Former Goodman Fielder marketing and media effectiveness leader, Leah Jackson, has switched client-side and is returning to her agency roots, becoming the new Group Director of Commerce Strategy at GroupM.

The role reports into Marc Lomas, managing director, Commence, GroupM Australia & New Zealand. Mi3 understand the remit includes working closely with Lomas and agency teams to lead commerce strategies for clients across the holdco’s portfolio of businesses including EssenceMediacom, Mindshare and Wavemaker.

Jackon has more than 20 years’ industry experience as a marketer and agency executive, with specific expertise in digital marketing, brand strategy, integrated communications, ecommerce, data and technology. For the last four-and-a-half years, she’s been at FMCG giant, Goodman Fielder, working her way up from head of digital marketing for retail in Australia to head of digital, media and marketing effectiveness for the full Australian retail and RFS portfolio. Goodman’s brands include Helga’s, White Wings, Wonder, Pampas, MeadowLea, CSR and Country Life.

Prior to this, Jackson had a brief stint as customer experience and UX lead at Dyson, and head of customer engagement marketing at Foxtel. She was also global CRM and ecommerce manager for Pernod Ricard for two years.

Her resume also includes a raft of agency roles, including account director at Yolo, account and business management at 303 Sydney, Publicis Mojo, Clemenger BBDO and Permission. Brands she worked with over this time include Toyota and Kimberley-Clarke.

Notably, Jackson has spearheaded industry-first initiatives in retail media, including implemented Australia's first holistic integration of trade co-op and brand investment strategies through a media agency, always-on performance strategy across major grocery retailers. In addition, she developed integrated content strategies for emerging social commerce formats and championed the need for consolidated reporting metrics to enable comprehensive media attribution within the industry.

“Leah's extensive client-side experience, spanning both trade and brand marketing, combined with her unique expertise in fully integrated planning and execution, makes her ideally suited to drive our commerce initiatives and deliver exceptional results for our clients,” Lomas said. “Her appointment underscores our commitment to shaping the future of media and achieving superior outcomes in the dynamic e-commerce and retail media landscape."