Omnicom Canada has combined the media buying functions of all its agency groups to form Optimum Media Direction Canada – a media-buying behemoth that will be responsible for total billings in excess of $900 million.
This is almost double the billings of its closest competitor, The Media Company/Media Buying Services of Toronto which reports billings of nearly $500 million annually.
Total annual media billings in Canada are more than $8 billion.
Ann Boden, currently executive vice-president and national media director of BBDO Canada and president of McKim Media Group, has been appointed president of OMD Canada.
Boden says that all the Canadian Omnicom agencies will keep their media departments for media planning, and in cases where there would be client conflict with omd, handle the buying as well.
Boden promises there will be no job losses because of the formation of omd. In fact, because a number of Omnicom agencies have recently won new business, Boden says the company is hiring.
OMD Canada will operate out of McKim Media Group’s current offices with the buyers from the various agencies moving in to replace the bbdo planners who will move into the advertising agency.
OMD Worldwide has been operating for about 18 months in Europe and Asia-Pacific with the largest office in France.
Boden says the plan is for omd to be the Omnicom Worldwide media brand and it will be introduced everywhere within a few years.
As for the reasons behind the formation of omd, Boden says there are three.
‘Right now you have three or four agencies having research department, media planning techniques, and that’s becoming very expensive. Now we can take all of those resources and develop better proprietary research products.’
Second, she says that there’s a need for global client servicing as multinational clients look for a single media service provider.
And finally, the changing media scene, not just in Canada but worldwide is also a major reason for large media buying operations.
‘Here in Canada there are a handful of media owners in every medium that have control of an increasingly fragmented media landscape,’ says Boden. ‘We think these owners will respond well to doing business with a $900 million buyer in Canada, which in turn will provide benefits to our clients.
‘There’s going to be a few worldwide media brands, and omd plans on being one of them.’
Canada’s Omnicom agencies include:
* BBDO Canada in Toronto with BBDO Retail and McKim Media Group; Lanyon Phillips BBDO in Vancouver; GeneratorIdeaWorks (formerly The Gaylord Group), Toronto; and PNMD Communication in Montreal;
* DDB Canada with Palmer Jarvis DDB in Toronto, Vancouver, Victoria, Edmonton and Winnipeg; Anderson Advertising in Toronto and Montreal; Griffin Bacal Volny in Toronto;
* TBWA Chiat/Day in Toronto and Tam Tam/TBWA in Montreal;
* Rapp Collins Communicaide, Toronto.
Omnicom media management company Harrison Young Pesonen & Newell will have a seat on the omd board but will continue to operate autonomously under current management.
