Audience Group appoints Sean Cooper as director analytics

Audience Group

• Cooper leaves Virgin Velocity after nearly seven years in senior data analytics management roles

Audience Group has appointed Virgin Velocity’s Sean Cooper as director analytics, as a part of the independent, full-service media agency’s work to increase its overall staff complement by 33% by mid-2022.

Cooper is an established direct marketer who segued into data analytics and successfully delivered over 100 data analytics and customer management engagements in the last 15 years. He said: “We’ve seen an explosion in the volume of customer data available to organisations over the last five years.”

“At Audience Group, we’re helping clients get the best possible outcome from their marketing and advertising investments through the intelligent use of that data. Media Mix Modelling is a very exciting area at the moment and one that is enjoying a renaissance, especially with the shift to cookieless advertising,” said Cooper.

“With it, we can attribute the effect of each media channel in terms of driving campaign results, and then optimise media investments using the models we’ve generated. Combining that with inputs from Customer Segmentation and Retail Optimisation Models is very powerful, allowing us to build sustainable competitive advantage for our clients,” Cooper added.

Audience Group is in the midst of growth and was recently ranked number 180 in the 2022 Financial Times list of High-Growth Companies in APAC and was number 48 in the AFR’s Fast 100 last year. 

Cooper continued: “As a business-builder myself, I’m keen to accelerate growth here and for our clients. I’ve recently hired four talented people, to build out my team of data storytellers and those looking to develop their analytics skills in an innovative advertising environment.”

James McDonald, director, Audience Group said: “Sean shares the frustration we have felt over the years, observing organisations leaving digital transformation ROI on the table by not using their data for marketing and advertising as effectively as they could. He has a demonstrated passion for changing that, and will lead the Analytics side of our business with that mindset.”

Cooper started as a Data Planner at EHS Brann (which became Havas) in the early 90s. In the intervening thirty odd years, Cooper held account manager and group account director roles at agencies in the UK before moving on to business director and managing director roles in Hong Kong at OgilvyOne and Rapp Collins Worldwide, respectively. Cut to 2003 and he began a 12-year stint as chief commercial officer at Torque Data, helping companies optimise commercial outcomes through the intelligent use of data.

Cooper was an equity partner when Torque Data was acquired by Virgin Australia’s Velocity Frequent Flyer in 2015, and spent the past nearly seven years in senior data analytics management roles at Velocity, most recently as head of new Partner acquisition and onboarding.

Top image: Sean Cooper

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