Viacom Hires Leaders for Customer Targeting Team

In New York, media giant Viacom has appointed Bryson Gordon as SVP of Data Strategy, overseeing its data-driven ad product Vantage; Gabe Bevilacqua as Vice President of Product Management for Vantage; and Kodi Foster as Vice President of Data Strategy.

Vantage was launched in April to enable advertisers to reach consumers at the program level across the firm's Media Networks portfolio, and uses its understanding of media consumption by different audience segments to predict which content will perform best for viewers of the group's TV stations.

Gordon (pictured) joins after more than a decade at Microsoft, where he led various consumer marketing, product management, and business incubation teams, and helped develop segmentation for the Surface discipline. Before this, he led Consumer Product Management at McAfee Security.

Bevilacqua has more than a decade of experience in data-driven marketing technology. Most recently, he set up a content marketing platform called Rallyverse, prior to which he spent six years at Microsoft and latterly served as Director of the Advertiser Tools Business Group for the Atlas Advertiser Suite. Foster previously served as Head of Brand Initiatives at Outbrain, where he developed content marketing solutions and established the paid recommendations business for brands, before which he was VP of Business Development at digital media specialist Sahara Media Holdings.

Bevilacqua and Foster report to Gordon, who will manage the team under the leadership of Kern Schireson, Viacom EVP of Data Strategy and Consumer Intelligence, who comments: 'Data Strategy plays a key role in Viacom's ecosystem because it marries world-class creativity with advanced analytics. Bringing on Bryson, Gabe, and Kodi is a big step forward and reinforces our dedication to intelligent data solutions that benefit Viacom and our brand partners'.

Web site: www.viacom.com .