Pieter-Jan de Kroon was awarded Advertising Executive of the Year for building a start-up into a fast-growing company across the APAC region in 5 years

From Europe to Asia-Pacific, he led this remarkable growth for Entravision MediaDonuts.

Entravision MediaDonuts has been known across Asia as the leading media, commerce, and ad-tech solutions company connecting brands to consumers by representing top platforms and publishers. Behind this success is its CEO, Pieter-Jan de Kroon, who first dipped into the industry when he co-founded a startup in Belgium back in 2010.

Fast forward a few years later, Pieter opened the first Asia-Pacific MediaDonuts office in India in 2014. Knowing that Asia is a high-potential market, he continued to grow the business across the region based firmly on the values of integrity, diversity, and kindness. 

With India growing fast, it was the perfect opportunity to double down on APAC and make it the main focus of the expansion plans. To make its mark in Southeast Asia (SEA) and drive this growth, Pieter moved to Singapore where the company is now headquartered to build teams locally and across the region. MediaDonuts then expanded into the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam in 2016, with a focus on digital performance marketing solutions.

Over the last five years, MediaDonuts has been able to build very strong relationships with leading big tech platforms such as Twitter, TikTok, Spotify, Criteo, Carousell Media Group, ShopBack, and more to drive exponential growth. 

In July 2021, MediaDonuts APAC Operations was acquired by Entravision, a diversified global advertising, media, and ad-tech solutions company headquartered in Los Angeles, USA, and publicly listed on the NYSE.

Since the acquisition, Entravision MediaDonuts has grown to 128 employees across 9 countries in Southeast Asia (Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Cambodia) and South Asia (India and Bangladesh), with further expansion plans in APAC in 2023.

Today, the business is being run with three main pillars: Social Media, Retail Media, and Performance Marketing.

For these milestones, Entravision MediaDonuts received the Executive of the Year – Advertising award in the recently concluded Singapore Business Review Management Excellence Awards.

The awards programme recognises the most outstanding leaders in Singapore for their hard work and dedication that brought tangible contributions to their businesses. It also honours employee engagements and COVID management initiatives that made a positive impact on its workforce or customers.

In granting the award, the judging panel took into consideration three highlighted achievements by the company. First is that Pieter helped expand MediaDonuts from a one-person team in January 2016 to a team of 128 across nine markets in the APAC region in such a short time.

Second, it noted the acquisition of MediaDonuts by Entravision in July 2021 which helped drive the company into bigger successes. Lastly, it received a "Great Place to Work" award with a 93% score in APAC in 2022, which brings it closer to a “preferred employer” status.

Moreover, the company has achieved a positive EBITDA year after year since it first began operations in APAC, growing in line with its revenue.

With new high-profile clients and market expansions, Entravision MediaDonuts is expected to end 2022 with strong growth, armed with the confidence that it will continue its upward trajectory as it further expands to other APAC markets in 2023.

The SBR Management Excellence Awards is presented by Singapore Business Review Magazine. To view the full list of winners, click here. If you want to join the 2023 awards programme and be acclaimed for your company's employee engagements and management initiatives, please contact Julie Anne Nuñez at [email protected].