GroupM’s Goldstein Preps Consultancy

As he prepares to step down from his role as CEO of GroupM North America, industry veteran Marc Goldstein is setting up a new advertising and media consulting practice to be based in New York.

The consultancy will be called Marc Goldstein Media Solutions and the first two clients are the Association of National Advertisers and Goldstein’s soon-to-be former employer, GroupM, the media agency management arm of WPP Group.

Earlier this year, GroupM said that Goldstein would step down effective March 31 and be succeeded by Rob Norman, who will also continue in his current role as CEO of GroupM Interaction.

Up to now, Goldstein’s future plans had not been clarified publicly. “I’m looking forward to continuing my work with my colleagues at GroupM while also expanding into some new areas,” said Goldstein, a media agency executive with more than 30 years experience. “I plan to call on my many years in this business to offer my clients a unique perspective on the current media and advertising marketplace,” and provide insights stemming from experiences with national advertisers and media companies.

At the ANA, Goldstein will work with the association’s Alliance for Family Entertainment (AFE) committee, which is comprised of almost 40 leading U.S.-based advertisers. The committee develops and supports family-friendly programming efforts across traditional, digital and emerging media platforms. Goldstein is intimately familiar with the alliance and its work — for nine years he served on its executive committee and is credited with playing a leading role in the group’s successes.

“The work being done by our AFE community is extremely important to us and is very high on our agenda of key issues that need to be addressed by our industry,” said ANA president and CEO Bob Liodice. “I’m confident that Marc’s extensive experience and knowledge of the industry will help us achieve significant progress toward meeting our goals in this arena.”

“The Alliance has worked closely with Marc for almost a decade, and we know firsthand he thoroughly understands all the nuances of content development from the marketer’s perspective as well as what the networks and content providers expect from advertisers,” said Ben Simon, Alliance co-chair and director of WalMart brand marketing.

Goldstein assumed his current post in February 2007, and was responsible for overseeing general management as well as strategic and administrative activities for GroupM media shops Mindshare, Mediaedge:cia, MediaCom and Maxus.

In his role as consultant to GroupM, Goldstein will offer advice on issues including strategy, integrated communications and media buying, among others.

Before assuming his GroupM role, Goldstein was CEO of Mindshare North America with responsibility for all Mindshare activities in the U.S. and Canada. During his tenure, the firm was twice named Adweek’s Media Agency of the Year. He joined Mindshare N.A. as president of national broadcasting and programming in November 2000. Earlier, he ran GM Mediaworks, the buying agency for General Motors.

Goldstein just completed his third term as chairman of the Media Policy Committee at the American Association of Advertising Agencies. He sits on the board of the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, the Ad Council, and serves as the chair of the marketing communications committee of the UJA Federation of New York.