• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, July 19, 2022

Natanael Sijanta has been tapped to lead Omnicom Group’s new dedicated Mercedes-Benz agency called team x. He joins officially on Sept. 1. 

Omnicom has been building the agency, which is based in Berlin, since the beginning of the year after it won the automotive company’s consolidated pitch combining global media, brand and performance marketing into a single remit. 

The role seems tailor made for Sijanta who has spent most of his career at the automaker, most recently as director creative communications & marketing. With a background in industrial engineering, he joined Mercedes-Benz in 1995 as part of a trainee program. 

The team x operation is now largely complete and comprises more than 1,000 specialists (from performance content development to media strategy and planning to measurement and effectiveness) in more than 40 countries. 

Omnicom CEO John Wren commented that Sijanta “is the ideal candidate for team x, as he brings knowledge of the brand, marketing, communications, and sales from his many years of working in a wide variety of areas at Mercedes-Benz. He will expertly combine and further promote all disciplines in a forward-looking overall model.” 

Sijanta replaces Tonio Kröger, who has led the development of team × on an interim basis since fall 2021. Kröger moves to the advisory board of team x where the company said he will continue to make contributions to the development of the dedicated agency.