• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, February 26, 2014

Omnicom Media Group’s data management division Annalect has hired three senior executives to help kick off an aggressive new marketing phase for the group’s products and services to agencies and clients across the holding company.

The hires come as Annalect continues to roll out globally. In January, it launched its Data Management Platform with major hubs now in place in the U.S., UK and China.

“We’re really starting to talk to clients about Annalect’s tools and capabilities in ways we haven’t before,” said Erin Matts, CMO of the unit. “It marks a change in the way we manage client business.”

That’s true of the agencies within Omnicom as well, where the focus has been on media shops. That will now expand to the holding company’s entire portfolio of agencies. Many of the unit’s products and services can help creative shops develop insights to craft more effective ads, Matts said.

Meryl Haslach has joined the group as director of strategic partnerships, and is tasked with talking to Omnicom agencies and specialist firms outside of Omnicom Media Group about how the data division’s products can work for them and their clients. Previously, she was director of brand strategy and client solutions, at Glam Media.

On the client side, up to now, the division’s project managers have been doing most of the liaison work with clients. Going forward, it will be product marketing specialists and Annalect client managers that will handle the group’s relationships with clients, said Matts.

For example, Nina Dahiya has signed on as client solutions director and is charged with developing customized data solutions for Omnicom’s global Nissan and Pepsi accounts. Previously, Dahiya was head of CRM, strategy and analytics at JWT’s Team Mazda in Los Angeles.  Annalect will be hiring additional managers who will be dedicated to other major clients.

Also signed up is Greg Bayer, as global director of product management. He was previously senior vice president, products, at ad exchange PulsePoint, where he was responsible for product, marketing and analytics. Bayer will lead Annalect’s product development effort and go-to-market strategy for the firm’s portfolio of products and services.

Matts herself rejoined Omnicom last August to take on the newly created Annalect CMO role. Earlier, she was chief digital officer at Omnicom media shop OMD. As Annalect CMO, she has been tasked with directing all sales and marketing efforts for the division worldwide.

The company’s DMP provides campaign performance reporting and audience targeting capabilities on a single global platform.  According to Matts, a big selling point is that Omnicom’s DMP is not connected to third-party buying platforms. That approach protects client’s data from being used to inform competitors’ programmatic investments, the company asserts.

Established three years ago, Annalect has grown to 450 employees in 60 markets, with hubs in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, London, Singapore and Gurgaon, India.