Reddit raids Madison Avenue with a key advertising hire

Sharb Farjami is set to join Reddit from WPP.

Katie Jones/Variety via Getty Images

Reddit has hired Sharb Farjami to deepen its relationships with advertising agencies.
Farjami joins from WPP, where he led the agency’s North America media business.
Reddit’s ad business grew 84% year-over-year in its most recent quarter.

Reddit has poached a high-profile figure from Madison Avenue as it looks to build deeper relationships with advertising agencies.

Business Insider has learned that Sharb Farjami is set to join Reddit in a role responsible for building partnerships with the largest agency holding companies, like Publicis, Omnicom, and WPP.

WPP announced internally on Wednesday that Farjami was stepping down from his position as CEO of WPP Media North America to pursue a position outside of a media agency.

Reddit and Farjami declined to comment.

The role is expected to fill the vacancy left by Alex Underwood, formerly Reddit’s head of global agency development, who stepped down from the position in July to join the digital advertising platform Smartly.

Reddit already has a healthy ad business. The research company WARC estimated in July that Reddit’s ad revenue was growing three times as fast as the wider social media market.

Reddit’s ad business grew by 84% year-over-year to reach $465 million in its second quarter, the company said in its latest earnings report. Reddit said the majority of its growth came from existing advertisers increasing their spending on the platform. Reddit’s second quarter was its “most profitable quarter yet.”

WPP is embarking on a turnaround under newly appointed CEO Cindy Rose as the company looks to gain ground lost to rivals Publicis and Omnicom, which will soon complete a merger with IPG.

WPP’s annual revenue declined last year, and it has forecast another drop in 2025, having lost some key accounts and amid a slowdown in new media pitches. The company also said macroeconomic uncertainty had made some clients cautious about spending.

This year, WPP renamed and consolidated its GroupM media buying operation as WPP Media. Brian Lesser, the CEO of WPP Media, is assuming Farjami’s role as head of WPP Media North America while the company searches for a replacement.

In a note to WPP Media North America staff on Wednesday, obtained by Business Insider, Lesser said Farjami had been instrumental to the agency’s transformation.

“From bringing in clients like Adobe, Audible, and Johnson & Johnson, to guiding the rollout of our new operating model and brand in the region, he has been a tireless advocate for our clients and our business,” Lesser wrote.

Prior to helming WPP’s North America media arm, Farjami led WPP’s Wavemaker US media agency. He has also worked on the ad sales side of the business, and previously held senior roles at companies owned by News Corp and Viacom, the company that later merged with CBS and ultimately became part of Paramount Global.

Read the original article on Business Insider

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