SAP moves media account to group level after 5 years with PHD

Software company SAP has appointed Omnicom Media Group (OMG), the media services division of Omnicom Group as its media agency network-of-record. OMG is tasked to support SAP marketing’s global paid media planning and buying activities. Previously, SAP’s media business had been with OMG’s PHD Worldwide since 2015. The current PHD team will continue to support SAP through the transition period until end 2020.

The decision follows an extensive review in which OMG presented North Star, a customised media unit that draws talent, tools and technology from the entire Omnicom Media Group network  as a solution to continue the acceleration of SAP’s unified customer and brand experience. Supported by the Omni operating system, North Star enables innovative and meaningful end-to-end consumer experiences that drive better business outcomes.  

Initiated by SAP global CMO, Alicia Tillman, the company remains confident in Omnicom Media Group’s capabilities, tools and data-led approach to help SAP grow its brand value, modernise its marketing capabilities to deliver innovative and the broader markets it serves. “Since 2016, we have grown our brand value over US$18B and this new agency partnership will support our vision of executing in a more innovative, agile, flexible and efficient way for the continued benefit of our customers, stakeholders and for SAP’s global ecosystem,” Tillman said.

Florian Adamski, CEO of OMD Worldwide who led the cross-network pitch team said with North Star, the company was expanding the foundation built by PHD over the past five years. He added that the company could create a re-envisioned solution, including a connected, cross-agency operational network that enabled a global vision for media while maintaining local specificity and execution; delivered a seamless experience across media and creative; and assured data flexibility and transparency.

Separately, in January this year, SAP appointed Rachel Barger  as president and managing director of SAP SEA. Barger was responsible for driving SAP Southeast Asia’s strategy and execution, leading customer operations, accelerating customer transformation into enterprises, as well as building customer value and success in the region. Additionally, it entered an extensive go-to-market partnership with Microsoft from conceptualisation to sales, to boost customer adoption of the enterprise resource planning (ERP) software SAP S/4HANA and SAP Cloud Platform on Microsoft Azure. 

Meanwhile, SAP also recently announced its intent to take Qualtrics public through an initial public offering (IPO) in the United States. It's primary objective for the IPO was to fortify Qualtrics’ ability to capture its full market potential within Experience Management. This would help to increase Qualtrics’ autonomy and enable it to expand its footprint both within SAP’s customer base and beyond.

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