History
In 1986, Allen Rosenshine, Keith Reinhard, and John Bernbach (son of William Bernbach) co-created Omnicom in a three-way merger of BBDO Worldwide, Doyle Dane Bernbach, and Needham Harper Worldwide.[8][9][10] In 1989, Rosenshine stepped down as chairman of Omnicom to return to his role running BBDO Worldwide, and Bruce Crawford (who had preceded Rosenshine as CEO of BBDO before leaving to run the Metropolitan Opera in 1985) was named chairman of Omnicom.[11] In 1997, John Wren, the number two executive at Omnicom, became the company's chief executive officer, while Crawford remained as chairman.[12]
In July 2013, it was announced that Publicis Groupe and Omnicom Group would merge to form Publicis Omnicom Group. However, in May 2014, it was announced that the deal had fallen through and the Publicis-Omnicom merger would not happen.[13][14]
By 2014, Omnicom was the second-largest agency holding company and had revenue of over $15 billion.[15] Omnicom launched Omniwomen in April 2014 with the goal of increasing the number and influence of female leaders within the organization. Omniwomen has more than 10 branches in the US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, China, and the UAE.[16][17]
In July 2017, Omnicom announced that Gracia Martore, former President and CEO of TEGNA Inc., had joined its Board as an independent director. Her appointment brought the total to 13 directors, 11 of which were independent.[18] In February 2018, Ronnie S. Hawkins was appointed to the company's board as an independent director, bringing the total to 14 members, 12 of which were independent.[19] In May 2018, Omnicom Group brought its language strategy agency, maslansky + partners, to Australia.[20]
In November 2021, Daryl Simm was promoted to president and COO.[21][22] The next month, Florian Adamski was announced as the next CEO of Omnicom Media Group, after previously working as CEO at OMD Worldwide.[23]
In October 2023, Omnicom acquired E-Commerce company, Flywheel Digital for $835 million.[24] Flywheel was previously a subsidiary of U.K.-based Ascential.[24]
In December 2024, Omnicom Group and Interpublic Group (IPG) announced advanced merger discussions.[25] On the New York Stock Exchange, the new firm would keep the Omnicom name and trade as "OMC," with John Wren as chairman and CEO of Omnicom and Phil Angelastro as chief financial officer and executive vice president.[26] In June 2025, the FTC approved Omnicom's acquisition of Interpublic for $13.5 billion, subject to a consent decree prohibiting the merged company from employing third-party services that evaluate media outlets based on “viewpoints as to the veracity of news reporting” and “adherence to journalistic standards or ethics"—a condition targeting media watchdog services such as NewsGuard.[27][28][29][30][31]
