Young & Rubicam Creates In-House Digital Arm

In an effort to keep up with advertisers shifting budgets from traditional to online, Young & Rubicam is creating an as-yet-unnamed interactive division that will operate under the Y&R umbrella. Tarik Sedky has been hired as chief digital officer to build the new unit. He worked at Y&R from 1995 to 2000 as a managing director, and hopes to increase the agency’s interactive revenue from 3% to 15% in three years. Y&R global CEO Hamish McLennan told Adweek that he’d like to see the digital unit functioning like Tribal DDB, the digital arm of DDB that maintains its own clientele yet works with its sister agency on larger projects. "The reality is there's a strong appetite for these services," McLennan said. "The onus is on agencies to continue to reinvent themselves."