Omnicom has announced the formation of Omnicom Advertising Group (OAG). This new entity will oversee its top creative networks, including BBDO, DDB, and TBWA, as well as leading agencies in the Advertising Collective like Goodby Silverstein & Partners, GSD&M, Merkley & Partners, and Zimmerman.
The move aims to provide clients with stronger creative solutions by uniting these agencies under a single leadership structure while maintaining their individual brand identities, cultures, and teams.
Troy Ruhanen, previously CEO of TBWA Worldwide, has been appointed as the CEO of OAG. Deepthi Prakash will step into the role of COO, and Denis Streiff will take on the position of global CFO. Erin Riley, who was the U.S. CEO of TBWA, will succeed Ruhanen as the new CEO of TBWA Worldwide. Additionally, global creative leaders from BBDO, DDB, and The Collective will report to OAG leadership, further solidifying the group’s unified approach.
Ruhanen emphasized that OAG’s primary goal is to strengthen Omnicom’s agency brands by enhancing access to advanced tools, technologies, and global talent. The restructuring is designed to drive growth, foster world-class creativity, and offer more opportunities for talent development within the network.
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 the agency brands must be strong. But we can use scale to our advantage.”
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.”
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