Group4Media formerly GroupM, GroupEM

Group4Media was formed by localizing in Russia the business of GroupM, the international media investment group of WPP holding. In Russia, the GroupM media holding was founded in 2005. On May 17, 2022, GroupM's Russian assets came under the control of local management. The names of the agencies that are part of the holding in Russia have also changed. Mindshare will carry the name Mediamind, Mediacom will become Mediasystem and Wavemaker will operate under the Mediamaker brand.

History

2025: Arrest of ₽157 million in Google lawsuit

The Moscow Arbitration Court seized the funds of the Grupformedia advertising agency in the amount of ₽157,4 million at the suit of the bankruptcy trustee of Google LLC (the Russian subsidiary of Google). The corresponding decision was made at the end of March 2025 as part of the bankruptcy case of the Russian division of the international company.

According to Interfax, the bankruptcy trustee of Google LLC Valery Talyarovsky on November 8, 2024 filed a statement of claim to invalidate payments in the amount of ₽115,6 million made by the Russian division of Google in favor of Grupformedia LLC on September 7, 2021. In addition, the manager demanded to apply the consequences of the invalidity of the transaction in the form of recovery from the advertising agency of ₽41,7 million as interest for the use of other people's money.

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Фото: Unsplash

A few months later, on March 28, 2025, the bankruptcy trustee filed an application with the court for interim measures in the form of seizure of funds in the accounts of Grupformedia LLC in Russian credit institutions within the amount of ₽157,4 million. The court granted this claim.

The case of "Groupformedia" is not isolated. The Moscow Arbitration Court at the end of March 2025, at the request of the same bankruptcy trustee, adopted similar security measures for claims against six more advertising agencies. The court arrested their funds in accounts with Russian banks totaling almost ₽1,5 billion. All these statements Valery Talyarovsky filed in court in November 2024.

In particular, on March 24, 2025, the funds of IA RialWeb LLC (₽612,1 million) were arrested, on March 28 - ARVM LLC (₽29,2 million), R-Broker LLC (₽46,9 million), Artix IS LLC (₽116,2 million) and Emdzhikom LLC (₽234 million), and on March 31 - Lion Communications LLC (₽445,2 million).^[1]

2017

MEC and Maxus and merged into Wavemaker Agency

Main article: Wavemaker

In December 2017, it became known that the MEC and Maxus agencies, part of the advertising holding GroupM (owned by WPP), merged into the Wavemaker agency. In Russia, Natalia Kiryanova, who previously served as Deputy General Director of MEC, has been appointed General Director of Wavemaker.

Russian GroupM headed by Maria Kolosova

In December 2017, the Russian GroupM changed its CEO. Instead of Neil Hardwick, Maria Kolosova, who headed the MEC agency, became the leader of the group. Maxus Executive Director Maria Yelchinova left her post in the fall and opened her own media advertising agency SkyTEC Media.

2008: The largest advertising buyer in Russia

In 2008, GroupM became the largest advertising buyer in. Russia At the same time, GroupM overtook the permanent leader since 2003 - a group Vivaki that includes the agency (Starcom research data from the French consulting company RECMA)^[2]this time, the company includes agencies and (MindShare MediaCom customers - Kraft Foods,,, LG Electronics MTS Baltimore, Lindt,). Dell

Notes