Hess Departs as OMG Reorganises Research Arm

In London, Omnicom Media Group has announced that Mike Hess, Director of Global Research and Consumer Insights at its ad agency OMD Worldwide, has left the firm following a restructure of its global research and analytics division.

Under the new structure, a global research analytics leadership team has been put in place, which will manage global research covering consumer insights and analytics across North America, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America.

The team will be led by Joe Masucci, Director US Business Intelligence; Mike Atkin, Director US Research and Analytics; Jo Rigby, Director Research and Analytics EMEA; Angelica Ava, Director Research and Analytics Latin America; and Guy Hearn, Director Research and Analytics Asia Pacific.

Hearn recently joined from TNS where he was Director of Client Service and Insights for Singapore and Hong Kong. He was previously Group Account Director at Millward Brown.

Chairman and CEO Daryl Simm says research and analytics is a 'crucial component' to staying ahead of consumer trends and behaviours. 'We have made a significant investment in building this capability, including the development of a strong business intelligence team. The team's collective experience and expertise will give us a tremendous advantage in helping our clients achieve tangible business results,' he added.

During his time with OMD, Hess introduced a proprietary tool called Market Structure Prospector that links media research with advanced analytics from marketing research.

Prior to joining, he was Senior Vice President/Chief Research Officer with the NFO unit of TNS-NFO, and worked at agencies Promotion Decisions/Knowledge Networks, ACNielsen/BASES, and IRI, and clientside at Bristol-Myers Squibb and Clorox. He earned his MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, MA in Experimental Psychology from Columbia University, and BS in Psychology from Loyola University of Chicago.

He will not be replaced at OMD, and will be joining another agency as soon as the contract details are finalised.

Web sites: www.omnicomgroup.com and www.omd.com .