One of adland’s nice guys, Willie Pang (lead image), has returned to the advertising fold as the newly appointed general manager of Amazon Ads.
A tech native, Pang joined GroupM in 2015 as chief digital officer and in early 2018 was elevated to the role of MediaCom CEO (now EssenceMediaCom).
Pang quit GroupM in August 2021 to take up the role of CEO of digital payments company Lime Pay (that would later rebrand to April).
On his move back to adland, Pang told B&T that he’d “missed the energy and creativity so much and I’m super excited”.
On his role at Amazon, Pang said “it’s a very nascent business” and the local Aussie ops “are definitely on the agenda for Amazon globally”.
Pang added: “My two years at April were great to get my head around a start-up and fintech and I learned so many things that I am sure I will put to good use in my new role.
“Is now a good time to return to adland? Look, I think it’s a tough time for every industry at the moment but for me, at a personal level, I could see the consumer adoption of Amazon… there’s millions and millions of customers using Amazon’s services and that’s not just as an ecommerce retailer, it’s broader than that, it’s Prime Video and all the subscription services and things like Twitch.
“Amazon is one of the biggest publishers in the country and I just don’t think that’s very well understood by marketers and corporations. I think for those who use Amazon’s ad services, they don’t realise the ROI is just phenomenal and there’s a real job to be done in raising that awareness,” he said.
Pang’s appointment began yesterday.
