Change is on the way at Omnicom Health Group (OHG).

The New York-based agency announced a network rebranding Monday morning that coincides with the one-year anniversary of CEO Matt McNally’s tenure.  

As part of the effort, OHG is debuting a new logo and design elements as well as prioritizing a brand narrative that “clarifies the complexity of the network’s portfolio” for clients and employees alike.

OHG is a wide-ranging marketing organization that had several subsidiary agencies appear on the 2023 MM+M Agency 100 list last month.

McNally told MM+M that OHG brought him in to modernize how the company looked at healthcare marketing and saw rebranding the network as a way to celebrate the individuality of the various agencies while also positioning them to succeed in the digital age.

“This starts to give a purpose behind OHG as a network. That purpose is when clients need us or when the agencies need us, so this acts as the connectivity to bring them all together,” he said. 

He compared the debut of the new-look OHG to granting individual brands “dual citizenship” through the identities they can present to clients. This fuels the behavior that promotes integration and collaboration across agencies and geographies, he said. 

McNally added that OHG is utilizing the rebranding effort as a way to further the organization’s investments in data analytics as well as its diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) initiatives. 

“How we have woven the DE&I story into our overarching narrative is first and foremost that our diversity is what drives,” he said. “We’re not making every agency logo look the same. We’re not calling ourselves all OHG, we believe in that diversity of perspective, not only from our agencies but the type of talent that we’re bringing into our organization is key and is critical.”

As for the leadership side of the equation, the data responsibilities are being overseen by chief strategy and analytics officer Christina Kim, a 2022 MM+M Women of Distinction honoree, while DE&I is being handled by Gena Pemberton, who was promoted to chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer at OHG last year. McNally said the agency also made a few other personnel elevations as part of the rebranding.

In reflecting on this organization-wide change, McNally said one of the defining lessons from this process was improving communication among partners on the internal level and hearing different perspectives from multiple agencies. He noted that the validation received from external stakeholders has energized him and OHG as they go forward.

“Not only does [the rebrand] feel different, it’s the ‘how’ behind [the rebrand] that’s different. The ways that you’re uniting and can connect your agency seamlessly, we’re not seeing that everywhere,” he said. “We’re getting that feedback from clients, which to me is most critical. We need our people to believe it, but then it needs to feel like it’s going to drive through the business and have an impact of change because our clients need that now more than ever.”