• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, May 4, 2018

Initiative has appointed Michael Storms to U.S. Chief Analytics Officer, a new position at the IPG Mediabrands agency. He will report to U.S. CEO Amy Armstrong and Jarrod Martin, global chief data & analytics officer.

In his new role, Storms will head up the agency’s culture, insights & analytics (CIA) business unit, which includes the agency’s accountability and business intelligence operations (segment creation, campaign oversight, audience measurement); marketing science (modeling and attribution), and audience research.

“In our industry, data is only as strong as the people who are gathering, analyzing and leveraging it,” stated Armstrong. “Michael has an incredible ability to identify the most crucial consumer insights and activate them to generate links between the brands we work with and the cultural trends most important to their target audiences.”  

Storms most recently served as managing director at Omnicom Media Group’s Hearts & Science, where he led the AT&T marketing science team.  Previously, Storms led a 100-person analytics team as managing director, marketing sciences at OMD.  

Earlier stints included serving as director of business science at Mediacom and manager of advanced analytics at Hudson River Group.

Storms is the latest in a series of recent high-level hires for the agency, including Pele Cortizo-Burgess (chief strategy officer), Beth Mach (Chief Digital Officer) David Stopforth (Chief Communications Design Officer).