Women to Watch 2022: Ten Ma, GroupM

Ten Ma

General manager, GroupM Trading
GroupM
China

With a background in programmatic media buying from hdtMEDIA and Omnicom’s Accuen China, Ten Ma joined GroupM in July 2017 as a technical trading director, responsible for ensuring brand safety for publishers and negotiating trading deals. She hasn’t looked back since. Promoted to general manager of GroupM Trading, Ma has been responsible for winning, negotiating with and retaining significant media publishers including Tencent, Bytedance, Sina, Sohu, Netease, iFeng and more.

Spotting a growing demand for data-driven, result-oriented solutions in the digital media industry, Ma played a leading role in developing and executing the ‘Tengyi Plan’, GroupM’s collaborative project with Tencent, bringing together both parties' data capabilities and algorithms to create more accurate customer targeting and increased ROI. The project helped optimise operations and reduce costs for several agency media partners, giving GroupM a unique advantage in attracting performance-oriented clients and media partners.

Under Ma’s direction, media partners such as Ocean Engine benefited from her team’s diligence and consistency. Not only did they help to resolve several potentially damaging public relations crises, but they won the partner’s full trust and annual business, becoming the only 4A agency to win the first four gold awards by Ocean Engine service-providers last year.

Developing her own leadership style over the years, Ma is a hands-on operator, giving detailed guidance to team members who are learning the ropes of media. Her management style not only lets her teammates feel supported but helps them to develops skillsets.

She encourages her team to participate in training workshops. In the past year, each member of her team successfully passed at least one industry-relevant examination or certification. Meanwhile, she frequently collaborates with other departments on product pitching, pricing, sales and more, coordinating several teams to work for a common goal.