• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, July 27, 2012

At a time when technology, data mining and information processing seem to be taking center stage on Madison Avenue -- particularly in media and digital marketing services -- London-based Aegis Group this morning named an executive with lots of experience delivering lots of pieces of media to lots of people as its top information technology executive: Mike Young, the Chief Operating Officer of the U.K.’s Post Office.

Young, whose title at Aegis will be Chief Information Officer, replaces Bob Fawthrop, who had been serving as Aegis’ information technology director as a consultant and whose contract ends in October.

Young, who reports to Aegis CEO Jerry Buhlmann, and becomes a member of Aegis’ executive committee, appears to be an inspired choice to run a major agency holding company’s technology and information systems. As head of the British postal service’s operations, and its former Chief Technology Officer, he was responsible for ensuring all service delivery to 21 million customers involved in 47 million transactions weekly.

His appointment comes at a time of other significant changes for Aegis, which agreed to be acquired by Japan’s Dentsu, but which will continue to operate as a freestanding organization, including its media networks Carat, Vizeum, Isobar and Posterscope.

“It is an exciting time to be joining Aegis as the business goes from strength to strength and is looking to deliver significant IT change in order to empower its people and clients further, on a global scale,” states Young, who no doubt has had firsthand experience witnessing how digital technology can impact and transform businesses based on delivering analog media. Postal systems have been among the most significantly impacted operations by the rise of electronic communications, and as an important benchmarking study by Aegis’ Carat projected years ago, all media are becoming digital -- even analog media such as print.

According to that projection, more than two-thirds of all media are now digital, and by 2020, that number will rise to 80%.