GroupM, WPP’s media investment group, has announced that Krystal Olivieri has been elevated to the role of global Chief Innovation Officer. This newly created role advances GroupM’s directive to better leverage scale to innovate, differentiate and create sustained value for clients through homegrown products and offerings.
Through the lens of the Responsible Investment Framework, Olivieri will be responsible for elevating, enhancing, and streamlining GroupM products and solutions in collaboration with the group’s agencies and partners, including start-ups. Such a focus will help foster an agile, incubator mindset delivered via a sprint approach to innovation that will help unlock agency growth opportunities while advancing GroupM’s purpose of being responsible for shaping the next era of media where advertising works better for people.
“Clients realize growth when their agency partners have the tools and offerings that transcend a rapidly evolving industry and community viewpoint,” said Olivieri. “The Responsible Investment Framework, for example, moves us all toward a more sustainable supply chain, and I’m excited to work alongside our agencies, community and clients to develop solutions that tangibly further this mission. Beyond this, I am excited to continue to help brands navigate the unknown and accelerate the great work across GroupM in areas that aren’t yet mainstream.”
Olivieri has helped create, develop and scale some of GroupM’s industry-leading privacy and data products and solutions, including the Data Ethics Compass that was launched in February. In her previous role, she led data strategy and partnerships globally for GroupM, where she helped distil industry changes and define future strategies for clients and the business.
The Innovation team, composed of 80% women, will work in partnership with the agencies to design, incubate, scale and, in some cases, develop homegrown or co-developed products and solutions. This team will also work closely with Investment/Partnerships, Services, and Choreograph to identify and co-develop partner-oriented innovation opportunities.
“We’ve made a lot of progress toward our goal to create operational efficiencies and better leverage our scale to innovate, differentiate and create sustained value for clients,” said Christian Juhl, GroupM Global CEO. “Krystal is no stranger to this, as evident in the innovation-led products and solutions, she helped conceive and co-design throughout the years, including the Data Ethics Compass, launched with Mindshare and Unilever. I’m really looking forward to seeing Krystal and the Innovation team scale, for and with clients, in close partnership with the agencies.”
