Pinterest hires GroupM's Martin Galvin as global agency commercial lead

Pinterest has appointed WPP’s Martin Galvin to the new role of global agency commercial lead. He will take up the position at the social image-sharing platform in November.

Galvin moves to Pinterest from Group M, where he has been UK commercial strategy director since March, overseeing almost £2bn in annual billings. Before that he spent eight years as a trading director at MediaCom and then Group M. He has also worked at Specific Media, Virgin Media’s former sales house IDS and Starcom MediaVest Group.

The appointment follows that of Nick Hewat, the former commercial director of The Guardian, as UK and Ireland sales director, in July.

Galvin will report to Yolanda Lam, global head of agency and ads partners, who said: “Pinterest has a truly unique proposition for brands and agencies, and we’re hiring top industry talent to help advertisers reach their audiences on the platform. 

“Martin’s experience in driving results with global clients and his ambition to help build a more positive internet makes him an ideal fit to help businesses reach inspired shoppers on Pinterest. We’re thrilled to welcome Martin to the team and into this brand new role.”

Pinterest said it had worked with agencies to create campaigns for brands including John Lewis & Partners, Gucci, L’Oréal, Inditex, Diageo, BMW, Lidl and Birds Eye.

In its most recent quarterly results, covering April to June this year, Pinterest reported that its revenue had more than doubled, from $272m (£201m) to $615m, an increase of 125%. While the US accounts for the bulk of this – $480m, or 78% – revenue outside the US more than tripled, from $41m to $133m. Its global monthly active users were up 9% to 454 million.