Alan Morrissey promoted to VP, Data Strategy, UK at WPP Media. Alan Morrissey has been promoted to Vice President, Data Strategy, UK at WPP Media, taking on an expanded leadership role focused on data strategy within the media organization. The promotion comes as data continues to play a central role in how advertisers plan, activate, measure, and optimize media. With marketers working across increasingly fragmented channels, the ability to connect audience insights, media data, measurement, and business objectives has become an important part of modern media strategy. In his new role, Morrissey will focus on data strategy in the UK, operating within a media environment where first-party data, analytics, artificial intelligence, and privacy considerations are reshaping how brands approach audiences. The growing use of AI is also changing data strategy. Media organizations are exploring AI for audience analysis, forecasting, campaign optimization, reporting, and decision-making. At the same time, marketers continue to address questions around data quality, governance, privacy, and the appropriate use of automated insights. Data strategy is becoming particularly important as advertisers manage campaigns across digital, social, programmatic, connected TV, commerce media, and other channels. Bringing data from these different environments together can help marketing teams develop a more consistent understanding of audiences and campaign performance. For media agencies, this also means that data leadership increasingly sits at the intersection of technology, analytics, media planning, and client strategy. Data professionals are expected not only to manage information but also to translate it into insights that can support marketing decisions. Morrissey's promotion reflects this broader evolution in media organizations, where data has moved from a supporting function toward a more strategic role in planning and decision-making. The appointment also comes as advertisers place greater emphasis on measurement and effectiveness. With marketing budgets under continued scrutiny, brands are increasingly looking for clearer connections between media activity, audience engagement, and business outcomes. For the wider MarTech and AdTech ecosystem, Morrissey's expanded role highlights the growing importance of data strategy as media becomes more technology-driven and AI-enabled.

Dentsu expands and consolidates its commerce and retail media offering under new leadership. As it works under new corporate leadership at a holding company level and regionally in the Americas, Dentsu is narrowly focusing on expanding and consolidating its commerce media offerings. To that end, Digiday has learned that Dentsu has hired Aisha Khan away from WPP Media to helm the offering as head of retail & commerce for Dentsu North America. Khan most recently was executive director of retail media and digital commerce for that holdco's Unilever client. One reason for that move: the commerce media and retail media worlds continue to grow at impressive rates. Brian Wieser's Madison & Wall recently noted that commerce media in the U.S. grew by 25% year-over-year in 2Q26 (excluding political ad revenue), just up from 24% growth in 1Q26, "reinforcing its position as one of the fastest-growing parts of the advertising industry," Wieser wrote on August 20. Beth Ann Kaminkow, CEO of Dentsu Americas who also is the holdco's chief global client officer, explained that Dentsu has the right pieces in place for a concerted commerce and retail media offering but needed the right leadership to help it all gel effectively for clients that reach that world including Dick's Sporting Goods and Dollar General. Kaminkow in the last month brought aboard Jen Bryce as evp of strategic commerce media accounts - also a new position - as well as Jason O'Toole as evp, head of commerce & retail media activation. Both have client side experience, as does Khan. Kaminkow has a bit of an eye for the discipline given her last role at WPP's VML where she was global chief commerce officer, as well as CEO of the New York office, before joining Dentsu 15 months ago. She's definitely looking to bring more consumer-driven insight to the holdco's commerce media abilities, which is in part why all the hires she made have brand-side experience. But the advent of AI to influence how its commerce/retail media offering is shaped played a role as well, she said. "We're able to build [the unit] in a more AI-native way," Kaminkow explained. "What we think our current client demands and future client demands are as they in-house - what needs to be owned internally in their own organizations - and then as they look at, a new path to purchase, if you will. If you think about direct-to-consumer commerce capability, retail media network capability, media commerce capability, and then what we do through TAG, we're bringing these systems together in a more cohesive way, but in something that really reflects the needs of the future and how they need to grow their businesses." Dentsu's identity abilities drew Khan to Dentsu, she said, but she plans to flip the script on how to approach consumers and build beyond legacy models. "There's so much ability and capability to build new solutions, but we have so many existing pockets of excellence at Dentsu, and so we're not here to recreate connected commerce, total commerce," said Khan, whose tenure includes stints at L'Oréal and Kenvue. "I've spent most of my career orchestrating tactics around across channels. I think Dentsu can leapfrog that model completely and focus instead on the consumer, the connected consumer. So organizing every channel around the consumer rather than organizing the consumer around channels." "The future of commerce belongs to organizations that are built around consumer needs rather than channel silos," said David Young, vp of Dick's Media Network, the retail media network owned by Dick's Sporting Goods, which is a Dentsu client. "The ability to connect insights, activation, and measurement across touchpoints helps create a more relevant experience for consumers while driving stronger business outcomes." Kaminkow believes there's the potential to gain on holdco competitors as a fringe benefit of assembling Dentsu's assets under new leadership. "There are inherent tensions in the big holdcos, especially when you had such deep shopper marketing capability living next to the media capability," she said. "Despite what they say in all three of the big ones, there are still huge chasms of understanding and of connectedness in in how you operate and what you deliver for the client." Time will tell if Dentsu is able to use that as a means of closing the gap with those big three through its commerce offering. But Khan is a believer, at least at the outset of her tenure. "Having worked at multiple holdcos now - I think is my fourth one - what makes Dentsu different is that the entire organization is rallying around me, around this ambition, around Dentsu Commerce. There's no friction."

Pratik Thakkar elevated to Vice President - Client Services, India at WPP Media. He was previously serving as Senior Director - Client Leadership WPP Media has elevated Pratik Thakkar to Vice President, Client Services, India. He was previously serving as Senior Director - Client Leadership at the company. "To everyone who has worked alongside me, taught me, questioned me, and cheered me on over these ten years, this milestone belongs to you as much as it does to me," he wrote in his LinkedIn post. Over the years, he has worked across brand, performance marketing, D2C growth and integrated media. Before joining WPP Media, Thakkar was associated with GreenHonchos. Earlier in his career, he worked with ANS Commerce, Softsens Baby, Mattel and FirstCry.com (BrainBees Solutions), among others.