Marketing AI outfit Scibids launches in Australia

Artificial intelligence for marketing solution Scibids has launched in Australia and New Zealand, appointing James Whitbread as country manager.

Whitbrid’s experience in media across ad tech, digital and programmatic spans 17 years, with his most recent role as Flashtalking’s JAPAC sales director. He was also programmatic director ANZ at DoubleVerfiy.

Scibids has also appointed Mansi Garg as commercial director ANZ, who was formally head of the data driven native advertising platform Plista. He also worked with GroupM in Australia, as well as with Scibids in India.

According to Whitbrid, “Both Mansi and I are very excited to be joining Scibids at such a crucial time for the company’s expansion globally and regionally. Scibids is a unique proposition in the fact that it removes the guesswork. Programmatic businesses get an upfront view of the likelihood of the AI improving their results. But in addition to improving media efficiency, Scibids brings a huge amount of automation benefits to the trading units as well. Given the shortage of Programmatic Traders in the AUNZ market, this brings massive efficiency to the operations as well”.

James Whitbread, country manager ANZ, Scibids

The appointments come as the business expands its teams in Japan and India. In the last 12 months the Scibids has doubled its headcount to reach 55 employees across 10 offices.

According to Rahul Vasudev, APAC MD of Scibids, “Australia is a market leader in adoption of new technology, and given the market dynamics around media costs, desire for transparency and talent, an Artificial Intelligence solution like Scibids is a perfect fit. We are excited to be able to officially launch in Australia and New Zealand with two highly passionate and experienced individuals like James and Mansi”.

Scibid’s focus is on cookie-less tech, and is set to release a number of new products in 2022 following its expansion into ANZ, including optimization towards Attention Metrics, said a spokesperson.

The business already worked with over 1800 advertisers and saw a 117 percent increase in investments in 2021 year on year.