Ad management company Sizmek has appointed the newly acquired leader of mobile DSP StrikeAd Asia, Ryan Murray, to lead its Vantage Media Solutions team across Asia-Pacific.

Singapore-based Murray has been appointed associate vice-president, Media Solutions, for Sizmek, across the Asia-Pacific region, where he will lead the company’s programmatic professional services team in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand. The announcement is aimed at meeting advertiser demand for more programmatic expertise in the region.

Last month Sizmek announced the acquisition of StrikeAd, one of the first dedicated mobile DSPs, formed in New York in 2010. Murray joined StrikeAd in 2012, and relocated with the company to Singapore last year. He had previously launched the North American business for StrikeAd, expanding its operations to more than 25 people, and helped drive a substantial increase in company revenue.

After the acquisition, which closed on May 28, Sizmek plans to quickly integrate StrikeAd into its Vantage media solutions business in Asia, to provide the market with a complete end-to-end offering, helping advertisers add rich media into programmatic buys whilst connecting critical real-time bidding data to the rest of its customers’ digital efforts.

“The mobile programmatic market in Asia is growing very quickly as brands discover that they can deliver more creative, engaging experiences for consumers on their most personal device,” said Murray. “We will therefore continue to actively promote our advanced mobile offering to the region. By merging the mobile expertise of StrikeAd with Sizmek’s full suite of media solutions tools, we aim to make a significant impact.”

Sizmek Asia-Pacific managing director Jordan Khoo said: “Ryan brings a wealth of expertise in programmatic advertising to Sizmek and his track record in bringing brands into the automated digital media world is impressive.”

Sizmek also revealed that its Vantage division has now secured trading relationships with several of the leading programmatic display and video providers that operate in Asia, including MediaMath, AppNexus, The Trade Desk, TubeMogul, and Turn. These DSP partners are fully integrated into the Sizmek MDX platform, allowing advertisers to run programmatic campaigns, and monitor their performance, all from a single destination.

“We’ve been offering our end-to-end media solutions toolset to advertisers in Asia for three years, working with large clients across the FMCG, travel and telecommunications industries. Now is the right time for us to further expand our Vantage services offering as we’re seeing brands wanting to inject more creativity into their automated campaigns,” Khoo said.

Sizmek’s open ad management approach means the company can work with any programmatic provider – and add that important creative layer needed for campaign success.

“We believe that our Vantage media solutions model sits well with our other digital businesses, including video, mobile, display and social ad campaign delivery,” said Khoo. “It’s especially important to provide creative solutions within the programmatic framework that further enrich the experience for the consumer and increase ROI for the advertiser.”