My understanding is that Omnicom and IPG are struggling in part because they lack a clear vision and the ability to streamline/execute against it. It's unclear that a larger organization helps with that. By contrast, if you look at Publicis, they're pitching an extremely clear vision: 1. Media has never been more fragmented, making it harder than ever for marketers to reach their customers and deliver targeted advertising / personalized experiences. 2. Publicis has one of the world's best views of consumers through Epsilon, and they can activate that view anywhere thanks to their investments in emerging channels (Influential, Mars United, CitrusAd, etc). 3. Epsilon also allows Publicis' advertisers to measure and optimize those targeted ads and personalized experiences, driving measurable outcomes (which is what really matters in the current Outcomes Era of digital marketing). What Omnicom and IPG seem to need is to clarify the vision, make investments to support it, and streamline their organizations to adhere to it. A merger could be part of that. Or it could add more bloat that accelerates the sinking of the ship.
new vision is hard but required
Merging together two underperforming companies is not usually a formula for success. Now they will spend the next couple years consolidating - and all the turf wars that entails - instead of redefining their North Star.
Acxiom is owned by IPG and (my bet is) will help Omnicom literally address everything you just laid out. Omnicom will inevitably roll out / democratize the Acxiom data spine & audience layer across their media & creative agencies, to better address both people-based activation & measurement across the fragmented landscape.
I would also add that for Publicis, owning a large technology operation like Sapient is a meaningful part of that story and strategy.
clarity of vision and execution are the real differentiators here.
Why the move wasn't to buy the boutique firms to which they're losing business is beyond me.
Agree. This is a merely a bigger boat when what is needed are new sails and a new course.
Define struggling: Omnicom Media Group was named as the most successful for new business in H1 2024, whilst its parent company's share price is at an all time high following numerous wins. I think we use different dictionaries.
Since when is Omnicom "struggling"? It's a very successful operation and this move is a logical one to exploit the economies of scale. Of course improvements , streamlining, etc. can always be made but I don't see this as a sign of weakness--as some pundits are claiming.
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3moOf all the 7.8million posts in the last 1.5 hours yours Joe makes a huge amount of sense.