Guideline, the single source of truth for advertising and spend pricing data, today announced the appointment of former GroupM Global Chief Digital Officer Rob Norman and Greg Coleman, former President of Buzzfeed and Criteo, to its board of directors.
With decades of experience in the digital advertising space, Norman and Coleman will help inform and aid Guideline’s continuous effort to provide unprecedented transparency and accuracy across the entire global media ecosystem to inform planning, buying and selling.
“We formed Guideline to create a single source of truth for advertising spend and pricing data and modernize how brands and their agencies leverage information to optimize media budgets,” said Scott Knoll, CEO at Guideline. “The wealth of experience Greg brings from the media publishing realm, coupled with Rob’s global expertise in supporting the operational needs of some of the biggest players in the marketplace, will be invaluable resources to us as we continue to further our vision to evolve the way the industry transacts on media.”
Prior to joining the Guideline board, Norman spent over 30 years at WPP’s GroupM, the world’s largest buyer of media, most recently as Global Chief Digital Officer and North America CEO. He also serves as a board member of several private-equity-backed organizations within the technology-enabled advertising sector including MiQ, Piano, Simpli.fi, and Nova.
“Today’s industry depends on accurate ad expenditure and cost insights, complemented by media planning workflow and intelligence solutions that maximize operational efficiencies and decision-making capabilities,” said Norman. “Guideline is well-positioned to support and execute against these critical demands, and I look forward to helping the management team drive the business, and therefore our industry, forward with strategic innovations that transform the media buying process.”
Currently, Coleman is an Entrepreneur in Residence at Lerer Hippeau Ventures and serves on several boards in the advertising, media, and technology space including BuzzFeed, LoopMe, Cadent, and Botify. Most recently, he was the President at BuzzFeed. Before that, Coleman held roles as President of Criteo, President and Chief Revenue Officer at the Huffington Post, and the EVP of Global Sales at Yahoo. He has also been an adjunct professor at the NYU Stern School of Business for the last 12 years.
“The advertising landscape demands a holistic and comprehensive data resource across all facets of the ecosystem – and Guideline is well-positioned to provide a platform that supports the ecosystem at scale,” said Coleman. “I’m honored to be joining the Guideline board alongside some of my longtime colleagues and friends as the company enters its next wave of strategic innovation.”
About Guideline
Formed in 2020 as a partnership between Scott Knoll, David Hahn, Michael Iantosca, and GTCR, Guideline is the world’s most trusted authority for accurate media data and collaborative planning tools to guide your advertising decisions. With the 2022 acquisitions of Standard Media Index and SQAD, as well as the 2023 acquisition of Mediaocean’s Lumina, the company offers a single source of truth for advertising spend and pricing data that provides unprecedented accuracy and transparency across the media industry as well as a powerful centralized media planning platform that delivers collaboration, efficiency, and analysis across multiple global media teams and agencies in one interface. To learn more about Guideline, visit guideline.ai. Follow us on LinkedIn.
