Omnicom Merges Hearts & Science And Mediahub Into Hearts United
Omnicom Media has consolidated Hearts & Science and Mediahub into Hearts United, a new global media agency built for a fragmented media and marketing ecosystem.
- Presence across 40 markets, combining businesses that generated roughly US$9.1 billion in 2025 billings
- Led by Nicole Estebanell in the US and Ross Jenkins across EMEA, with APAC and LATAM leadership expected in the fourth quarter
- Between 2021 and 2025, Hearts & Science grew billings 50 per cent and Mediahub 33 per cent
- On COMvergence dashboards it ranks first in the US year to date with US$294 million net new business, third globally with US$567 million and third in EMEA with US$242 million
- Organised around four principles: outcomes-oriented, predictive by design, ecosystem mastery, and focused and senior-led
Merging From Strength, Not Weakness
Both agencies had expanded substantially over the past five years and have continued to grow in 2026.
That detail changes what the merger means. Network consolidations are usually a way to bury an underperformer inside a healthier stablemate, and the market reads them that way. Combining two that were both growing is a bet about structure rather than a rescue, and it carries the opposite risk: that the thing being dismantled was working.
What The Hearts United Operating Model Claims
Rather than positioning the combination as a scale exercise, Omnicom is framing Hearts United around linking its commercial approach more directly to client growth, embedding AI into workflows, and assessing platforms, creators, communities and commerce as interconnected rather than planning channels in isolation.
The channel-by-channel plan has been declared dead at roughly annual intervals for a decade. What is different in the framing here is the admission that influence now sits outside media channels altogether, in creators and communities an agency cannot buy in an auction.
The Leadership Comes From Mediahub
Nicole Estebanell has been chief executive of Mediahub US since October 2024, after serving as global chief client officer at Initiative and chief transformation officer for North America at Mindshare, with six years at Digitas and four at Ogilvy. Ross Jenkins has headed Mediahub across EMEA and APAC since 2021.
Omnicom Media chief executive Florian Adamski said Hearts & Science had pioneered data-driven decision-making while Mediahub demonstrated the role of media as a creative platform, and that the combination was grounded in putting client growth at the heart of every decision.
Both named leaders come from the Mediahub side, which tells you which culture is expected to survive contact.
The Wider Context At Omnicom
The group has secured US$4.1 billion in new client billings year to date, the strongest new-business performance among global media groups in the period, with wins including Adidas, Delta, Dyson, IBM, Mark Anthony Brands, Novo Nordisk, On and Subway.
Hearts United will draw on Omnicom Media’s data, technology, identity, commerce and talent capabilities and work alongside OMD, Initiative, PHD and UM. Its real test is whether 40 markets and US$9.1 billion in billings translate into something a client experiences differently, which is not a thing scale delivers on its own.
More on Ad Tribe News.
Advertisement
