London: ADYOULIKE, pioneers in native advertising, today announces its expansion to the U.S.. The expansion is set to capitalise on the growing American market, with North America likely to be the biggest native destination in the world, with investments reaching $31.7 billion by 2020.
As part of this global expansion, current UK Managing Director (MD) & Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) Francis Turner will move with immediate effect to the U.S. to become U.S. General Manager & CRO and will head up the office in New York alongside CEO Julien Verdier.
Francis will be responsible for the U.S. profit & loss (P&L) and expanding U.S. operations and the team.
Francis has over 15 years experience in digital advertising in business development, sales and senior management roles. He previously co-founded Content Amp, the UK’s first native advertising platform and network, which merged with ADYOULIKE in March 2014.
Dale Lovell, currently Chief Digital Officer (CDO) takes on the role of UK MD with immediate effect. Dale was co-founder of Content Amp alongside Francis Turner, and prior to becoming UK MD oversaw the publishing and operational side of ADYOULIKE’s UK business.
Dale has an extensive 15 year digital background spanning digital journalism, digital publishing, content marketing, ad-ops and ad-tech.
As part of his new role, Dale will be responsible for the UK’s financial performance and also the team, managing all UK business operations, while keeping his Chief Digital Officer global role. Current UK clients include eBay, Bing, New Balance, Sainsbury’s and Simply Be. Top UK publishers such as ESI Media and Trinity Mirror work with ADYOULIKE in the UK.
In the UK, ADYOULIKE recorded an increase in revenue of more than 150% in 2016 and were recently listed as the only native advertising technology in the top 500 (within the ‘Advertising and Marketing’ category) of the prestigious Inc. 5000 Europe rankings and were ranked 378 in terms of the fastest growing companies in Europe.
New UK MD, Dale Lovell, said: “I’m excited for what 2017 holds for ADYOULIKE in the UK. The native advertising market in the UK continues to mature and grow and ADYOULIKE – as a UK pioneer of native advertising – is very much at the forefront of this activity.”
“Business continues to grow and I’m looking forward to working with the multi-talented team we have here in London, as well as our advertiser and publisher partners, to grow our UK business substantially this year. As the UK’s leading native advertising business I’m thrilled we are playing our part – and making such a significant impact – in what is one of the most sophisticated and dynamic digital advertising markets on the planet.”
About ADYOULIKE
ADYOULIKE is a global leading in-feed native ad platform. Launched in 2011, it is recognised for being a pioneer in native technology and creating advertising experiences for users that mirror the websites they are visiting. Using its own native supply-side platform (SSP) and native technology platform, the company enables brands to scale native advertising campaigns across premium and niche publishers, while publishers benefit from access to ADYOULIKE’s marketplace.
In November 2016, ADYOULIKE launched the world’s first semantic targeting capability for native advertising by integrating IBM’s ground-breaking Watson artificial intelligence software with the ADYOULIKE platform. It is now, for the very first time, being used to create better semantic targeting for native advertising.
The fast-growing firm is now operating in more than 18 countries, has 65 employees and received series B funding in October of 2017 to underwrite its continued international growth. Accolades for ADYOULIKE include: BPI France Excellence, Pass French Tech, The Everline Future 50 and The BIMA Hot 100. ADYOULIKE is a member of the IAB in the UK, US and Europe.
About Dale Lovell
Dale is the UK managing director at ADYOULIKE, a worldwide leader in native advertising. He has worked in journalism, digital publishing, content strategy and creative content marketing for over 15 years. Prior to ADYOULIKE, Dale was co-founder of Content Amp, a content distribution service that he helped to build from scratch which then merged with ADYOULIKE in March 2014. In 2015 he was listed as a BIMA Hot 100, and Dale also sits on the The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) UK’s content & native advertising council.
About Francis Turner
Francis is the U.S. managing director at ADYOULIKE, a worldwide leader in native advertising. With over 13 years’ experience, he previously co-founded a startup content agency and launched the UK’s first native ad platform & network in the form of Content Amp. In 2014, Francis and his co-founder Dale merged Content Amp with Adyoulike to create Europe’s leading native ad platform and network. In 2015 he was listed as a BIMA Hot 100.
