• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, August 5, 2013

Omnicom Media Group’s data marketing unit Annalect has named Erin Matts CMO, a new position at the shop.

Matts has been tasked with directing all sales and marketing efforts for Annalect worldwide. In addition to the U.S., the firm has offices in London, Singapore and India, with plans for further expansion.

For Matts, the move is a return to OMG where she worked for flagship media agency OMD for six years including a stint as Chief Digital Officer.  She played a big role in establishing the agency’s creds within non-traditional media.

“It feels like I never left,” Matts said about her return to the OMG fold. When she did leave OMD, a little over two years ago, it was for the post of Global Director, Digital Connections at Anheuser-Busch InBev. There she was charged with elevating consumer engagement with the brewer across all digital platforms. Most recently Matts was Chief Digital Marketing Officer at Glam Media.

Matts left OMD around the time that OMG was ramping up Annalect. But she stayed in touch with Annalect CEO Scott Hagedorn, to whom she now reports.  When Hagedorn recently decided that the agency’s product offering was at the point where it needed a senior executive focused on shaping its marketing message, Matts jumped at the opportunity.

One of her top priorities, said Matts, is to demystify Annalect’s role. “In the data world there’s so much jargon and so many acronyms; it’s the like the early days of digital,” she said. “People demand clarity and transparency.” She intends to provide that. She also believes that her stints with A-B InBev and Glam have given her a better perspective on the needs and business challenges of marketers and media companies.

Matts’ hiring is the first big news out of OMG since its parent Omnicom Group and rival holding company Publicis Groupe confirmed their proposed merger a little over a week ago.

The hire signals that in some ways it’s business as usual at the Publicom operating units. Matt’s said she is totally focused on the present and shaping the firm’s messaging to clients and prospects.

As to how the firm might be affected by the merger remains to be seen.  Last week during one of several “road show” question- and-answer sessions with analysts and investors, someone asked Omnicom CEO John Wren if there were any plans to merge Annalect and the Audience On Demand platform, a unit of Publicis Groupe’s VivaKi. Wren responded that it was too early in the process to address such questions.

“We’re not in a rush to say we’re going to do anything,” he said, “before we sit down and discuss it in detail.”