Wunderman creates global data job

Wunderman has followed WPP sister agency Ogilvy & Mather by creating the role of global chief data officer, handing the post to the boss of its KBM division, Gary Laben.
In his new role, Laben will report to Wunderman chief executive Mark Read but also will remain CEO of KBM. More than 25% of WPP’s annual income already comes from what boss Sir Martin Sorrell calls “data investment management” for clients.
Laben has been briefed with boosting the agency’s data assets, data management and analytics practices to provide creative marketing support to its clients and will work alongside global chief creative officer Lincoln Bjorkman.
Read, who succeeded Daniel Morel in January, said: “Our strategy is to combine creativity and data to drive results for our clients. Today, with the growth of platforms like Facebook and Twitter and the explosion of data, the world is coming full circle and all marketing is becoming what Lester Wunderman termed ‘direct marketing’ over 50 years ago.”
Laben started his career at Experian, becoming vice president of marketing and business development before joining Wunderman 15 years ago; he was president of data insights until he took up the KBM role in June 2000.
Sister agency O&M appointed former Acxiom boss Todd Cullen as its first chief data officer 18 months ago, and has since set up a division called OgilvyAmp, which has a team of more than 300 data and analytics professionals across the network.
OgilvyAmp already works with WPP’s Data Alliance division, which includes KBM, GroupM, Kantar, and WPP Digital.