OpenAI appoints agency to global media account

OpenAI has appointed Omnicom Media Group’s PHD as its global media planning and buying agency of record.

Campaign understands that the UK market will be included in the agency’s remit.

The appointment, initially reported by AdAge, was confirmed by a spokesperson for the agency, who said: “We look forward to sharing more work coming out of the partnership in the near future.”

The maker of ChatGPT previously partnered PHD in a US campaign to encourage college students to try chatbots, with the creative work handled in-house by the company.

OpenAI has worked with Accenture Song before on the creative side. The agency created the company’s first Super Bowl spot, which riffed on the pulsing dot that appears as ChatGPT waits for more questions from the user.

This ad followed Kate Rouch’s appointment as OpenAI’s first chief marketing officer in December 2024, signalling the company’s move into mainstream marketing.

Rouch has taken temporary leave from the company following a breast cancer diagnosis, with Gary Briggs, former CMO at Facebook, taking on the interim role.

IPG currently handles media planning and buying duties for AI-companies Anthropic and Perplexity.

If the merger between the pair goes through, with it being approved in the UK today, the super network will have three players in the AI space.