Industry All-Star Doug Ryan Joins Digitas

Industry Award Winner and Thought Leader Bolsters Chicago Office Leadership

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Nov 18, 2010, 01:00 ET

CHICAGO, Nov. 18, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Tony Weisman, President, Chicago-Boston-Detroit Region, Digitas, announced the appointment of Doug Ryan as Managing Director of the Chicago office. An experienced brand marketer and Effie and Cannes award winner, Ryan brings a deep history in the sales and marketing world. Reporting into Weisman in this new position, Ryan will oversee the growth of the Chicago office and client relationships; capability and team leads will report into him.

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"Doug has a rich background in building powerful brands across a broad spectrum of industries and leading teams to success," said Weisman. "He's turned around brands, he's won the industry's most prestigious awards, and he's driven consecutive years of revenue growth -- Doug has it all, and I'm excited to see him lead the next phase of Digitas Chicago."

Ryan joins a thriving Chicago agency that tripled in size in just less than three years. The client roster of Digitas Chicago is made up of two-thirds Fortune 500 companies and more than 50 percent of that Fortune 100. Additionally, the office has garnered seven best places to work awards in just over two years.

Doug Ryan, industry vet and strategic leader

Formerly Principal and co-leader of Rebar Partners, Ryan's experience is deep-rooted in helping companies harness innovation to navigate through the strategic challenges and opportunities for generating attention and revenue in the modern marketplace.

Prior to Rebar Partners, Ryan was Executive Vice President, Global Client Service Director at Energy BBDO where he led the integrated global agency marketing team for Beam Global Spirits & Wine and provided strategic leadership to Wrigley global marketing and the Chicago Whitesox. During his time there, he oversaw a global agency team of approximately 75 marketing professionals handling traditional and digital communications, promotions, and events in six countries and helped launch a repositioning for a major brand that reversed a 17-year sales decline.

Ryan is a distinguished industry thought-leader. In addition to being part of the agency leadership teams at Young & Rubicam and Leo Burnett, he was also the CMO of two digital strategy companies, NetDox and UNext. He's also authored a cross-industry marketing study on Discovery Marketing to uncover the patterns and techniques for viral brand development. Additionally he's led his teams to win three Effie Awards for marketing effectiveness and a prestigious Cannes Lion for creativity. His creative pursuits include co-producing the independent films "Men Cry Bullets" (Best Narrative Film, South by Southwest Film Festival; Best Long Feature, Avignon Film Festival) and "The Last Man" (Theatrical Release 2002).

He currently sits on the Board of Trustees of National-Louis University and is an advisory board member for 22nd Century Media.

About Digitas

Digitas, the top global integrated brand agency, builds active brands for some of the foremost companies in the world. With a deep understanding of their client's customer's passions and behaviors, the agency combines media creativity, technology, creativity, analytics to ignite emotional bonds between people and brands. Digitas counts Agency of the Year honors from the Festival of Media, OMMA Magazine, Promo Magazine, BtoB Magazine, and Les Agences de l'Annee, France, and has been named to the Advertising Age Digital A-List among its many awards.

Digitas also operates the brand content platform, The Third Act:, producers of first and most well renowned event on digital content, Digital Content NewFront; the healthcare marketing brand, Digitas Health; and, Prodigious Worldwide, the world's only standalone, global digital productions company.

With sister agencies Starcom MediaVest, ZenithOptimedia, Denuo and Razorfish, Digitas is a member of Publicis Groupe's VivaKi -- a global digital knowledge and resource center that leverages the combined scale of the autonomous operations of its members to develop new services, new tools, and new partnerships.

Publicis Groupe [listed on the Euronext Paris Exchange - FR0000130577 - and part of the CAC 40 index] is the world's third largest communications group. With activities spanning 104 countries on five continents, Publicis Groupe offers local and international clients a complete range of advertising services. Web site: www.publicisgroupe.com

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