Exclusive: Wavemaker Expands North American Leadership Team

Seeking to build on the agency's successes in 2020, including being named Adweek's U.S. Media Agency of the Year, GroupM's Wavemaker has expanded its leadership team in North America to fuel further growth. Wavemaker hired Delphine Fabre-Hernoux to lead data and analytics operations in the region and Alex Norman to drive new business efforts, effective immediately. Fabre-Hernoux replaces former Wavemaker chief data sciences officer, U.S., Karima Zmerli, who recently left Wavemaker to join Edelman. Fabre-Hernoux is adding Canada to the role's remit. Norman joins the GroupM agency in the newly-created role of chief growth officer, North America. Another Wavemaker hire from Amazon Fabre-Hernoux joins Wavemaker from Amazon, where she led analytics and insights globally for Amazon Advertising. She's the second leadership hire the agency has made from Amazon in recent weeks, following Wavemaker hiring Vinny Rinaldi as executive director, investment and activation. Prior to Amazon, Fabre-Hernoux held leadership positions agency-side with Dentsu and Publicis Groupe, as well as with Facebook and Microsoft. In her new role at Wavemaker, Fabre-Hernoux will be responsible for leading the agency's overall strategy in integrating data and media capabilities across the network, as well as creating solutions for clients across data sciences operations to better address audiences and measure success. "Delphine has an incredibly broad background from across all sides of the industry–spanning product, technologies, and data strategies–and has the perspective needed to provoke business growth in innovative ways," Louisa Wong, who joined Wavemaker from Dentsu last year as CEO, Americas, told Adweek. "I'm excited to partner with her to develop new audience innovation strategies that grow our client’s bottom lines." "At such a critical moment in our industry–with increasing headwinds on data–there is a need to continue implementing consultative approaches with clients to build and roll out data-driven capabilities to deliver growth," said Fabre-Hernoux, adding that she was impressed with Wavemaker's integrated structure around data, analytics and marketing technology. "As we build the agency of the future, we are focused on extracting the value of data in a privacy-safe manner and helping clients to build their own assets to create more connectivity between their brands and consumers," she added. "Today, working with the best partners to apply solutions based on client needs is far more important than actually owning any data." "We’re seeing so much opportunity and client movement across the industry right now. Unifying our North American growth strategy at a regional level allows us to better approach growth opportunities at scale," Wong said. Media Agencies Are Embracing Data Ethics to Help Clients Do What’s Right, Not Just What’s Legal A new role to drive growth in North America In the newly-created role of chief growth officer, North America, Norman will be responsible for driving Wavemaker's new business pipeline in the region and leading the agency's growth strategy rooted in its "positive provocation" positioning, or helping employees and clients evolve past old ways of thinking. The company aims to capitalize on the success the agency found in 2020 to fuel further opportunities. Norman previously spent four years as head of growth for WPP's Global Team Blue. Prior to joining Global Team Blue, Norman was a cofounder and CEO of ecommerce agency Armstrong and CEO for Silicon Valley-based software company LiveWorld-WPP, formed as a joint venture with the holding company. Norman also mentors early-stage consumer goods and technology startups. Wavemaker is no stranger to working with fast-growing clients. The agency opened last year retaining U.S. media agency of record responsibilities for DoorDash, following a 2019 review. In 2020, Wavemaker worked with DoorDash to bring the delivery app's "Open For Delivery" campaign calling on consumers to support local restaurants during the pandemic to life in under a week, with continuous adjustments in response to consumer sentiment. DoorDash also secured status as official on-demand delivery platform for the NBA and WNBA last year. "New economy clients like what we have to offer and that we have proven that we know how to help them on their journey from challenger to market leader," Wong told Adweek. "They are fast-moving market disruptors, and need agency leadership that has both a broad perspective, a multifaceted skill set, as well as access and scale." "Wavemaker leadership has a bold vision for the agency of the future, while also being unafraid to tackle the tough issues around diversity and inclusion," Norman said. "Additionally, I’m impressed by the agency’s practice areas–comprised of smart teams building world class tools and technology–and the precision in which Wavemaker’s teams analyze and deploy solutions to drive client growth."