In a new analysis of global media agency groups from leading research and advisory firm Forrester (NASDAQ: FORR), Omnicom Media Group (OMG), the media services division of Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC), received the highest possible scores in several criteria. These include the retail media, commerce media, intelligence and insights, and optimization criteria, as well as the operations and innovation roadmap criteria.  

The Forrester Wave™: Global Media Management Services report analyzes the seven most significant global media management service providers against a 19-criterion evaluation across three categories: current offering, strategy, and market presence. Designed to help CMOs select the right provider for their needs, the report assesses the media groups under four designations: Leaders, Strong Performers, Contenders, and Challengers. What makes this research significant is that it provides marketers with a robust method to identify the best partner for them. In an era when marketing experiences rapid transformation, this is one relationship that has a crucial impact on performance and profitability.

With the highest possible scores in six criteria, and with the highest score in the current offering category, Omnicom Media Group was one of only two providers among the seven evaluated to earn the designation of a “Leader” in the report. 

Describing OMG as “a good fit for advertisers that require bespoke, technology-literate, global media teams”, the report also noted that “… the agency scales consumer empathy and understanding into quantifiable attention metrics against which advertisers can plan, buy, and measure. To achieve this vision, the company deploys its Omni audience planning portal to power better audience, client, and employee experiences.”

The report also states that “OMG’s strength lies in initiatives to innovate its Omni portals, such as customized client workflow integrations, audience data integrations; marketing automation partnerships with Google; and efforts to unite media, e-commerce, and shopper tactics.”

This finding is borne out by a steady drumbeat of first-mover product and partnership announcements from OMG in 2022, including a multi-year agreement with Affinity Solutions to integrate retailer purchase transactions into Omni; an enterprise-wide partnership with Firework, the world’s largest live stream commerce and shoppable video platform, to  deliver live stream shopping solutions directly to Omnicom clients’ websites; the industry’s first programmatic marketplace for point-of-purchase screens; and the Supply Chain IQ Score, which gives media planners day-to-day visibility into SKU inventory data at the physical store, digital shelf, and inventory-in-transit levels, enabling media investment to be shifted away from low inventory products in real-time.

Most recently, OMG was headline news at last month’s  Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, announcing a series of first-mover strategic partnerships with retail media networks including Walmart  Connect,  Instacart, and Kroger Precision Marketing.

“As the only agency group to have earned the highest possible score in all three of the criteria that we believe best represent the future of media investment and management – retail media, commerce media, and intelligence & insights – and as a group that also received the highest possible scores in two criteria that we think are critical differentiators in selecting an agency partner –operations and an innovation road map – OMG is clearly a leader in today’s marketplace,” says OMG CEO Florian Adamski. “More importantly, as we continue to expand our capabilities and automate our infrastructure, and to build new products and partnerships, we are assuring that we and our clients will remain leaders –   today, tomorrow and beyond.”