Omnicom Joins Millions of Us

Holding company Omnicom has made an undisclosed investment in Millions of Us, a digital agency that specializes in virtual world and social networking advertising campaigns.

The investment was made by Diversified Agency Services, which is a unit of Omnicom Group, and while other digital agencies like Agency.com, Organic, Tribal, DDB and Critical Mass, have been bought outright by Omnicom, Millions of Us will still retain its independence.

“We’re in control of the company completely, and it’s a great deal for us and for Omnicom,” Reuben Steiger, founder and CEO of Millions of Us told me. And while he wouldn’t disclose how much of an investment the company had made in his agency, he did say “They don’t tend to invest tiny amounts.”

“They have a reputation among the holding companies from an entrepreneur’s perspective. They bet on the entrepreneur, and let you operate,” he said.

Steiger said that Omnicom made its investment in his company because virtual worlds and social networks are no longer a niche play, but have become a global category defined by hundreds of millions of users in reach, and because Millions of Us is an agency specializing in that space instead of operating as a virtual world business.

“It represents a pretty significant endorsement on the part of both of the category of virtual worlds and the broader category of social networks and online communities on the part of a large and influential company,” he said.