Earlier this week M&M Global revealed that Omnicom’s newest global media agency brand, set up to service Procter & Gamble (P&G), is to be called Hearts & Science.
The company has now confirmed key details about the launch – here is what you need to know.
Why choose that name?
The name Hearts & Science (and that’s a singular Science, people) is certainly an unusual choice, and has prompted a few raised eyebrows.
According to Omnicom Media Group (OMG), its third network has been inspired by marketers “seeking business advantage in a world of personalised and digital marketing” and where decisions must be made in real time to “aggregate effective reach and deliver the right message at the right time”.
OMG claims the agency is “data-driven” but retains media planning and buying expertise, alongside capabilities in shopper marketing, marketing innovation and content activation.
Who will lead the agency?
As had been previously mooted, Hearts & Science will be led by Scott Hagedorn, currently chief executive of Omnicom’s data arm Annalect, in a not-so-subtle hint that the agency will position itself as a leader in its use of data.
Hagedorn is joined at Hearts & Science by chief operating officer Kathleen Brookbanks, who moves over from fellow Omnicom agency OMD.
Back at Annalect, Hagedorn is succeeded as global CEO by Slavi Samardzija, while Erin Matts takes the reins as lead for Annalect North America.
Additional executive hires, recruited from “leading companies across the technology, publishing and agency industries”, will be announced in the coming weeks, the group says.
“Hearts & Science has been designed to protect the balance and leverage the connections between information and emotion”
Is it really a global network?
Not yet. The agency will soon open its first office in New York’s 7 World Trade Center, with an initial 175 employees, growing to around 300 by the end of September.
Additional locations are planned in North America – with Canada and Puerto Rico offices to open “shortly” – and key international media hubs to follow in the second half of 2016.
And, very purposefully describing P&G as its “inaugural client”, one can probably expect Hearts & Science to begin chasing new business in the not too distant future.
What they say…
New chief executive Hagedorn argues that Hearts & Science will sit at the “nexus between marketing science and consumer connections”.
“As data-driven marketing and applied audience analytics in mass media have gone from a fringe to a core practice, the industry can’t lose sight of content’s role in creating connections between brands and consumers,” he says.
“Hearts & Science has been designed to protect the balance and leverage the connections between information and emotion, combining data-driven planning and buying practices with orchestrated content creation, delivery and optimisation across all touch points.”
“OMD is the world’s largest and most creatively awarded media agency; PHD is the global leader in communications planning; Hearts & Science will be highly focused on data driven marketing”
Daryl Simm, CEO of Omnicom Media Group, adds: “With the addition of Hearts & Science, Omnicom Media Group has three distinct agency brands all focused on driving client business results.
“OMD is the world’s largest and most creatively awarded media agency; PHD is the global leader in communications planning; Hearts & Science will be highly focused on data driven marketing. All three agency networks benefit from the full scale of Omnicom Media Group’s activation and buying resources and our industry-leading Annalect data and analytics platform.”
