Joe Zappa’s Post

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Helping ad/martech companies with marketing strategy, content, PR

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.

👁Miles Lewis

Commercial leader specialising in growth, strategy and advisory, with a proven track record of driving revenue and empowering teams to excel

3mo

Of all the 7.8million posts in the last 1.5 hours yours Joe makes a huge amount of sense.

Matthew Newcomb

CEO | M&A | Board Member | Digital

3mo

new vision is hard but required

Rio Longacre

Future-proofing advertising & marketing capabilities

3mo

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.

Kieran Dunn

Growth Marketer | Business Development | Account Leadership

3mo

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.

Jeremy Hlavacek

Chief Commercial Officer, Experian Marketing Services

3mo

I would also add that for Publicis, owning a large technology operation like Sapient is a meaningful part of that story and strategy.

Amar Goel

Founder & CEO, Bito | Building AI code review for developers

3mo

clarity of vision and execution are the real differentiators here.

J T. Ramsay

AI-Driven Communications, Marketing & Digital Strategy | Social Media Leader | Helping Fortune 500 Brands Elevate Engagement & Growth | Ex-Lockheed, Ford, Comcast | Data-First Storytelling Expert

3mo

Why the move wasn't to buy the boutique firms to which they're losing business is beyond me.

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Agree. This is a merely a bigger boat when what is needed are new sails and a new course.

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Ciarán Norris

Immigrant. Lead Meta's Omnicom partnership. Marketing & media professional. Agencies, finance, gaming, publishing & tech.

3mo

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.

Edward Papazian

President at Media Dynamics Inc.

3mo

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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