Digitas Appoints New Chief Solutions Officer and Chief Strategy Officer

Melissa Berger elevated to newly created Chief Solutions Officer role, and Publicis veteran Ali Amarsy joins as Chief Strategy Officer

Digitas, the Networked Experience Agency, today announces the promotion of Melissa Berger to Chief Solutions Officer and Ali Amarsy to Chief Strategy Officer. These promotions will bring a wealth of expertise in strategy, product innovation, solutions, and commerce, further fueling the agency's unique approach to Networked Experiences. Both leaders will report to CEO Amy Lanzi.

In her new role, Melissa will be responsible for scaling existing products, services, and capabilities of Digitas North America while overseeing the development of new offerings that address client challenges and drive continued innovation for the Digitas portfolio. Most recently, as Digitas' EVP, Connections Strategy, and CRM & Loyalty Lead, Melissa shaped the agency's profound understanding of consumer behavior and data that shape loyalty strategies. This expertise has established Digitas' capability to build addressable relationships that cultivate enduring connections between brands and consumers. With over 20 years of experience, Melissa previously spearheaded Digitas' cross-functional CRM and Loyalty practice, establishing it as one of the organization's critical solutions. 

Under Melissa's leadership, Digitas created Connect IQ, a proprietary tool that evaluates a brand's end-to-end experience through a customer's point of view. The product has helped clients calculate the potential revenue opportunity brands may capture across an optimized Networked Experience. In addition, Melissa has been the driving force behind long-standing client relationships and new wins for Digitas.

Ali Amarsy will collaborate closely with Digitas leaders in his new role to drive the agency's overarching strategic vision. His global perspective will enrich and integrate strategies across Digitas' diverse capabilities, bringing forward-looking approaches to enhance clients' complete marketing ecosystem. Ali will bring a wealth of expertise in understanding today's most-in-demand platforms, audience behaviors, and strategic vision to bring deep brand, business, and audience insights to Digitas' clients. Most recently, Ali served as the Global Commerce Strategy Lead at Publicis Media, where he helped shape the commerce offering across 20+ Publicis Groupe markets. Ali collaborated with platforms and partners to drive new opportunities for Publicis Groupe clients. Notably, he spearheaded the Publicis Groupe partnership with TikTok as its founding commerce agency partner. 

Under his leadership, Publicis has directly impacted the product roadmaps of major platforms and partners, creating first-to-market Creative Commerce solutions that have shown double-digit sales growth and brand affinity lift across clients in CPG, Pharma, and Beauty categories. His background in brand strategy, shopper marketing, media, and commerce allows him to think laterally across platforms, solutions, and KPIs through the lens of brands.

Prior to this role, Ali was Head of Strategy and Effectiveness for over eight years at Leo Burnett, gaining expertise in strategy and integration through a creative lens. His work has won awards at Cannes Lions, Dubai Lynx, Effies, and Festival of Media, to name a few. With over fourteen years at Publicis Groupe and having lived and worked in Dubai, France, Canada, and the United States, Ali brings a global and cohesive view of networked experiences to his position at Digitas.

"We are thrilled about the recent appointments of two powerhouse strategists and solutions experts to our executive leadership team. Melissa and Ali's roles are of utmost importance not only for our existing clients but also for the prospective clients we aim to captivate and engage with our unique approach to networked experiences. With their exceptional leadership, we are laser-focused on providing even more value to our clients." - Amy Lanzi, Digitas North America CEO

TALENT QUOTES:

Melissa Berger
"Throughout my time at Digitas, I have witnessed the rapid advancements in data and technology in our industry, which has been truly inspiring. I am eager to unleash our digital, creative, and media expertise to innovate and build new products and services that spearhead the agency's future."

Ali Amarsy
"I am extremely excited to join Digitas as Chief Strategy Officer. Digitas is a unicorn of an agency flexing superpowers in Creative, Media, Technology, and Data to make for awesome experiences. I look forward to collaborating with all cross-functional teams at Digitas to seamlessly infuse strategy across the agency to enhance and elevate our work."

# # #

Digitas is the Networked Experience agency, where we believe that today’s marketing problems can no longer be siloed. We break through by delivering Media-Fueled Creativity: the intersection of Creative, Media, Data, and Technology that delivers breakthrough ideas and results for clients. Core to our DNA, we leverage comprehensive capabilities across Strategy, Media, Creative, Design, Data & Analysis, and Technology, with specialized services across Connected Campaigns, Cultural Commerce, and Emerging Frontiers. Digitas serves clients around the world, with 5,500 employees in 65 offices across 43 countries. We have been celebrated by Gartner, Forrester, and were recently named Ad Age Data and Insights Agency of the Year, Campaign US Digital and Media Agency of the Year, and recently home three badges for DE&I, Client Stickiness, and Notable Wins in Campaign US Agency Performance Review.