Digitas US CEO Laura Lang will get a more global view from her office window as she steps up to become CEO of the worldwide Digitas agency and its 21 offices in eight countries.
The move came about after Digitas owner Publicis Group tapped Lang’s boss, David Kenny, to become one of the managing partners heading up a new unit to provide digital operations to all the Publicis agencies.
The new division, dubbed VivaKi, will be a single point of contact for agencies looking to employ the digital expertise of such Publicis companies as Starcom Mediavest, Zenith Optimedia and online consultant Denuo, as well as Digitas.
Kenny will share leadership of the new unit with Jack Klues, who will retain his post as CEO of Publicis Groupe Media. Klues will lead a technology group within the new operating division tasked with creating tools and forging partnerships with online players such as Google and AOL that will permit easier rollout and more centralized management of global interactive campaigns.
Kenny was named chief digital strategy officer for Publicis shortly after the Paris-based holding company bought Boston-based Digitas in 2006. He will retain that title in his new post.
Lang joined Digitas in 1999 as head of the New York office and has served as CEO of Digitas USA since 2004. The month, the agency was named Agency of the Year in the annual Promo 100 ranking for its cutting-edge work with interactive campaigns
Speaking at the time of the award, Lang stressed the importance of being able to offer integrated worldwide campaign management as Digitas and now Publicis, with the VivaKi unit, can do.
“So many of our clients are big international marketers that it makes us very relevant to them,” she said. “We’re able to understand how things are operating overseas, get consumer insights and operate on a global scale.”
Under Lang’s leadership, Digitas USA has gained experience in linking up with other Publicis holdings to provide unified services. Earlier this year the agency announced it would integrate with Leo Burnett and Starcom Mediavest to form an operating group called The Insight Factory, with the aim of coordinating the handling of accounts that use the services of all three firms under the leadership of a single manager.
Before joining Digitas, Lang worked in marketing consultancy, both as president of Marketing Corporation of America and with Yankelovich Clancy Shulman.
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