Nick Garrett tipped to lead combined Omnicom group
Garrett was a former winner of the Mumbrella Awards Leader of the Year
Omnicom Media Group and Omnicom Advertising Group will be brought together and led by Nick Garrett, according to a report in The Australian. The report led with the news that Omnicom was preparing to acquire all of the Clemenger Group.
The acquisition would see Omnicom’s ownership of Clemenger Group go from 86.84% to the full 100%. Shareholders will vote on a deal on June 30. It would provide the global advertising giant with full ownership of all the agencies under the Omnicom Advertising Group structure.
OAG is headed up by Aussie expat Troy Ruhanen as its global CEO. The structure went live on January 1.
Former Omnicom talent Nick Garrett is tipped to lead a corresponding Oceania structure planned for this part of the world.
Garrett speaking at a Mumbrella event
Garrett has spent a total of 16 years with Omnicom, working across its various creative agencies. He was CEO of NZ-based Colenso BBDO before taking on the CEO gig at Clemenger BBDO.
Since 2021, however, he has been at Deloitte, where he was most recently global CMO of Deloitte Digital. He quietly departed Deloitte in February this year.
His appointment at Omnicom would match local management operations by rival holdcos Publicis Groupe and Dentsu. Publicis Groupe ANZ is led by CEO Michael Rebelo, while Dentsu ANZ is led by CEO Patricio De Matteis.
Omnicom’s potential local management structure is conditional, however, on the Clemenger Group negotiations.
Mumbrella understands there is some discontent in the group following the Clemenger BBDO, Chep Network, and Traffik merger earlier this year.
The three agencies consolidated to form the new Clemenger BBDO, led by Chep’s former CEO Lee Leggett.
As a result of the consolidation’s inevitable restructure, several senior leaders have departed in recent months, including Chep’s CCO Gavin McLeod and CSO Lilian Sor, and Clemenger BBDO’s CEO Dani Bassil, CCO Adrián Flores, and chief growth officer Anita Zanesco.
Clemenger BBDO’s chief media officer, Anna Cherry, is the latest to announce her departure, joining Bastion Media as its new managing director.
A small number of redundancies have also occurred in the months that have followed.
While these negotiations continue, Omnicom is also preparing to merge with IPG following the acquisition announced last year. The deal is subject to regulatory approvals in markets including Australia and New Zealand. The combined advertising giant would retain the Omnicom name. If Garrett was in situ at the time of the approval, he would be expected to head up the expanded post-acquisition Omnicom.
Locally, the ACCC opened a review into the proposal and will release its preliminary findings on July 24.
Omnicom declined to comment when approached by Mumbrella.
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