OMD has announced the promotion of Penny Shell from Melbourne head of product and national head of planning to chief product officer, OMD Australia.
This newly created role is responsible for integrating the core capability from multiple disciplines including strategy, marketing intelligence, marketing effectiveness and Omni (OMD’s marketing orchestration platform) into a holistic product delivered to clients.
Shell will remain a core member of the national executive team and will oversee OMD’s planning, strategy, marketing intelligence and marketing effectiveness communities.
Sian Whitnall, co-CEO of OMD Australia, said of the appointment, “Penny is an incredible product lead, she has spent her last three years at OMD building a people first planning product that is creating tangible business results for our clients. She has been pivotal in our Victorian market new business wins including Victorian Government and MECCA, and the retention of long-standing clients.”
Shell is a proven communications industry leader with 22 years’ experience spanning all major categories, specialising in strategy. She joined OMD in 2019 and was quickly appointed to the national executive team. Shell is a key member of the Women’s Health Victoria ‘shEqual: Gender Equality in Advertising’ project to promote gender equality in advertising. She was awarded the 2021 B&T Women in Media Award for Strategy.
Shell said of her new role, “I’m so proud and excited to unite our specialist marketing intelligence and measurement capabilities into OMD’s people-first planning approach. Ensuring media innovation and solutions deliver on measurable business and brand outcomes for our clients is a real passion for me and the wonderful OMD product team.”
Shell’s appointment is effective immediately. She will work in direct collaboration with Melissa Hey, chief investment officer, OMD Australia, and report into Sian Whitnall, co-CEO, OMD Australia.
With this new structure, the role of national chief strategy officer has now been made redundant. This role was held by Ian Czencz who has now departed OMD.