London: Publicis Spine announces today the appointment of Ian Thomas as Chief Data Officer. In this role, Thomas will be responsible for the overarching data and analytics strategy for Publicis Spine and fostering a unique culture of learning across Publicis Groupe’s Solution Hubs. He will be based in London and report into Lisa Donohue, CEO of Publicis Spine.
Thomas joins from Microsoft where he most recently led global Digital Marketing Data, Analytics and Operations for the Xbox, Windows, Surface and Bing brands. A nearly 20-year industry veteran, Thomas co-founded one of the world’s first web analytics firms, helping to shape the emerging field of digital and campaign analytics. He pioneered techniques in campaign measurement and attribution, working with media and digital agencies including Ogilvy One, Mindshare, Carat and TribalDDB. Thomas is on the board of the Digital Analytics Association, an industry association dedicated to the career development of Digital Analytics professionals.
Pulling from his deep expertise across data-driven marketing, he will help foster a new culture of learning across Publicis Groupe that unifies talent through “craft” areas such as Data Strategy, Data Science (inclusive of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence) and Data Engineering, to name a few.
“I am thrilled to have Ian join our executive leadership team. This role is critical to Publicis Spine’s mission to grow our clients’ businesses through the transformative application of data,” said Donohue. “Ian brings deep data and analytics expertise spanning both creative and media to the role. His unique background will accelerate our expertise and capabilities in this important area and help us continue to evolve our strong, data-driven culture.”
Publicis Spine was created in 2017 to drive marketing and business transformation for Publicis Groupe agencies and their clients by fusing the Groupe’s data assets, technology, and talent embedded throughout the company’s agencies. Central to Publicis Spine’s efforts is people-based marketing and transformation platform Publicis People Cloud, which has seen great momentum since its inception, contributing to new business wins including Dunkin, Macy’s, Marriott, Campbell’s, Daimler, McDonald’s and most recently GlaxoSmithKline.
“Publicis Spine’s transformative thinking unlocks the value of data to fuel continued growth for the Groupe and our clients,” said Thomas. “I am excited to join the team and help drive this revolutionary data-driven approach forward.”
