-By Steve McClellan

NEW YORK Digitas was one the largest independent digital shops in the U.S. when Publicis acquired it 18 months ago for $1.3 billion. Now, as part of a sweeping reorganization of Publicis Groupe's media assets, plans call for Digitas to evolve into a third global media brand, alongside Starcom MediaVest Group and ZenithOptimedia, with capabilities across the major media, including TV, outdoor and print.

"The real task is to build Digitas as a legitimate digitally centric brand that can extend into all media, so that clients like Delta can use Digitas for everything," said David Kenny, who up until last week was CEO of the agency.

As part of the reorganization, Kenny, 46, will now jointly oversee the Publicis media holdings as one of two managing partners of the holding company's new oversight arm, VivaKi, which supercedes Publicis Groupe Media, the management arm that Jack Klues had overseen as chairman since its inception in 2005. Klues, 53, was also named a managing partner of VivaKi. (The new name is supposed to convey the idea of life combined with energy force.)

While broadening the scope of the Digitas offering, the reorganization is also designed to give Publicis' traditional agencies -- both media and creative -- more effective tools for planning and buying space and creating campaigns in the digital world.

"It's certainly transformative for us and our clients," Klues said. "All media channels will be digital in the very near future. What we're trying to do is have an operation that plans and buys very discrete audiences, no matter where they go for their entertainment and information," as opposed to an array of analog and digital channels, he said.

According to Kenny, he and Klues thought long and hard about whether having two executives at the top of the entity would work. "It's kind of odd to have two people [at the top]; it's not normal," he said. "But the truth is we like each other and have totally different skills. He's much better at operations and making sure it all runs well. I'm more vision [focused] and working to get the technology right and the portals aligned. So I think it's a really good division between us. And there's a lot to be done, running today's business and building a bridge to the next two or three years. For now I think this is what we need."

"I was probably one of the grander proponents of it," Klues said. "It felt like there was a clear line of primary responsibility that David and I understood that played to our strengths."

Two weeks ago, the CEOs of every Publicis Groupe agency -- creative, media, digital and various marketing services specialists -- convened in Paris to be briefed on the reorganization plans, Kenny said. "We laid it out and talked about how each of their worlds change and how they can all leverage this new core platform," he said.

Although PGM was strictly a management arm comprised of fewer than 10 executives, VivaKi will manage the Publicis media shops but also house a major operating unit that has been dubbed the VivaKi Nerve Center, overseen by president Curt Hecht, former chief digital officer at SMG. One of its first projects: a digital ad platform, Audience on Demand, that enables clients to buy targeted audiences across Google, Yahoo, the Microsoft Network and AOL. Hecht reports to Kenney, as will Renetta McCann, who recently resigned as worldwide head of SMG, but who is staying on until the end of the year to oversee talent initiatives. According to Kenny, between 2,000 and 3,000 current employees will be "retrained" to adequately service the needs of VivaKi.

Meanwhile, the operating heads of the major Publicis media shops, including the CEOs of SMG, ZenithOptimedia, Digitas and Denuo -- Laura Desmond, Steve King, the newly appointed Laura Lang and Rishad Tobaccowala, respectively -- will report to Klues.