MSL U.S. names Robert John Davis chief digital innovation officer | PR Week

NEW YORK: MSL U.S. has appointed Robert John Davis chief digital innovation officer. 

Davis will lead the Publicis Groupe agency’s digital innovation center, including its proprietary comms tech stack and influencer engagement platform, Fluency. He will report to U.S. CEO Diana Littman and will be based in New York. 

Davis has spent more than 20 years in the digital space marrying data analytics and tech stacks with consumer-focused storytelling and brand influence, which was a reason he was drawn to MSL. 

“Diana has a great balance between the hard and soft parts of our business, where tech has its role and human connectivity has its role,” Davis said. “As I met more of the team, I realized I was on the same wavelength, and I think we’re going to make a lot of noise.” 

In the next year, Davis plans to focus on bringing the highest levels of discoverability and presence to MSL’s content, especially in a world of changing algorithms. 

This includes possible forays into the Metaverse, partnering with content creators and exploring avenues on screen and sound. 

“We used to say there was going to be a screen on my fridge and a screen on my toaster, but what we missed was there’s actually a speaker everywhere,” he said. “The industry as a whole is still grappling with what that means and what ‘screen optional’ looks like in terms of a brand’s full digital portfolio.” 

Davis has succeeded MSL’s late chief innovation officer, Bryan Pedersen, who died suddenly in July 2021. 

Davis has joined MSL from WPP-owned Ogilvy, where he was most recently head of digital innovation and founded The Cube, Ogilvy’s incubation and innovation shop.  

Prior to Ogilvy, Davis led digital for Rainbow Media’s cable properties where he transitioned the interactive businesses of AMC, IFC and WE television networks from static websites to dynamic interactive experiences. 

Davis also established the first interactive television team at MTV Networks and has led digital engagements at Gartner, Spiderdance and Gannett. 

In line with its focus on digital expansion, MSL and Onclusive expanded their U.S. partnership around the proprietary comprehensive analytics technology PR Attribution to a global scale in June, and Publicis hired its first chief data and commerce officer in the fall.