Matt Coote, former head of sales at Snap ANZ, has reappeared at GumGum to serve as the adtech firm’s first country manager for Australia.
Coote spent the last eight years with the photo-sharing site and, when departing, he said that he would be returning to Newcastle to spend more time with his family.
Now, that plan appears to be on ice, he told B&T exclusively. In his new role back in Sydney, Coote will be responsible for leading the sales team, guiding cross-functional strategies and expanding GumGum’s footprint in Australia. He’ll also be on the hook for driving revenue, strengthening relationships with agencies and clients. He’ll also oversee trading deals, ensuring consistent value for partners and clients alike.
“During the time between leaving Snap and starting the next adventure, we were planning to relocate to Newcastle. We’ve got family, friends, community up there. But at the same time, my wife and I are big believers in things happening for a reason,” he said.
“During that process, I was fortunate enough to meet Niall [Hogan, general manager, JAPAC] through a mutual friend. Lo and behold, a couple of months later, I’m lucky enough to be working here at GumGum!”
GumGum itself has been on a fairly dramatic change of late. Locally, Playground xyz was acquired by the global GumGum in 2021. But earlier this year, the Playground xyz media portfolio was integrated into GumGum’s Asia-Pacific media portfolio and the two businesses were more broadly intertwined. The aim was to create a suite of AI-powered, advanced contextual ad solutions designed to better serve clients and users as the world retreats from third-party cookies. It also recently released the ‘GumGum Platform’, a solution that unified its three main product lines: GumGum Contextual, GumGum Attention and GumGum Creative.
It also launched a proprietary Mindset Graph, a predictive data engine aligning consumer mindsets with advertiser goals, available through the GumGum Platform or as a standalone solution.
“You can’t be everything to everyone and in a world where there’s more competition, more players and at a macro level, I empathise with clients and agencies. It can be tough out there, you really need to know the value that you can provide and what results you can drive.” Coote said.
“That’s what impressed me throughout the process [joining GumGum]. They have this fantastic contextual-first product, the acquisition of Playground a number of years ago and bringing the attention technology and the creative side into the business. I’m not going in with fully rose-tinted glasses but there’s a really great opportunity.”
Hogan, Coote’s new boss and former Ogury APAC MD, said that “His deep expertise and dedication to cultivating a strong team culture make him an excellent addition to our team.
“The energy and perspective Matt brings, along with his focus on fostering cross-market collaborations will be invaluable.”
Coote was very clear on his ambitions for the team culture at GumGum, recognising that there had been some tough changes made within its walls following its closer integration into GumGum.
“It’s not often in your career that you get a change to imprint yourself onto a business but look, we’re not going to hide behind it, there’s been some change in the business and I’m really empathetic to that. One of the things I pride myself on is leading with empathy,” he said.
“Even within the first week, listening to the stories from the team, some legacy and some new, I was so impressed with their attitude, their willingness.
“I got to meet the founders of Playground throughout this last week, Scot [Liddell], Jono [Mullins] and Rob [Hall] and the team is so impressive. It’s set to take the next step in the GumGum journey, bring it all under one roof and with a great legacy brand in Playground. It’s how we build on that with GumGum’s contextual-first technology. It’s really exciting.”
Coote, perhaps despite his background in sales, explained that his approach to company management is far more bottom-up than top-down.
“In order to get it right, you need to have the right people in the business. From a leadership perspective, I’ve operated this framework of people, customer experience and then revenue,” he said.
“From a people perspective, I really want to understand them and who they are. How do their skills sets ladder up and work together so we can achieve greatness. On top of that, what does the culture look like. How do I empower and build on this incredible culture and the core values of ‘Thoughtful, Agility and Grit’?
“My big intention for the next month or so is to go on a listening tour and hear first-hand the feedback people have around our people, product and GumGum as a business.”
GumGum and Playground have been through significant periods of change recently. But with Coote helming the business locally, the newly merged businesses have set themselves on the path for success on all fronts.
