• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, April 8, 2011

In a move that says as much about the stature of Madison Avenue's major media services organizations as it does about the talent involved, Omnicom's OMD unit has raided a top executive from Horizon Media, the biggest independent media shop not affiliated with one of the major agency holding companies, to head its East Coast operations. The reason the move is telling is that Omnicom insiders are crowing about the fact that they were able to wrest a top executive from Horizon, because they now deem Horizon to be ultra-hot and a place top talent jumps to, not from.

The executive, Oliver Maletz, has been executive vice president and managing director at Horizon, and according to Omnicom executives, is the" guy who conceived, created and managed one of the "first agency-based consumer insights group," Horizon's three-year-old Curious@Horizon unit. As impressive as his achievements with Curious@Horizon have been, the fact that Omnicom would crow about it is curious, because consumer insights ostensibly has been one of the foundations of most big Madison Avenue agencies.

But the move clearly is a coup for OMD, because Maletz has a deep background in strategic planning and brand and consumer insights, and has been one of the key players involved in the strategic repositioning of Horizon over the past several years that has helped the fiercely independent media shop become so hot in the first place.

Last December, Horizon was named "Media Agency of the Year" for 2010 by Adweek, Mediaweek and Brandweek magazines, and the agency has been on a new business streak, and is among the industry's fastest-growing for the past several years.

That said, OMD is known for its creative media executions, and strategic client and consumer focus too.

Before joining Horizon, Maletz was a senior vice president and global account director at Interpublic's Universal McCann unit.