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By Tim Baysinger
Nov 14 (Reuters) - WPP Plc's GroupM, one of theworld's largest media buying firms, said on Monday it wouldrestructure its North American operations as the industry reliesmore on technology to place ads.
Rino Scanzoni, GroupM's North America chief investmentofficer since 2005, will become executive chairman and chiefexecutive of WPP's Midas Exchange and Modi Media, the companysaid in a statement.
Midas Exchange allows advertisers to trade products formedia space in lieu of cash. Modi Media uses technology totarget ads toward specific households instead of using the samecommercials for all viewers.
Ad agencies are increasingly relying on research andtechnology to place ads as viewers watch more and more video ondigital gadgets.
Scanzoni, who had worked in various roles in WPP for 30years, was a pioneer in the push for incorporating delayedviewing for commercials on DVRs or video-on-demand platforms.
Lyle Schwartz, who helped build GroupM's researchdepartment, was named president of investment for North America.GroupM said Lyle would be the first head buyer at a major mediainvestment group with a research and analytics background.
GroupM has also consolidated its resources into two groups.
The Investment group, led by Schwartz, includes the TV adbuying team and its research unit.
Platform Services includes digital ads purchased usingsoftware, search marketing, social media, digital operations anddigital analytics. It will be lead by former MediaCom NorthAmerica CEO Phil Cowdell.
GroupM's media buying agencies, including Mindshare, MEC,MediaCom, Maxus and Essence, will continue to operateindependently. (Reporting by Tim Baysinger; Editing by Richard Chang)
