So, Two Advertising Elephants Got Joined At The Trunk…
If you are a fan of big bloated agencies, you might not want to read this.
First of all, I have to say, I like the way David Adelman thinks. All the sturm and drang about the perils of the Publicis and Omnicom merger are overblown, and quite a few commentators have advised toning down the rhetoric. Good idea. In truth, I think Publicis and Omnicom would love some of those worst case scenarios to come true.. or even be possible. A decade ago, this kind of merger might have shaken the advertising world to it’s core, but then came the interwebs, and nothing has been quite the same.
Conflicts aside (Can you say Coke and Pepsi? I knew you could.), what about the “Publicom” bloat? In agencies like ours, we put together teams to fit the specific project. We don’t have to build out the project keep the 7th floor in business, we only have to please the client. That’s true of all the lean and mean agencies, and clients love it. They pay for what they want, not for what they don’t. But I’ll let David do the preaching, I’ll just enjoy me seat in the choir.
(And if you missed the two elephants reference, two words, Tim Conway.)
MY AGENCY CAN BEAT UP YOUR AGENCY
by David Adelman.
The business world is abuzz with talk of the merger of Publicis and Omnicom. Like it or not, two of the largest advertising agency financial holding companies coming together will have major impact on the industry.
These two companies coming together can mostly be viewed as a positive for smaller independent marketing service agencies. The more consolidation there is at the large holding companies the ‘safer’ the decisions that they have to make. These are public companies whose primary interest is increasing shareholder value. Public companies answer to Wall Street. Wall Street prefers predictable results in financial reporting. This forces companies to make short-term decisions that could harm them in the long run; like laying off expensive personnel to make quarterly numbers despite whether those people can help you in the tomorrow. I worked at a large agency holding company ten years ago. I was a casualty of numbers despite being the only person in the agency’s New York office bringing in incremental revenue. The agency I worked for has been down more than up since I left and I’ve gone a more entrepreneurial route.
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