This week in agencies: Shifts at Omnicom, Tombras, and more

Each week, Marketing Brew recaps the agency world’s biggest leadership changes, account wins and losses, reviews, acquisitions, and more.

Hires and departures

Independent agency Tombras hired Avinash Baliga as the agency’s first executive creative director. Baliga was previously VP, creative director at Maximum Effort, the ad agency and production company founded by actor Ryan Reynolds.

Emma Montgomery is returning to Omnicom to serve as CEO of DDB Chicago. She will leave her role as CEO of Leo Burnett Australia.

Speaking of DDB, Caroline Winterton has been named CEO of adam&eveDDB. She was previously president of Digitas’s New York and Atlanta offices. Her appointment follows the merger of DDB New York and adam&eveNYC.

Account wins, losses, and reviews

PNC Bank selected Arnold Worldwide as its creative agency of record following a review. The bank previously worked with Deutsch New York.

BENlabs was named licensing agent for the video game Pac-Man. The agency will handle “advertising and promotional opportunities” in Britain and France.

Ring chose Lucky Generals to serve as its creative agency. According to the agency, it “will be charged with creating a campaign for the business to reinforce its position as market leader in the home security space and create more awareness around its full range of innovative products.”

New divisions, offices, acquisitions, etc.

WPP is breaking further into the AI game: The holding company inked a partnership with chipmaker Nvidia to build a “content engine” that can leverage AI for clients by churning out a large volume of ads. The engine—which will employ Nvidia’s Omniverse Cloud technology to connect various 3D tools—will use content from companies like Getty Images and Adobe.

The Brandtech Group acquired Jellyfish, a digital media and marketing group, as it seeks to bolster its AI and Web3 tools. “One of the skillsets of Jellyfish is in its ability to train, and we think the world needs loads of training when it comes to generative AI,” David Jones, CEO and founder of The Brandtech Group, told Ad Age.

Horizon Sports & Experiences bought sports marketing agency Blake Sports Group. The agency specializes in “corporate consulting, event management, athlete marketing and global concierge programs,” per AgencySpy.