Omnicom’s roughly 74,900 employees globally will switch to a unified email format—’firstname.lastname@omc.com’—regardless of the agency brand they work for, according to an internal email obtained by ADWEEK.
“As you may already be aware, Omnicom has been focused on bringing together the unique strengths of our agency brands with the streamlined support of shared operations to create a more nimble organization,” Craig Cuyar, Omnicom’s senior vice president and global CIO, wrote in a memo to staff. “As part of this, we are simplifying our IT approach by uniting our organization under a single, unified email address.”
Omnicom said agencies will maintain their brand identities in other ways across IT systems, including “display names and email signatures.”
The move comes as the holding company moves closer to completing its acquisition of IPG, expected to be finalized in the second half of 2025.
Industry insiders have predicted the acquisition will likely lead to consolidation and elimination of legacy creative agency brands on both sides. However, sources familiar with the matter told ADWEEK the change is part of Omnicom’s wider push to centralize functions such as HR, finance, production, and technology to drive efficiency, rather than a move towards consolidating agency brands.
Omnicom told staff the email update would “simplify our operations, strengthen our data security, and make it easier for us to collaborate across the network.”
A phased roll-out
Currently, employees at Omnicom’s agencies—such as OMD, BBDO, and PHD—often have multiple email addresses depending on the clients they serve. Omnicom said the shift would not only simplify its IT infrastructure but eliminate the “thousands” of domains currently in use.
The company has already begun this transition with several groups and agencies and will continue its phased roll-out, migrating all Omnicom employees over the next few months.
Where rivals, including WPP, are sunsetting legacy agencies, Omnicom CEO John Wren and IPG boss Philippe Krakowsky told agency search consultants during a meeting in February that they don’t plan to kill off existing agency brands.
“They did very solidly answer that they didn’t go into this thinking they were going to reduce the number of brands,” one consultant told ADWEEK at the time.
