Omnicom Group's Unit Teams Up With IRI For Data Provision

Omnicom Group Inc.’s (NYSE:OMC) media services division, Omnicom Media Group, announced a partnership with IRI yesterday. Per the terms, IRI will serve as a preferred consumer packaged goods (CPG) data provider for Omnicom Media Group’s data and analytics division, Annalect.

Annalect can now access IRI’s de-identified Verified Audiences data from 350 million national loyalty cards, and point-of-sale and consumer panel data for insights, planning, activation as well as measurement processes. This, in turn, will help it gain a deeper understanding of clients’ businesses and consumers, and efficiently plan their media buys.

Annalect will also use IRI Lift, a media performance solution that assimilates IRI’s point-of-sale, frequent shopper, causal and media exposure data, to gauge actual in-store sales lift impact of ad expenditures over the course of a campaign.

A combination of Annalect’s proprietary insights and IRI’s offline purchase behavior measurement will create a closed-loop solution, thus resulting in an enhanced personalized marketing capacity.

As a result, Omnicom Media Group clients will be able to access Annalect’s data in combination with large CPG purchase datasets, which allow high level personalization coupled with comprehensive insights, planning activation and in-flight measurement.

Shares of Omnicom gained 3% in yesterday’s after-hours trading. Shares have returned 1.6% year to date against the industry’s decline of 2.8%.

Our Take

Omnicom is building upon its digital and analytical capabilities by investing in agencies and partnering with innovative technology companies in key markets.

Omnicom Group Inc. Revenue (TTM)

Also, the company’s operations are diversified across technology platforms, thus lowering its dependence on any one product in these dynamic technological markets. These factors augur well for Omnicom’s long-term growth and stability.

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

Omnicom carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Better-ranked stocks in the broader Business Services sector include Avis Budget Group (NASDAQ:CAR) , FTI Consulting (NYSE:FCN) and NV5 Global (NASDAQ:NVEE) , each sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

In the trailing four quarters, Avis Budget Group, FTI Consulting and NV5 Globalhave delivered a positive earnings surprise of 7.1%, 6.1% and 5.8%, respectively.

Breaking News: Cryptocurrencies Now Bigger than Visa

The total market cap of all cryptos recently surpassed $700 billion – more than a 3,800% increase in the previous 12 months. They’re now bigger than Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS), Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) and even Visa! The new asset class may expand even more rapidly in 2018 as new investors continue pouring in and Wall Street becomes increasingly involved.

Zacks has just named 4 companies that enable investors to take advantage of the explosive growth of cryptocurrencies via the stock market.

Click here to access these stocks >>