Promoted
LinkedIn

OMG’s Dan Clays on advertising and its economic recovery

The CEO of Omnicom Media Group UK says rebuilding confidence and innovation in media is vital to re-establishing growth – and he’s investing in tech and talent to make it happen

OMG’s Dan Clays on advertising and its economic recovery

Amid the political debates and discussions about how society moves forward from the pandemic, there’s one factor you won’t have heard too much about. Members of the mainstream press don’t write many columns about innovation and ROI in media spend and advertising. According to Dan Clays, they should probably start. 

“You can typically link the economic performance of a country to the advertising investment levels that you’re seeing,” says Clays. “It’s critical right now for driving economic recovery, as it enables our clients to grow and helps them to pivot into new areas.” 

It’s not just spend levels that Clays is focused on. He argues that the post-pandemic opportunity for marketers and their media agencies isn’t limited to rebounding budgets or the scale of investment – but the strategy that sits behind it. A new respect for effectively navigating the media landscape is helping drive deeper client relationships and expanding the scope of how the profession creates growth. It’s a crucial opportunity. But, to fully grasp it, agencies themselves will need to evolve.

Marketing: the fourth emergency service
“One of our clients was referring to their marketing function becoming the fourth emergency service for their business during the pandemic – critical for business intelligence and identifying where they could pivot to,” says Clays. “There’s a lot of confidence in the need for media and marketing investment to drive growth and it’s also true that client relationships for agencies became even stronger over the past two years. As a client, if you’ve got trust in that relationship, the chances are you’ll be interested in other capabilities the agency can provide. It’s the ability to think about media in new and different ways that makes this really exciting. We’ve got a roadmap – but we’ve got to make sure we have the human capital to execute it.”

Clays has identified both enabling talent to thrive and securing the right breadth of talent as the top priorities for OMG UK going forward. He’s focused on creating a new approach to developing and building the skills that his agency teams need.

“How do we make sure we’ve got the right amount of talent and the right kind of talent in emerging areas, in a market that’s recovering very quickly and where the breadth and diversity of services we supply is growing?” he asks. 

“How can we ensure that our people are able and equipped to help our clients on their transformation journeys? And also that we create the time for them to develop those skills in a fast paced market? 

“There are a lot of different strategies that we’re putting in place to resource-up: identifying people in other industries with the potential to upskill and transfer over to media, reaching out to parts of society who may have never considered a career in our industry. It’s critical that we provide a really great development opportunity. 

“We also need to make sure we’re thinking about the long-term wellbeing of our staff. Everyone across OMG has been incredibly resilient over the past two years – but we need to make sure our approach to the future of work retains and attracts talent to our industry. And we need to continue to focus on being as diverse and inclusive as possible, as that will unquestionably make us a better business.”

Enabling a diverse range of candidates to enter and thrive in the media industry isn’t just about reviewing HR processes. Clays sees investment in technology as key to elevating the experience of working for OMG UK. It frees up employees at all levels for higher-value tasks that can help deliver the expertise clients now demand.

Every agency employee should thrive
“We are onboarding more automation that’s going to give our talent more time to add strategic value,” says Clays. “We’ve spent a lot of time and resources on building a new platform called Omni, which houses all the tools and applications for a more data-driven approach to everything from building audiences to activation. It plugs into our clients’ systems to make our workflow as frictionless as possible. 

“Clients are looking to agencies to provide a wider variety of services, but they want to talk directly to the experts that can add value, without a layer of middle management clogging things up.”

One area Clays sees as fertile ground for such strategic value is the often-unmapped part of the buying journey that spans the space between brand and demand. He believes that an innovative, data-driven approach to customer experience can help to multiply the impact of media spend.

“We are seeing so much value for clients now from activity that bridges the area between traditional brand advertising and conversion and maintains always-on salience,” he says. “That’s why customer experience is one of the most important areas of focus. The level of insight we now have means we can connect audiences’ needs with the helpful, useful or inspiring content and experiences that brands can provide. Some of the best work from brands such as McDonald’s and Nike has been in this space. Investment in brand and conversion activity will be that much more effective if you’re driving these incremental gains in the middle of the funnel.”

New customer needs for new experiences – and a measurable business impact that comes from meeting them. The economic recovery following the pandemic could involve some intriguing differences in how brands engage with their audiences and create value. If Clays has any say, media and advertising will be at the heart of it.

For more insights from visionary Marketing Leaders check out LinkedIn’s CMO Corner

Topics