GroupM Content's new CEO on plans for 2015

Black was promoted from his previous post of COO of GroupM ESP about four months ago following the departure of his predecessor, Mike Rich. However, pending several group-wide announcements, he chose to keep his new role quiet.

He has recently relocated from Manila to Hong Kong in line with the agency's plans to focus more heavily on China and reports directly to GroupM Asia CEO, Mark Patterson.

Besides China, key markets for the agency include India and Australia. "I also see Indonesia and Thailand as being strategically important," said Black.  

The content division, he added, is moving its content offer upstream from "purely earning fees from client work to playing a more meaningful role in bringing content to audiences in the market."

While its content solutions arm, which sits within the four GroupM agencies, will continue to focus on delivering what brands want, the content investment and rights representation divisions will centre around audiences and broadcasters, he explained. 

In terms of rights representation, GroupM is interested in working with any content creator, including key online influencers and new age publishers like Vice, not just traditonal players, said Black. 

Its content investment arm on the other hand wants to expand its role in bringing new and licenced content into Asia cross multiple platforms. "We've worked with Masterchef in Thailand and we're doing a number of other shows such as dating reality show Take Me Out and we've also created a show called The Symptom, a medical entertainment show," he said.

"We were a first mover in the content space 10 years ago, and with 300+ full-time employees, we have a much bigger client-facing content offer than anyone else," added Black. "We now want to carry one being a first mover in the total content business."