Data Science at Heart of New OMG Network

Media services division Omnicom Media Group (OMG) has unveiled a new data-driven marketing agency network, Hearts & Science; and appointed Scott Hagedorn - formerly Chief Executive of its analytics division Annalect - as its CEO.

Hearts & Science aims to help marketers with the new world of personalized digital marketing, converging CRM and addressable channels, and real-time insights and targeting. Services include expert media planning and buying, shopper marketing, marketing innovation and content activation.

The new network, with Procter & Gamble as its inaugural client, sits alongside the two existing and long-established OMG divisions, creative media agency OMD and communications planning unit OHD, and OMG Chief Executive Daryl Simm says all three agency networks will 'benefit from the full scale of Omnicom Media Group's activation and buying resources and its industry-leading Annalect data and analytics platform'.

Hearts & Science will be headquartered in 7 World Trade Center, with a staff of 175, set to grow beyond 300 within three months. Other offices are planned for Canada and Puerto Rico, followed by key markets outside of North America in the second half of the year; and more senior hiring announcements are expected shortly.

Hagedorn (pictured) led Annalect from its inception in autumn 2010, following a spell as CEO of PHD USA. He has been instrumental in forming the new group and describes it as 'the nexus between marketing science and consumer connections'. He explains: '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. 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 optimization across all touch points'.

Slavi Samardzija moves up from Chief Analytics Officer to Global CEO of Annalect, replacing Hagedorn, while Erin Matts moves from CMO to North American CEO of the analytics division. Meanwhile former OMD exec Kathleen Brookbanks joins Hearts & Science as COO.

OMG is the media services division of Omnicom Group Inc. and is online at www.omnicommediagroup.com .