Vice President

Omnicom Health merges DDB Health, The Purpose Group to create Remedy Edge. Remedy Edge will be led by Jennie Fischette, who has served as CEO of DDB Health since November 2021. NEW YORK: Omnicom Health has merged DDB Health and The Purpose Group to create Remedy Edge. The holding company told MM+M this week that it is combining DDB Health's HCP marketing expertise with The Purpose Group's "award-winning patient centricity and knowledge" to create a full-service agency offering. Remedy Edge will be led by Jennie Fischette, who has served as CEO of DDB Health since November 2021. Prior to that, she served as president of the Omnicom subsidiary for five-and-a-half years. Fischette will lead Remedy Edge in partnership with Michael Schreiber, who has served as managing partner and chief creative officer of DDB Health since its founding in June 2016. Omnicom Health Group launched DDB Health in mid-2016 after merging agencies AgencyRx, Flashpoint, DDB Health Germany, DDB Health Paris and Synergy. Now, Omnicom is merging it with The Purpose Group as part of the latest internal organizational restructuring following the closure of its acquisition of IPG this month. The newly formed entity will be powered by Omni, the holding company's advanced intelligence platform. "What excites me most about Remedy Edge is the chance to empower our incredible teams to do their best work in a culture built on trust and collaboration," Fischette said in a statement. "As we combine the talent, creativity and strategic insight of Purpose Group and DDB Health, we're not just evolving an agency; we're setting a new standard for how health communication can truly make a difference." Fischette's tenure atop DDB Health has been defined by continued growth, both in terms of client roster and topline performance. Following back-to-back years of double-digit growth, DDB Health achieved $100 million in revenue for the first time in 2024, won five clients and launched 10 products. As the IPG takeover entered its final stages, speculation arose about the fate of the DDB network in a new-look Omnicom. Campaign UK, reported in late October that Omnicom would look to scale back DDB network, which accounts for more than 90 offices in more than 40 countries, amid a "rigorous" review of brands. Meanwhile, the Purpose Group comprised CDM, Patients & Purpose as well as Science & Purpose. The latter two agencies reported topline growth in 2024, including MM+M-estimated revenues of $74 million and $28 million, respectively. (MM+M and Campaign are PRWeek's sister business media brands at Haymarket Media). As part of the restructuring, Omnicom merged Patients & Purpose, Harrison Star and TBWA\WorldHealth, which folded in July, into DDB Health prior to rebranding. Notably, former CEO of The Purpose Group Deb Deaver will now serve as CEO of the Consumer and Healthcare Professional division at Omnicom. Dana Maiman, the recently appointed CEO of Omnicom Health, added that Remedy Edge reflects the ambition of Omnicom Health: "to give clients a single, connected partner that can lead in a fast-changing landscape." "By uniting patient-first and HCP expertise and powering all with the data and intelligence of Omnicom, we're strengthening our ability to deliver smarter, more innovative solutions that drive meaningful transformation in health," Maiman stated. Omnicom's PR firms include The Weber Shandwick Collective, Golin, FleishmanHillard, Ketchum, Porter Novelli and MMC.

Close of omnicom-interpublic megamerger brings new health CEO, 4K layoffs. Almost exactly a year after Omnicom and Interpublic Group announced their plans to merge into the world's largest advertising agency, their combination is complete. Following the deal's Nov. 26 close, Omnicom on Monday outlined the structure of the newly combined company, including leaders appointed throughout "the new Omnicom." Among them is Dana Maiman, who has been tapped to lead Omnicom Health. As CEO of the agency's health-focused arm, Maiman will oversee its healthcare professional and consumer, medical communications, patient engagement and managed markets divisions. Meanwhile, also amid the combination, Omnicom plans to lay off around 4,000 employees across the entire organization, AdWeek reports. Omnicom did not immediately respond to a Fierce Pharma Marketing request for comment on the layoffs. Maiman takes on the top spot at Omnicom Health after holding the same title at Interpublic's IPG Health since its creation in 2021. Before that, she was CEO and president of the FCB Health Network - which was ultimately merged with McCann Health to create IPG Health. Just a few weeks after Omnicom and Interpublic first unveiled the acquisition plans last December, Matt McNally, then the CEO of Omnicom Health Group, announced he'd be stepping down, later surfacing as global CEO of Publicis Health. Another Omnicom Health exec followed a similar path soon after, as chief marketing officer Craig Romanok left in May and was named chief commercial officer at Publicis' Digitas Health a month later. Since McNally's departure, Michael Larson had been serving as interim CEO of Omnicom Health; under the post-merger structure, Larson has been named CEO of diversified agency services, with Maiman among his direct reports. The close of Omnicom's $13.5 billion acquisition of Interpublic was nearly a year in the making, following antitrust reviews by regulators around the globe - the last of which came from the European Commission just last week. The combined company now boasts annual revenues of more than $25 billion, per Omnicom, including billions in the realm of health and pharma. The 4,000 layoffs are already in progress and join the approximately 3,000 employees each that Omnicom and Interpublic have shed throughout the last year. The 10,000 cuts reportedly amount to about 8% of the two agencies' combined 2024 headcount and are meant to fulfill the hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of "synergies" promised in the initial merger announcement last year, by reducing newly redundant and unnecessary positions, Omnicom CEO John Wren told AdWeek.