• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, May 13, 2013

Continuing to build its agency team, AOL Advertising has brought in Anthony Romano and Ed McHugh as global head of its Publicis Groupe team, and global head of its Dentsu Aegis and Havas teams, respectively.

Most recently, Romano spent three years within the Publicis Groupe network as EVP of worldwide, group account director at both Saatchi & Saatchi and Publicis Modem. McHugh comes over from Comcast/NBCUniversal, where he was VP of Marketing Solutions for the cable and digital ad sales team.

Both Romano and McHugh will be reporting to Jack Bamberger, who AOL hired away from MEC last November to serve as head of agency and industry relations.

Per AOL's hiring strategy, Bamberger says his team is focused on deeper senior coverage within the agency community. 

“I also see us being even more of a solution provider to the industry and to our agency partners,” Bamberger said on Monday.

“The [agency] has been focusing much energy on broadening AOL’s agency coverage with both influentials and influencers in the agency community,” Bamberger added. “The Agency Team has also had some great traction in terms of co-creating innovative, strategic solutions with a number of agencies.”

Meanwhile, Bamberger said AOL was happy with the attention generated by its recent NewFront presentation. “We are seeing tremendous movement with AOL's NewFront video inventory,” he said.

At AOL, McHugh will be expected to develop deeper relationships with Dentsu Aegis and Havas.

Romano has also held senior agency management positions at Carmichael Lynch and Ogilvy, as well as running Arnold NY's digital practice. On the client side, Anthony held the role of managing director and global head of digital innovation and emerging media at Polo Ralph Lauren. 

Prior to joining Comcast/NBCUniversal, McHugh spent eleven years in senior account management roles at a number of agencies, including Ogilvy, Publicis and Euro RSCG, where he managed clients such as Kraft, GTE (now Verizon), Heineken, Nestle, AT&T and Pernod-Ricard.

Only at MEC for several months, Bamberger was president of digital in North America and led the agency’s digital practice.

Before joining MEC, Bamberger was at Dentsu America, where he was chief consumer engagement officer, and set up the digital and social media practice in the U.S. for the agency.