Omnicom Group

Omnicom Group, Inc. is an American-based global marketing and corporate communications holding company, headquartered in New York City. Omnicom's branded networks and specialty firms provide services in four disciplines: advertising, customer relationship management (CRM), public relations and specialty services. The services included in these disciplines are media planning and buying, digital and interactive marketing, sports and events marketing, field marketing and brand consultancy. Omnicom Group was ranked as one of the four largest advertising agencies in the world by The New York Times in 2002. In 2014, Omnicom was considered the second largest advertising holding company by The Wall Street Journal. The company employs more than 74,000 employees in about 100 countries worldwide.

History

In 1986, Allen Rosenshine, Keith Reinhard and John Bernbach co-created Omnicom in a three-way merger of BBDO Worldwide, Doyle Dane Bernbach and Needham Harper Worldwide. Dubbed the "Big Bang", the merger aligned each agency on the founding principle of creativity. In 1989, Rosenshine stepped down as chairman of Omnicom to return to his role running BBDO Worldwide and Bruce Crawford was put in place as the chairman of Omnicom. In 1997, John Wren, the number two executive at Omnicom, moved up to the CEO role, while Crawford remained as a chairman. Under Wren, the company has grown into the second largest agency holding company and had revenue of over $15 billion in 2014.