Intrusive marketing should not be tolerated. At GroupM, Physicist-lawyer Sidhartha uses science to manage consumer data responsibly and efficiently.

Not only does he have decades of marketing experience up his sleeve, Sidhartha is also a trained physicist, a commercial lawyer and somehow even found time to finish his MBA.

“I came into media by chance through my love for data. The intrusive way companies have been collecting data is long overdue for an update, but that shouldn’t worry savvy advertisers. I firmly believe these changes can make our jobs easier – not more difficult,” he says.

He put that theory into practice about 14 years ago when he started working on what eventually became GroupM Nexus – the world’s largest global performance organisation. He describes the project in a way only a physicist with an MBA could.

“Consider the principle of displacement. By creating a single ecosystem, if one part of GroupM is under pressure, Nexus reveals how and where other departments with a lesser load can help out. This kind of real-time insight from data directly supports our global team and our clients by radically improving efficiencies,” he says.

Sidhartha adds that no matter how the digital world might change, the principles of advertising stay the same – cookies or no cookies. By remembering these fundamentals, he is certain GroupM will continue living up to its reputation as an industry trailblazer.

“The basics of communication is that there is always a sender and receiver, and between those is the medium. That’s us,” he says. “And while our core job is to deliver on a brand’s message, we must remember that customers are also actively looking for solutions. Data helps bridge that gap.”

For Sidhartha, emerging regulations around the world that require companies to ask permission to both capture and use people’s data is perfectly suited for a centralized system like GroupM Nexus – which helps brands maximize the new data and generate far more penetrating insights than ever before.

“At GroupM, we think it’s fantastic that people are being encouraged to make informed decisions throughout the journey of how their data is used,” he says. “The future of advertising will not just be about collecting data. We must find better ways to use it responsibly.”