Omnicom Media Group (OMG) is expanding its brands and assets in Canada with the introduction of Resolution Media along with its Annalect and Accuen platforms north of the border.
As the media services division of Omnicom Group, OMG currently includes full-service media networks PHD, OMD and others.
“We’re expanding some of our strategic business units into the Canadian marketplace,” Page Thompson, CEO of Omnicom Media Group North America, told Marketing. “We now have the capability to provide superior data management and a superior search product in the marketplace.”
Resolution Media is set to arrive in early 2012. The digital marketing agency that’s headquartered in Chicago specializes in global search and will provide expanded search capabilities for OMG’s in-market clients. “We all know the tremendous growth and specialization of search,” said Thompson.
Annalect, a “data-informed” marketing platform, and Accuen, an audience management platform and media trading desk, are rolling out client by client over the first quarter of the new year.
“Our business is becoming a group of specializations, and clients are demanding best-in-class in all of the services that we provide,” said Thompson.
Fred Forster (pictured) will become CEO of Omnicom Media Group Canada, overseeing the three new business units, but also remains president and CEO of PHD Canada.
By adding these new operations as resources to OMG’s Canadian roster, Forster said, “it allows us to have the ‘bandwidth’ that we don’t have now with some of the disciplines.
“The reality is we need the backup and support, and to be nimble with those aspects of the business and our client needs.”
The search teams will report into Resolution, which falls under Forster’s purview, as do future acquisitions. As Thompson said, “We’re looking to grow our business both from a general market and specialty area in Canada, too.”
In turn, Forster will continue to report to Thompson in relation to PHD Canada’s operations. Cathy Collier will do the same for OMD Canada as its CEO.
Forster is particularly excited about the opportunities surrounding the analytics and data piece. “The ability to tap into this robust technology platform that we have in the States and bring it here will make a profound difference in how we’re able to use data and analytics to help our clients build their businesses,” he said.
Forster hopes introducing Annalect to Canada will produce real-time audience analytics and targeting information. “Clients are looking for a better return on the media money they’re spending, and this is what we’re building.”
Further Canadian expansion will be announced in the near future, said Thompson, as will senior-level management appointments for Resolution.
There will also be new executive hires announced shortly for the Canadian arm of Novus Media, OMG’s insert and newspaper marketing business that launched here in October.
