OMD to Become Sixth Key Piece Of Omnicom Pie

Omnicom Group’s hiring of Procter & Gamble media maven Daryl Simm, and its pending acquisition of GGT, portends the expansion of the holding company’s Optimum Media Direction unit into the U.S. and Canada.
Omnicom, which would acquire Advanswers (the media buying arm of Wells BDDP) with its purchase of parent GGT, intends to build OMD into the sixth main component of the holding company, said chief executive officer John Wren.
OMD would join Omnicom’s three agency networks–BBDO Worldwide, TBWA International and DDB Needham Worldwide–as well as new media group Communicade and Diversified Agency Services, which houses a number of marketing services firms, as a key operating division of Omnicom.
“Media by itself will be a major business in the next several years and, following a consolidation, there will only be three or four major players worldwide.