Global media, marketing and corporate communications holding company, Omnicom, has announced plans to consolidate its global creative agencies under one organisation called Omnicom Advertising Group (OAG). The new structure will align its creative agencies globally under one leadership team. The new structure will take effect on Jan. 1, 2025.
According to the company, OAG will unite and oversee top creative networks like BBDO, DDB, and TBWA and top agencies in the Advertising Collective like Goodby Silverstein & Partners, GSD&M, Merkley & Partners, and Zimmerman.
Troy Ruhanen, formerly CEO of TBWA Worldwide, will lead OAG as CEO. Deepthi Prakash, International President and Chief Product Officer of TBWA Worldwide, has been promoted to COO of OAG. Denis Streiff, CFO of TBWA Worldwide, is promoted to global CFO of OAG.
Omnicom said that bringing these agency brands under one leadership will meet the needs of customers for potent creative solutions. While leveraging OAG’s shared and scaled investments in cutting-edge tools, technologies, specialised capabilities, and AI platforms, each will maintain its distinct brand, culture, and workforce. This foundation will open up more options for talent’s personal and professional development while also improving agencies’ capacity to produce world-class creative and accelerate growth.
In addition to TBWA U.S. CEO Erin Riley, who is promoted to fill Ruhanen’s post as TBWA Worldwide CEO, Omnicom global creative agency leaders will report to OAG leadership.
This includes BBDO’s recently-promoted global CEO Nancy Reyes, DDB’s global CEO Alex Lubar and The Collective CEO James Fenton.
According to Ruhanen, OAG aims to bolster Omnicom’s agency brands while scaling access to tools, technology and talent that sits around the network globally.
He said, “We know that certain talents are attracted to certain agency cultures, and our clients prefer to have lots of choices rather than just the one solution on offer. So it’s really important that the agency brands are strong. But we have the ability to use scale to our advantage.”
With the new structure, OAG leadership will be able to more easily identify and scale existing solutions, platforms or investments across its creative agencies and clients globally. For instance, if a team in Finland or South Africa has developed a cutting-edge platform or way of working, OAG can bring that to clients and teams around the world.
Ruhanen further explained, “There are a lot of innovations that bubble up in markets that you wouldn’t expect. It’s a matter of being able to identify those innovations and say, ‘OK, we really think that this is quite cutting-edge. Let’s move that around the world. Let’s start to educate people about this way of working.”
OAG is a response to AI and digital transformation that has reshaped the creative industry and competitive landscape. Particularly for creative agencies, scaled access to investments in generative AI, data and other technologies is becoming a competitive advantage.
“It’s probably more relevant than ever to be able to benefit from our scale,” Ruhanen added.
Additionally, as clients seek more integrated and tailored solutions from agencies, OAG will help facilitate access to talent and teams across the network, while simultaneously providing talent with mobility across different agencies and client teams.
Commenting on the quality of talents the new structure will boast of Ruhanen said, “In the past, a lot of us tended to hold on to the talent that we have because we were fighting for our personal brand success. How do we really look at getting the best talent for our clients, the best solution and collaborating together?” He pointed to his nearly nine years at BBDO and Reyes’ recent move from TBWA to BBDO as examples of Omnicom’s track record with talent mobility.
“Omnicom does not plan to merge or sunset any agencies as part of the new structure and will pitch solutions as OAG or as individual agencies, depending on the client’s needs. We have far greater flexibility to be able to meet the needs of the client,” Ruhanen added.
The model follows a structure Omnicom has implemented in other disciplines, including Omnicom Media Group, Omnicom PR Group and Omnicom Health Group.
Ruhanen also stated that while OAG will add leaders in specialist areas in the months to come, the intention is not to build a “holding company within a holding company.”
He added that he will judge his own and the group’s success by each of the individual agencies’ success and that as competitors merge agency brands and allow them to fade into the background, maintaining strong brands and cultures is a competitive advantage.
“This doesn’t come at the sacrifice of the agency brands,” he said. “It’s there to help them.”