Omnicom's betting on building its own data expertise even as its rivals spend billions on data providers: 'It de-risks our business'

Jonathan Nelson.JPG

Ad agencies are under pressure to differentiate their services with more data-based offerings that dig into analytics and consumer insight.
Omnicom unveiled Omni, a central tool available to all of its agencies that pulls in third-party data from companies like Salesforce, LiveRamp and The Trade Desk.
The move comes a week after Interpublic Group acquired Acxiom Marketing Services for $2.3 billion, showing how the battle for data is heating up among ad holding companies.

The battle for advertising agencies to get their hands on consumer data and use it in intriguing ways continues. On Thursday, ad giant Omnicom Group revealed Omni, a data platform that allows the company's shops — which include BBDO, OMD Worldwide and DDB — to access gobs of third-party data.

The tool allows any of its agencies to search for creative images, create audiences for ad targeting, buy media, and track campaign results. According to Jonathan Nelson, CEO of Omnicom Digital, the tool has been in the works for several years and was developed by Annalect, Omnicom's data marketing group.

"This is the first time that we've stitched it all together," he said. "Think of it as being audience-first [with] insights going out to two primary audiences — one is media and the other is creative."

About 100 third-party vendors that Omnicom works with are part of Omni, including Google, Neustar, The Trade Desk, LiveRamp, Adobe and Salesforce, he added.

Agencies are under increasing pressure to beef up their data capabilities and expertise as more advertisers demand results and face new competition from consultancies like Accenture Interactive and Deloitte. Last week, Interpublic Group announced plans to acquire Acxiom's data-marketing group for $2.3 billion in cash while Dentsu owns Merkle. And WPP assembled an initiative called mPlatform in 2016.

With GDPR and new regulation looming, Omnicom is keeping its distance from owning data

Unlike IPG's decision to go all-in on data through the acquisition of Acxiom, Omnicom's strategy is to build expertise in-house and set up deals with multiple vendors. Those relationships keep Omnicom a neutral player for agencies, according to Nelson.

"We don't make investments at all in our data providers — we think it de-risks our business," he said. "If a technology isn't working, we swap it out. There's no conflict there."

Up until now, Omnicom clients have either leaned on its Precision Marketing Group — the agency's digital and CRM arm — or Annalect to handle such work, Nelson said.

Omni is designed to be an "open architecture" that can supply many types of data that clients want to use. And with new privacy regulations like Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) going into place, Nelson said that third parties are responsible for supplying it with clean data.

"We're trying to understand what it is and how to comply," he said. "We try to figure out where the 'fuzzy' line ends and then back up a few steps."

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