• by Tobi Elkin , Staff Writer @tobielkin, February 9, 2017

Agency holding companies and agencies, in general, have been busy realigning and positioning themselves to offer new data products to meet clients' needs. In this era of "data rules everything," Dentsu Aegis Network said it promoted Doug Ray, the U.S. CEO of its media agency Carat, to a new role with the goal of creating more integrated, custom agency services for clients across its network.

Dentsu Aegis Network is comprised of parent company Dentsu’s operations outside of Japan, including agencies like Carat. The company said that Carat’s president and chief client officer, Michael Epstein, will replace Ray as U.S. CEO.

Ray will become president of product and innovation for Dentsu Aegis. The network includes agencies such as 360i, Isobar, and McGarryBowen. And it recently acquired digital buying group Accordant, analytics shop Cardinal Path, Merkle, a data and CRM agency.

For Dentsu Aegis, Ray is tasked with cherry-picking data and technology resources and expertise from companies in the network. He sees his role as helping to “identify new and future products that we can bring to our clients to help them solve business challenges,” he told the Wall Street Journal.

One thing’s for certain, more marketers are demanding that agencies help them figure out how to make their data work harder. Agencies are trying to figure out how to best serve them. The Journal reports that Dentsu Aegis doesn’t currently plan to create a central data unit, like other holding companies, but Ray's promotion seems to suggest a segue to a more centralized data hub.

“Our operating model doesn’t require us to create a separate unit,” Ray told the Journal. “If an analyst from Merkle is relevant for a client at Carat, we will put those [full-time employees] on that business and that will be managed by Carat.”

Ray’s main focus will be to use existing data assets and personnel, Ray told the Journal. For example, the network has a product called TV Stack, “which makes recommendations for cross-screen planning and buying, as well as a global polling tool called the Consumer Connection System, among others. A new product might combine customer data from Merkle with 'attitudinal' data from CCS, for example.”

One thing’s for certain, holding companies and their agencies are trying to distinguish their data capabilities and their ability to integrate and cherry-pick the right data products for their clients.