Almost a year ago, Publicis Group and Omnicom agreed to merge and the combined global Advertising Holding was to be called Publicis Omnicom Groupe. Well on Thursday both companies issued a joint statement calling off the merger. According to the release the cultural differences of the two advertising giants were essentially too great, and didn’t bode well for running what would be one very large multinational company. The merger would have put together an entity which would have had more than 60% of Hispanic Media Buying power as both Publicis and Omnicom manage some of the largest Hispanic media buying and planning accounts (see Tables below). Now that media planning and buying power is going to be much more fragmented, because, as Forbes points out, “Big is not a strategy“.
Publicis combined agencies have by far the largest media buying power in the Hispanic market. The merger would have added Omnicom’s media agencies OMD Multicultural and Bromley to the new group. Calculated by client billings, the new combined Publicis-Omnicom entity would have had 61.1% media buying power among the top 16 Hispanic media buying agencies.
Going Separate Ways
(Omnicom and Publicis Agencies among Top 16 Hispanic Media Buying Agencies)
Agency |
Group |
Key Clients |
2012 Revenues (in US$ million) |
---|---|---|---|
Tapestry |
Publicis |
Gilette, Novartis, Procter & Gamble, Burger King, Red Lobster |
20.5 |
MV/42 |
Publicis |
P&G, Post Foods, CoverGirl, Olay, Kraft, Continental, Wrigley |
18.5 |
Conill |
Publicis |
T-Mobile, Toyota |
7.6 |
ZO Multicultural |
Publicis |
Sonic, Verizon Wireless, Pizza Hut , Denny’s, General.Mills |
8 |
Bromley Comm. |
Publicis (49%) |
Coors, Western Union, Telefonica, NBA |
4.1 |
Total Billings Publicis |
58.7 |
||
Latinworks, nTrigue |
Omnicom (49%) |
Domino’s Pizza, Kimberly-Clark, Lowe’´s |
4.2 |
OMD Multicultural |
Omnicom |
State Farm,McDonald’s, HR&Block |
8.6 |
Total Billings Omnicom |
12.8 |
||
Combined Billings |
71.5 |
||
Share of Top 16 Hispanic Media Agencies |
61% |
Source: AdAge estimates and Portada Interactive Directory of Media Buyers
Creative Services, what the failed merger would have meant
In terms of creative agency services, Omnicom agencies do have higher billings than Publicis agencies in the Hispanic market. Combined billings of both groups would have amounted to US $134.1 millon.
Omnicom and Publicis Agencies among Top 50 Hispanic Advertising Agencies
Agency |
Group |
2012 Revenues (in US$ million) |
---|---|---|
Conill |
Publicis |
26.6 |
Lapiz USA |
Publicis |
12.6 |
Bromley Communications |
Publicis |
10.5 |
Moxie |
Publicis |
6.2 |
Total Publicis Agencies |
55.9 |
|
Latinworks |
Omnicom |
29.7 |
Alma |
Omnicom |
19.3 |
Dieste |
Omnicom |
18.7 |
Velocidad |
Omnicom |
10.5 |
Total Omnicom Agencies |
78.2 |
Source: AdAge estimates and Portada