• by Laurie Petersen , May 30, 2007

Omnicom's agency.com named online marketing pioneer Jordan Warren as president of its San Francisco office, filling a role that's been vacant since Alan Burgis left the company last November as part of a management exodus.

Warren, 42, who began his online marketing career at CKS in 1994, had most recently led his own integrated marketing company--the 50-person, San Francisco-based Eleven. He left that agency in early 2006 after seven years to stop, smell the roses and be a soccer dad for awhile.

Now he's ready to get back in the fray at one of the industry's first agencies, supporting CEO Chan Suh, who recently stepped back into a day-to-day operating role at the agency he co-founded in 1995.

"The fact that Chan has stepped back in to rebuild and restore what agency.com means is intriguing," Warren said. I'm happy "to be able to help him chart the future."

Key clients in the 45-person San Francisco office are eBay, DelMonte and Ask.com.

"While I've been chasing online and offline integration, online has become so fragmented that being able to look at all the pieces" is an exciting challenge, he said.

A big issue continues to be evaluating the proper opportunities to build brands, he said, rather than running after the "new sexy fad."

"I remember being at an integrated agency 10 years ago and being asked about mobile marketing," Warren said, as an example of something that was getting attention way before there was a market or a means to make it useful as a brand marketing tool.

As general manager of CKS San Francisco, Warren helped re-envision the Apple brand when Steven Jobs returned to lead the company and hired the agency.

"Jordan's entrepreneurial spirit and his background in integrated marketing are tremendously appealing qualities for an office leader," said Suh.

"I've been an evangelist for integrated marketing for over a dozen years," Warren said. "With the expanding influence of digital media, it's exciting to be returning to my roots."