In the biggest deal in advertising history, Publicis Groupe SA and Omnicom Group Inc. have agreed to merge and create the world’s largest advertising company, dethroning current leader WPP Plc.
The new entity, Publicis Omnicom Group, will pull in $23 billion in revenue and be led by co-CEOs Maurice Levy (Publicis) and John Wren (Omnicom). The merger will consolidate agency powerhouses such as Omnicom’s BBDO Worldwide and Publicis’s Leo Burnett and Saatchi & Saatchi, bringing their presence deeper into every major market. Publicis, the world’s third-largest advertising firm, boasts such clients as Bank of America Corp., Coca-Cola Co. and BMW AG, while Omnicom, the world’s second-largest advertising firm, counts PepsiCo Inc., Nissan Motor Co. and Royal Philips Electronics NV on its customer list. Publicis brings a strong focus on digital assets while Omnicom brings powerful business from the United States.
The companies project annual savings of around $500 million thanks to efficiencies resulting from the merger.
Read more at Bloomberg.
Brief Take: This merger brings some major potential conflicts of interest under one holding-company roof, which obviously include Publicis’ Coca-Cola and Omnicom’s PepsiCo, but also four telecoms you might have heard of, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon. These companies want speed, agility and efficiency in their advertising nowadays, and time will tell if the towering Publicis Omnicom Group provides its clientele briskness or bloat.
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