MinOnline :: Min Magazine :: The 21 Most Intriguing: The Digital Expert: Sean Finnegan

The 21 Most Intriguing: The Digital Expert: Sean Finnegan
— Ann Cooper

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In a world where the planning and buying of digital media have to be as creative as the content itself, thanks largely to the growth of the Internet and the explosion of all things digital, Sean Finnegan, the 35-year-old U.S. Director of OMD Digital, feels right at home. "Talent is transforming our industry," he says. "I see a lot more creative thinking. OMD is very proud of the fact that we win creative media awards."

He became an early adopter of new media back in the early ‘90s. At the time, he was working at BBDO, New York, where he focused on print and TV planning and buying. "I was thankful for the emergence of digital media and the Internet," he says. "I saw the power of something new and the ability to be relevant and creative on a one-to-one basis. I liked to be creative, to be the first, to be innovative and to use my intuition. I also wanted to take advantage of consumer behavior as much as possible."

"More and more people are taking on user-generated content and social marketing. But we’re still at the early stages of figuring out how to engage people."

Finnegan is responsible for overseeing all of OMD’s digital media experts across the U.S.; they provide strategic services ranging from search-engine marketing to data and analytics for such brands as Dell, Lowe’s, United Airlines, McDonald’s and Johnson & Johnson. He’s also in charge of OMD Next, which pools spending on emerging media from high-profile clients.

Clients today, he says, are constantly asking for big ideas, and for new and emerging trends. The future, he says, lies in a mix of traditional and futurist ideas. "More and more people are taking on user-generated content and social marketing. But we’re still at the early stages of figuring out how to engage people."

One of Finnegan’s tasks is to help OMD figure out the blueprint for the digital agency of the future. "I’m heartened to know the model of the digital group today is also the one the agency of the future will be modeled on," he says. "Both production and media are in the same boat, and the model is a new approach to planning that presents innovation, insights and ideas, fueled by metrics, plus data points."

His biggest challenge, he says, lies in the purchasing aspects of digital media and the management of digital data. "We want a better system to exist, and we need digital strategy to be fired up."

He loves the magazine industry, but points out, "It has to move faster and embrace non-traditional editorial and programming into its ad formats. It’s not a transition over time; it’s got to be happening now. For example, nothing’s stopping me and my buddies from getting together and starting a celebrity Web site that would challenge celebrity magazines."

Finnegan found a clue to his future career in his father. "My father was in sales for ConEdison," he says. "He appreciated his job. It was a combination of personal and intellectual relationships, and he seemed to be having fun." Finnegan went to Murray State University in Kentucky, where he ran the ad club, and then landed the job at BBDO. Finnegan’s digital journey took him across the U.S. on sojourns through interactive agencies such as Darwin Digital (Zenith) and JWT Digital, as well as a short-lived spell at a dot.com called AllAdvantage.com, then another at Tribal DDB. By 2001, he’d joined OMD and returned to his native Chicago.

He’s currently involved in numerous online advertising industry groups and associations and travels the country speaking to colleges and universities.

Today, Finnegan lives in Wilton, Conn., with his wife and his five children, and another on the way in January. His wife home schools them. "It’s not as chaotic as you might think," he points out. "My wife’s a teacher. We’ve been called the most normal home schooling family people have ever met. It offers a dedicated learning experience."

Happily ensconced in OMD’s New York office, he says, "New York is the best place to be for any Internet communications. Truth be told, I like to work here and live here. I like the pace," he says. And the place, and the pace, obviously like him in return.

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