VivaKi launches AOD Activation Centre in Asia-Pacific, led by Grace Liau

Grace Liau will lead the operations as regional general manager. The launch follows beta testing of AOD across Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.

AOD, a multi-channel digital addressable media buying practice, enables global and local advertisers to reach the right audiences at the right time, at scale, across all digital touchpoints in real time. 

The practice delivers data-driven display, video, social and mobile advertising buys for Publicis Groupe agencies including Starcom MediaVest Group, ZenithOptimedia, Razorfish and DigitasLBi.

Jeffrey Seah, VivaKi country chair in Southeast Asia, said AOD, as VivaKi's proprietary trading desk technology, represents the epitome of laser-targeting consumers. Offering real-time matching of advertising inventory to consumer profiles, it brings an industrial-level of efficiency over “retail” media buying, he said.

“AOD was built to provide clients with quality, service, safety and transparency in the programmatic space,” said Frank Voris, CEO for VivaKi. “Establishing an activation centre in Singapore, and installing a respected, experienced AOD expert at the helm, allows us to scale AOD in a vital region while ensuring the unique value proposition of the offering.” 

Liau will start the new role in October and report into Kurt Unkel, president, products & solutions for VivaKi.

Prior to this, Liau led the Platforms Partnership team and the Ad Operations Centre of Excellence (Ad Ops COE) for VivaKi. She also previously headed up the Media Operations & Technology practice for Digitas.

Also joining the Activation Centre team in Singapore is Stephen Tompkins as AOD director. Starting from August, Tompkins is tasked with driving growth of AOD across the Asia-Pacific network.

Tompkins joined VivaKi in 2011 as a platform expert. Most recently he has been based in Beijing where he has been responsible for driving adoption of AOD across the region.

VivaKi launched the first Activation Centre in Amsterdam to proficiently scale AOD across Europe. A third regional activation centre is currently being planned in China.