This article was originally published by Adweek.
George Manas joins from Omnicom’s Resolution Media and also takes on the title of president.
Manas’ duties will be to oversee and accelerate the media planning and buying agency’s digital capabilities across all planning, investment, data and analytics and operations platforms.
Omnicom Media Group (OMG)-owned OMD U.S. has named George Manas as its first chief media officer and president, effective April 1. He will join from OMG’s performance marketing division Resolution Media, where he was president, a role that allowed him to often work alongside OMD leadership and brand teams.
The appointment follows OMD’s recent decision to integrate performance marketing, data science and platform management capabilities at the account team level. Manas’ duties will be to oversee and accelerate the media planning and buying agency’s digital capabilities across all planning, investment, data and analytics and operations platforms, according to OMD.
“In a data- and technology-driven world, all marketing is increasingly performance marketing,” Manas said, commenting on the significance of being a performance marketing veteran chosen to lead a traditional media agency. “The digital ecosystem today is already one giant performance marketing ecosystem, whether you are in it to build your brand or to build your bottom line, or both. My job is to make sure our advanced digital and data capabilities are at the core of our overall digital services to clients and are outperforming their benchmarks.”
He said the majority of marketers’ investments in digital media are made in “audience-based targeting, personalized messaging and content, CRM and retail or response objectives,” adding that “in many ways, more and more so-called traditional marketing is starting to behave like performance marketing.”
“One of my major areas of focus is the digitization of video planning, buying and measurement,” Manas said. “One of my top agenda items [is] to make sure our teams are leveraging cutting-edge digital and data techniques to make video a lasting competitive advantage for our clients.”
Manas has been president of Resolution Media since 2016 and previously served as chief strategy officer for the group. Under his leadership, the agency experienced double-digit revenue growth and expanded beyond its New York and Chicago locations, opening additional offices in Dallas and Charlotte. Resolution Media also secured early access to premium programmatic video and connected TV offerings on Amazon Fire TV during his tenure, according to OMD.
Most recently, Manas also led Resolution Media’s expansion into ecommerce and emerging assistive marketing channels, including voice. He will report to OMD U.S. CEO John Osborn.
“As OMD continues to advance its digital and data-driven future at the core, we need expanded expertise at the leadership level,” Osborn said in a statement. “In his role as OMD’s performance marketing partner, George has been singularly agile and effective in creating platform solutions that drive business results for our clients and propel the relevancy of our go-to-market offer. From the moment we decided to add a future-proofing role at the executive level, George was the obvious choice and the right choice for the job.”
