Chris Copeland (Twitter: @SearchBoss) is CEO of GroupM Search – The Americas, the search marketing specialist division of GroupM. GroupM is the world’s largest media investment management organization responsible for more than 1/3 of the world’s media buying, and the media communications planning and buying arm of WPP. Chris drives global search strategy for the organization to foster the innovation and application of search as an integrated channel for GroupM’s communications planning agencies (Maxus, MEC, MediaCom and Mindshare) and agency clients. He is a frequent speaker in global forums discussing the future of search marketing and how the space is evolving.
Chris has played a critical role in developing the marketing and business path for search as an element of cross-channel media planning for market-leading brands. He led the first implementation of a search offering within a media communications company more than nine years ago, later overseeing the development of search marketing offerings across four media communications companies. Chris is also credited with the development of Relevant Segmentation of Consumer Search, an advanced search marketing strategy that connects advertisers with consumers based on where they are in the purchase funnel. This strategy has not only directly impacted the business success for category-leading advertisers, but has received award recognition from the DMA, IAB, American Business Awards, Yahoo! and others for the success of campaigns where this strategy has been applied. Prior to assuming his role with GroupM, Chris served as senior partner and managing director of search marketing agency Outrider, a GroupM company, where he led the organization to 500% growth over five years and expansion to 40 global offices.
Chris is an active member on several search marketing advisory boards, including the 4A’s, Google, Yahoo! and Bing. Additionally, Chris serves as a regular resource to national and industry press, and is a regular contributor to MediaPost’s Search Insider, the DM News Essential Guide to Search Marketing, MediaBizBloggers and SearchFuel, the search marketing blog of GroupM Search.
