• The Wall Street Journal, Wednesday, April 4, 2007 10:45 AM

Interactive marketing veteran Jean-Philippe Maheu, onetime chief executive of Razorfish, has been named chief digital officer of WPP Group's Ogilvy North America. Maheu's job will work with both clients and senior Ogilvy managers to develop digital ad efforts.

The move to create a chief digital officer underscores the move by traditional agencies to make Web-based and mobile advertising a more significant component to their operations, which tend to focus on TV, print, radio and outdoor. Big agencies' slow embrace of the online ad market has presented Avenue A/Razorfish, AKQA and Digitas with the opportunity to rise to the top of the interactive agency pile. The shift has left traditional agencies reeling from a shortage of digital experience, highlighted by Nike's recent decision to part ways with longtime ad partner Wieden + Kennedy because of its lack of digital abilities.

"Every single part of the Ogilvy business ... has to be infused with digital, because it affects how consumers and customers behave now. We are really trying to move beyond what has been Web 1.0, the online branding and online direct-marketing and e-commerce advertising, to move into content and community plays," Carla Hendra, co-chief executive of Ogilvy North America, said of the ad shop's decision to appoint Maheu.

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