Authorised Investment Fund’s e-Mersion Media attracts international marketing executive Mark Buckman to its team

Authorised Investment Fund’s (ASX: AIY) investee e-Mersion Media has shored up its executive team with the appointment of Mark Buckman, who is renowned for his international business and marketing expertise and has been recognised as “Australia’s most influential person in marketing”.

Included in Forbes Magazine’s World’s Most Influential Marketers list Mr Buckman has on three occasions been named Marketer of the Year.

Mr Buckman joins Vincenzo Viola who commenced with the company in April as chief executive officer and partner.

Mr Viola himself has 30 years’ advertising and marketing experience with major agencies and brands across Melbourne, Sydney, New York and Hong Kong.

Who is Mark Buckman?

Like Mr Viola, Mr Buckman has more than 30 years’ experience working in media, marketing, consulting, communications, telco and banking within Australia, New York and London.

Mr Buckman’s previous positions include chairman and chief executive officer of McCann-Erickson (Australian/NZ), chief operating officer of Universal McCann Worldwide (New York), chief marketing officer of Commonwealth Bank (ASX: CBA), group managing director of Telstra Media, and managing director of Foxtel.

Additionally, Mr Buckman is an advisor to several companies including e-Mersion for the last three months and another Authorised Investment Fund’s investee called House of Aenea.

Role with e-Mersion

e-Mersion has created an advanced  proprietary  digital magazine platform which has garnered widespread approval and support from numerous leading brands.

Mr Buckman will advise e-Mersion’s board and assist with overseeing projects that are scheduled to be rolled-out across e-Mersion’s platform throughout the remainder of 2019 and beyond.

“In my three decades working in media and marketing roles globally, with some of the world’s leading and most innovative brands, I have not come across a greater, more interactive digital magazine platform,” Mr Buckman said of e-Mersion’s platform.

“A fully immersive content experience that unlocks rich content combining creativity with technology, resulting in a unique and disruptive experience unseen in previous generations of publishing,” he added.

Meanwhile, Mr Voila said the company was “thrilled” to have someone of Mark’s calibre on board.

“He is a change agent and provocateur who thrives in environments that require radical and rapid re-imagination.”

“After a number of years developing our proprietary technology and building the e-Mersion digital magazine publishing platform to where it is today, we are delighted to bring on board Mark to help advise e-Mersion through its next chapter as we commercialise the platform and partner with some of the world’s leading brands,” Mr Voila added.

The e-Mersion business

Headquartered in Melbourne, e-Mersion has offices in London and Hong Kong.

The company has created a “ground-breaking” magazine digitalisation solution for mobile devices.

e-Mersion’s platform offers users multi-sensory engagement including sight, sound and action, while providing magazine publishers insights to drive business and editorial decisions.

Content is delivered in real-time and offers revenue channels via advertising. Using the platform, brands can tap into, aggregate, tailor and share existing “richer content” that was previously distributed through limited web and social channels.

The magazine’s platform is underpinned by comprehensive data-gathering analytics, which enables advertisers to measure and monitor engagement and e-commerce.

Formerly known as Box Digital Media, e-Mersion and Authorised Investment Fund executed an agreement in early 2018, which gave Authorised Investment Fund a 14 % stake in the company.

e-Mersion also has a partnership with Authorised Investment Fund’s 25%-owned investee Asian Integrated Media.