AdColony, the mobile performance marketplace, announced that media industry veteran Matt Barash has rejoined AdColony as Head of Strategy and Business Development, along with the promotion of Camila Franklin to VP of Programmatic and Tom Simpson to VP of Brand & Exchange, APAC. These announcements coincide with AdColony combining its programmatic private marketplace and open exchange expertise with its high-quality, first-party supply and SDK data to reinforce its hold as the No. 1 solution for high-quality, brand-safe and transparent mobile inventory.
Camila Franklin has been promoted to VP of Programmatic, joining AdColony’s Executive Leadership team, reporting to CEO Lars Boilesen. Camila has over 15 years of experience leading engineering, operations and client-facing teams within mobile. She joined AdColony in February 2015 as leader of the client services team. In her new role, Camila will expand her scope globally as she oversees AdColony’s global programmatic product and engineering efforts.
“AdColony is uniquely positioned to leverage its programmatic offerings to bridge the gap between marketers and app developers who want to diversify their monetization,” said Franklin. “We are focused on efficiently and effectively partnering with other automated technologies to create a scalable marketplace and to drive impactful programmatic solutions. I take tremendous pride in joining the executive leadership team as we continue to ensure that AdColony provides a best-in-class service.”
In addition, AdColony is pleased to have Matt Barash rejoin the company as Head of Strategy and Business Development. His focus in this newly formed role is to lead marketplace strategy with a focus on increasing automation and transparency initiatives, delivering client outcomes and developing strategic partnerships to ensure the company’s continued success into 2020 and beyond.
“AdColony has been a trusted leader in the space for over a decade and is uniquely situated to leverage the broad global scope of our SDK footprint, as well as drive innovative results for both publishers and marketers,” said Barash. “There’s a lot to look forward to as we continue to capitalize on industry advances in hardware and 5G connectivity to provide unique creative executions, which harness the power of sight, sound and motion to addressable audiences.”
In tandem, Tom Simpson has been promoted to VP of Brand & Exchange in APAC region. With more than 14 years of global digital marketing experience on the brand, agency and supply sides, he is responsible for driving the overall strategy and direction of the APAC business at AdColony.
“I am excited to lead AdColony’s charge in Asia-Pacific, as the importance of this region grows globally,” said Simpson. “According to eMarketer, Asia-Pacific digital and video advertising spend is set to hit $122 billion in 2019 – that’s twice the size of Europe – and even overtakes U.S. spend by 2022. So, this is an exciting environment for marketing at a global level, and we passionately believe that for brands in our region, mobile apps – especially gaming – are the new (and improved) social media in terms of connecting with consumers. Through my new position, I look forward to collaborating even more closely with our fantastic partners to leverage on this in the years ahead.”
The new additions to executive leadership come on the heels of AdColony’s positive financial close to 2018. AdColony saw an increase of its gross margin in 2018, with its core app user acquisition business rising 20 percent, compared to 2017. AdColony’s brand and exchange business reported gross margins in the last half of 2018 of more than 40 percent.