Following its acquisition of IPG, Omnicom is streamlining its commerce media providing because it goals to compete with Publicis.
In the primary of a collection of modifications for Omnicom’s commerce media enterprise, the holding firm is transferring 40-year-old shopper advertising and marketing company TPN underneath the Flywheel banner.
TPN was based as The Promotion Network within the early Eighties in Dallas. Omnicom purchased the company in 2001. Now, it’ll be absorbed by Flywheel and the TPN model might be sundown.
Mike Feldman, svp of commerce for Flywheel, described the transfer as an effort towards “operational integration” somewhat than conventional consolidation. It’s a part of a wider effort to construct a “connected commerce solution” inside Omnicom, he mentioned, combining Flywheel’s 15 years of retail media knowledge with TPN’s 4 a long time of customer advertising and marketing work.
“By unifying shopper, brand, and retail media under one coordinated ecosystem, we will shape and elevate the new standard for how brands plan, activate, and measure across the entire commerce journey,” Alex McCord, CEO of Flywheel, mentioned in a press release.
As a part of the mixing, former TPN president Sarah Cunningham has been appointed to chief retail expertise officer at Flywheel, reporting on to McCord.
Phil Camarota, former chief inventive officer at Omnicom-owned company TracyLocke, is now chief inventive officer at Flywheel. Chris Rueckert, beforehand svp of commerce at TPN, moved to Flywheel in June and holds the identical title. At the time of writing, there have been no confirmed layoffs on account of the mixing.
“Transitioning TPN into Flywheel underscores Omnicom’s commitment to leading the next wave of connected commerce,” Duncan Painter, CEO of Flywheel Commerce Network and Omni, mentioned in a press release. Painter was beforehand CEO of Flywheel, and was tapped to guide Omnicom’s wider commerce apply following the IPG acquisition.
“The move marks a major milestone in Flywheel’s growth journey, combining TPN’s 40+ years or retail and creative expertise with Flywheel’s global scale in technology, data, and media to meet the rapidly changing needs of modern brands and shoppers,” Painter continued.
The change follows months of planning, Feldman mentioned. Flywheel can be transitioning to a pod construction following the addition of TPN, that means that groups might be organized round shoppers somewhat than round merchandise.
That’s required cross coaching all of Flywheel’s groups in order that workers can function strategic consultants throughout retail media, shopper advertising and marketing, ecommerce, product element pages, and extra, Feldman defined. That will enable these groups to higher adapt the company’s capabilities to the wants of the consumer somewhat than merely pulling levers — one thing that’ll solely change into extra vital as AI automates swaths of the media shopping for course of.