition to running campaigns across display, online video, social and mobile channels from a single location, clients will be able to track and measure their results with a degree of transparency and sophistication, the statement said.

The launch represents the continued spread of real-time-bidding technologies into markets outside the US and Europe.

Chung told Campaign Asia-Pacific that Xaxis Hong Kong will mainly serve the clients of GroupM’s four sister agencies Maxus, Mindshare, MEC and MediaCom, but will also find its own direct corporate clients. He is in the process of hiring two more staff members.

“Hong Kong is a quickly developing market in terms of publisher maturity and consumer behavior, making it a natural fit for Xaxis products as we continue our expansion in the Asia-Pacific region," said Michel de Rijk, managing director of Xaxis Asia-Pacific.

De Rijk added that Chung brings to Xaxis a record of forging strong relationships with the region’s largest publishers.

Most recently, Chung was business director at Tribal Fusion for two and a half years. In that role, he successfully built regional coverage for Tribal Fusion by establishing partnerships with area publishers in Greater China. He was also responsible for managing the team that provided suitable targeting options, data, insights and optimisation methods for both direct clients and agencies including GroupM.

His CV also includes roles as senior sales manager at Adsfactor, advertising director of Digital Plus at Publicitas, and sales manager at Alibaba.com.

Asked who Xaxis' direct competitors are in Hong Kong, Chung claimed that they do not have any competitors as other agencies in the city do not have the audience-buying, group-buying scale and synergy that GroupM has.

In Asia-Pacific, Xaxis already has a presence in China, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Australia and New Zealand.

Chung added that Xaxis is also planning to open in Japan, Korea and Taiwan in the near future.

Xaxis provides more than 1,000 advertisers with audience-buying solutions at scale, delivering more than 300 billion impressions globally per year, according to the company.