The New Publicis
Omnicom Group

By: Johnathan Arp

In a relatively unexpected move, Publicis and Omnicom merged last week as seen in this AdAge article. The newly formed Publicis Omnicom Group will now account for over 41% of Global advertising revenues with WPP, the nearest competitor, at 32%. This is the largest ever merger in the Advertising space. Some prospective rationals for the merger are to fortify against new media giants like Google and Facebook (who are many times seen as competitors to ad agencies), to allow better access to pricing data when buying from aforementioned media giants, and to defend against new entrants in the space, namely Accenture, Deloitte and other consultancies.

There are some potential client conflicts of interest (the single entity will now cover Coca-Cola and Pepsi, AT&T and Verizon, McDonalds and Yum Brands etc) and anti trust concerns, but the deal has been pushed through. The question remains whether this is a signal of added consolidation in the industry or if clients will look to more nimble indy agencies that can offer more attention.